EASY Method, Day 3

Day 3.... So far, so good. Reading the baby whisperer book is a god send. She said it would take about three days or so to see an improvement, and we have!

3:55 am Drake wakes up, Brian prepares a bottle. I get off work at 4. We prepare to switch off.
4:20 am Drake finishes his breakfast, 3.5 ounces. The new bottle is perfect (today).
4:35 am Mama has changed a diady, given him a wipe down, put lots of butt paste on, changed his outfit, and we played a little peek a boo, before swaddling for a nap.
5:00 am Drake is asleep- IN HIS CRIB!- and Mama only had to go in twice to reassure him she had not disappeared. During this time, I read more of my book and tweet. I chart everything down. I lay on the futon and browse the web. Daddy is asleep in the bedroom. I eat breakfast for the first time in two weeks.

 This marks the first set of EASY- Eat, Activity, Sleep, You time.

The second cycle of EASY was not as easy as the first one today- Drake didn't want to wake up. He is still in the habit of sleeping all day (and he was really fussy yesterday, meaning he is extra tired today).

It went like this

6:30 am Mama prepares a bottle and heats it up.
6:35 am Mama gets Drake and tries to wake him. I tickle his hands, and stroke his face, turn on lights and tell him it's time to wake up, he needs to eat. I keep a running dialogue with him. He eats 1 ounce and falls back asleep. No waking tactics work, so I don't try and force it. We go directly to the A- Activity.
7:00 am Change his diaper, he pees all over himself (including hitting himself in the face- ha!) so I clean him up and wash his face/head and change his outfit.
7:15 am By now, he is wide awake. Like a severely drunken person, he did not wake when he pissed on his own face, but when I cleaned him up. We switch outfits and fuss a little, but we are wide awake now! I decide to repeat the E- Eat, since he only had an ounce. We eat with vigor now, then fall back asleep. Total consumed- 2.5 ounces.
7:35 am He gets swaddled for his next nap. He is still asleep when I swaddle him and put him in his crib. He doesn't even wake when the drop side SQUEALS as it slides back into the locked position. (I need Brian to get some W-D 40 on it) I leave the room with a "Mama's still here, if you need me, just say so and I'll come get you." But it's not heard. He's dreaming of whatever babies dream of. Ever-flowing tits and Winnie the Pooh or whatever.

We did great until around 2:30 pm, and after that, it went all pear-shaped. I could not get him back to sleep. We ate a lot, and we did tummy time, and we did a lot of diaper changes, but he just would not sleep. I tried not to overstimulate him, but he became overtired anyway. He would WAIL every time he was not in my arms....

During this time, the insurance company called about the car. It is a total loss. The good news? They paid out $3800 for the car, $2500 of which goes to pay off my loan. Minus fees and whatnot, we get a check for $1150 Monday. There are all sorts of strings attached to this. My dad, who was the cosigner, HAS to be in person with me to come pick up the check. We have to sign a Power of Attorney statement, saying the insurance company can take the car. They are picking up the car from the auto shop on Monday, so Brian has to get all of our possessions out of the Malibu tomorrow. The rental car is due back Wednesday. That leaves us Monday, Tuesday, and maybe part of Wednesday to car shop....

...with a baby....
...around his work schedule....

Understandably, I am stressed. To make matters worse, it's snowing today and Brian was working. Snow plows just sort of gave up on keeping the roads plowed until it stopped snowing... which will be around 7 am tomorrow. Add in a bit more stress here....

Finally, around 6:30 pm, I got the bright idea to use the box fan on high and have lots of loud white noise to help the baby fall asleep. It went something like this

WAIIIIIIIIL WAILLLLLLLLLL WAILLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL WA WA WA WAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIILLLLLLLL *fan on* wa- wa- hmmmm hhmmmm henh henh henh.... henh.... *dead to world*

I have had ZERO time to pump since 4 am. I zonked out on the couch because that is what great moms do.

Brian gets home and the baby wakes around 10:15 pm. He slept a little longer because well, we were both tired and frankly, we needed it.

10:20 pm Brian feeds the baby and changes him, and then he becomes the baby whisperer himself and the Dragon is out like a light again not even 30 minutes later.



Sigh. Now I can devote my energies to finding a car, downing Xanax, and trying to keep all my insides where they belong because I feel so stressed out that I might physically vomit. I am so tired, cranky, stressed, and covered in baby vomit. We have an additional $700 that we could use for a down payment if we have to and we are looking for a car between $5000 and $7000 so I know things will work out... they always do... but it is just a stressful transition made a little more stressful on the fact of dealing with a newborn....not that the baby knows what is going on... he's just a baby, after all.

Okay, I need to pump and drown myself in some Xanax so I can at least calm down enough to eat.

(Aside from the 5 hour span in which my child was screaming uncontrollably because he was overtired and unwilling to go to sleep- today was a great day on schedule. It is getting easier each day. Although I have not had more than 3 hours of sleep all day.. so not too happy about that)