The Schedule and the Smile
So lots of people ask us what Anna's "schedule" is like and whether we're getting any sleep. I wish a schedule existed with this child. As beautiful, wonderful, charming and perfect as she is, we have yet to establish a schedule. We do have a certain part of the day however that is relatively established...
On one hand you could say she's a good sleeper. We typically get a 5-6 hour stretch each night from 12 - 6 am or so. This is like gold for a new parent. Every 4th day or so we lose that stretch and something else occurs but, in general, I'd say that's her norm. Unfortunately, we pay for it. Anna likes to cry, scream, eat, howl non-stop for the 4-5 hours preceding this sleep stretch. She cluster feeds, meaning she eats a TON, prior to her long stretch of sleep and it is emotionally and physically (cuz remember we're still breastfeeding) DRAINING (pun intended). Anna sucks and chews on everything in her reach. So if you visit be prepared for her to try sucking your neck, fingers, shirt, her own hands (her favorite) and anything within a couple of inches of her mouth. Anna is like our own little Maggie Simpson. Thankfully, Mike is home from work at that time and we can take shifts, but it's still a very hard time of day. In fact, if you try to call us during the evening, there's a fair chance you'll hear howls in the background or your call will be cut short. We aren't trying to be rude, it's just the way our household is operating right now.
Our saving grace appears to be that Anna loves her Daddy's arms and will generally quiet down at the very end of the night with Mike holding her and rocking her... or maybe she just passes out from frustration with her inexperienced parents!
But then we get thrown for a loop some days like today when she pretty much followed that pattern from 10 - 4 p.m. We're hopeful this isn't a sign of things to come but instead yet another random day in a long line of random days. In the meantime, we are trying to savor the latest development in Anna's repertoire of skills... A Smile.
Anna smiled for the first time while being held by Mike on Saturday morning. We've seen a couple of smiles that appear to be more like relief from a frustrating poop but this is the first time we've actually seen what we consider to be an actual smile. We saw it once again on Sunday. Needless to say we spend every moment now wanting her to smile again, but she doesn't appear to smile on command. You gotta earn it I guess. I wish we could capture it on film, but it lasts all of 1 second. We will get a picture of it one day though. In the meantime, here's another photo.
3 comments:
Glad to see you're still updating this! She looks cute! Who do people say she looks like--Maggie or Mike?
Most people think she looks like Mike, but she's got my big cheeks!!
Michael and Maggie,
Love reading about Anna and the experiences of the new parents. We're anxious to meet Anna.
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