Wow, have I been out of the loop here! :oops: I kind of peeked in on page 18 and hope I'm mostly caught up.
I hope the surgery went well.
Oh, about fussing at the breast? Natalie is doing the same thing, and I figured out why: she's TEETHING!!! Honest-to-goodness, her bottom gums are swollen all to bits, she drools so much it makes her cough (good thing she's a tummy sleeper!), and when she nurses or takes a bottle, she slobbers all over the place because latching on HURTS. She's getting 3 doses of Infant Motrin a day and Orajel on top of that, and I rub her gums when she lets me and I can feel the swelling and they're all hot too. I REALLY hope she cuts them tonight or tomorrow, as we're spending a couple days at the seashore as a family and I don't want all of us cooped up in a hotel, or Natalie and Mommy cooped up while DH takes Josie somewhere she doesn't have to hear the screaming. :? Anyway, yes it's early, but my mom confirmed today that I had teeth at TWO months, so I guess this is my payback! LOL
Nat did a really clear growth spurt at 11 weeks, and I figured it was her 3-month one, but just before the thing with the teeth started she started with the short naps all the time. I tried doing a snack feed before naptime, and half the time she'd take a full feed from both breasts, even if she'd just fed an hour before! :shock: The little oinker!!!! :lol: So we've got teeth, a growth spurt, and a vacation. Good thing she's never managed to have a real routine, because this would mess it up for sure.
I've tried keeping a log to find out when her sleep times are, and I'm not kidding, eVERY DAY is different! There's almost always one short nap, sometimes 2, sometimes 5 or 6. Today her first 2 were short, the next 2 I managed to get in there and extend them to 90 minutes, and then for her "catnap", DH came home from work, Josie got silly and crazy (she's excited about going to the shore too), and I lost track of time - Natalie's catnap was TWO HOURS LONG!!! We have had exactly ONE day where she had 3 good naps. Most days it's four naps, and they can all be 90 minutes long as her Awake time is so short; I can't spend the time winding her down slowly like I did with Josie because I have Josie climbing the walls demanding my attention when I WOULD be winding down Natalie. Maybe once this growth spurt is over and the teeth are through we'll get into more of a routine, just in time for Josie to start preschool, meaning I'll have to drag Natalie to the car every AM at 8:45 whether or not she's in the middle of a nap.
Tummy time: Since Natalie's a tummy sleeper, she gets plenty of that anyway. I try to give her 5-10 minutes of floor time for each Activity period. She basically spends most of it crawling around on her belly (or trying to, depending on the surface she's on) and steering toward Josie's toys. She's also started "talking" to the toys and books: "Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oooohh. Oh. Oh," etc. She is a refluxer so after her feeds she spends some time, maybe 15-20 minutes, in her bouncy seat, but we can't do that much longer as she's starting to try sitting up and has nearly rolled out of the chair a few times. :shock: And if she's on her back on the floor, she can roll to her belly if she concentrates hard enough (or gets lucky and rolls to her side), so I guess it's soon time to get the baby gates out of retirement. :shock: :shock:
With Josie, I'd give her tummy time on my tummy a few minutes atatime since she resisted it otherwise. If she could see my face and we could interact, she was happy enough.
Oh, and putting her down awake and her going to sleep on her own?
NOT!!!! I have to wind her down in the chair till ALMOST asleep, then when I put her in bed on her tummy I have to still do a little pat/shh. Some nights she'll try crawling some more and I'll have to take her out, wind her down AGAIN, and put her in bed AGAIN up to 3-4 times; tonight, forunately, was only twice, as DH is out this evening. (Don't it figure? :roll: LOL)
Cheers, ladies, and thanks for this thread; it really does help me keep some perspective.