Poor Leina is developing colic.

It starts around 7pm with fussiness as if she has a poop that just won’t come out. We walk her and snuggle her, rock her and sing to her but still she fusses. Finally, we pull out the reserves, the boobie. She pops on and it’s the saddest thing to watch. Her little body convulses and she screams between sucking. Her arms flail and her legs kick. Finally, she can’t take it anymore and she pops off screaming bloody murder. And she screams. And screams. And screams. And screams.

The amount of screaming is increasing each night. Last night, she went from 8:30 to 10:30 of red face, full body convulsions. There’s nothing you can do to help her but watch her scream and try not to scream yourself. Thankfully, Kevin sits right beside me and keeps me from totally losing it. We sit together in the darkened baby room looking at eachother miserably. Both torn up that our child is so unhappy and both helpless to do anything. This is what being a parent is about? I can’t believe how hard it is.

Eventually, she wears herself out and we nursed her to an uneasy sleep around 11pm. That was the longest night of my life. Today, I researched colic and all signs point to no good news. It develops around week 4-6 and can last a full 3 months. Three months! I can’t believe it.

I’ve decided to cut out dairy from my diet and I’ve also read wheat products can be a problem too. Not sure what exactly I can eat with out dairy or wheat but hey, if it means living on chicken and potatoes for 3 months so that my baby doesn’t have these nightly screaming fits, I’ll go for it.

Well, she’s up and crying. The “awful period” has begun. Wish us luck.

So last night, it hit me. Somewhere between the 12am, 2am and 4am nursing, I realized the answer to my delimna.

In our neighborhood, people are always giving away stuff on the side of the road. Replace your dishwasher? Put the old one on the curb with a sign saying “FREE – Works great” and it’ll be gone before night fall. Chop down a tree? Pile up the logs and attach “Free Wood” and poof, it’s gone.

So as I sat hunched in the nursing chair, bleary eyed and exhausted while the little suckerfish slowly had her midnight snack, I struck upon a plan.

I decided in the morning I’d prop her up in one of our recycle bins with a sign that read “Free baby – barely used”. I figured she’d be snached up in no time and I could sleep again like a normal person.

I told Kevin this in the morning. You know, to warn him so that when he came home from work that evening and found me sound asleep and no baby in sight he’d know what happened. He sat in stunned silence for a moment and then asked, “your kidding, right?”

Don’t worry, I didn’t hesitate more that a moment or two before assuring him that I wasn’t going to give our baby away on the curb side. Of course, when Leina is futsing around on the boob during the wee hours of the morning, I do find myself whispering to her….”you better get serious about eating or I’m going to start working on that free sign.”

My threat doesn’t appear to have much of an effect. All she does was look up at me and smile with a big milk grin and I instantly take back the treat.

Can we say wrapped around her cute little finger?

The Baby Leina Page has finally been updated! It’s hard to keep up with all you picture takers out there – especially JT! To date we have just over 300 Mb worth of Leina pictures and files on our computer. A rough estimate has us at 460 pictures (including all the web copies and printable copies) That makes putting a measly 40 new pics online just the tip of the iceberg. There’s definitely more coming.

If anyone out there wants all 300+ Mb I’d be happy to burn you a CD.

Enjoy

Last night I slept in my own bed for the first time in 19 days.

Yes, my bofa on the sofa days are over. My little miracle baby as learned to sack out in her crib for a whopping 3 hours. This is a little slice of heaven.

So when she awoke for her 1am feeding, I found myself actually smiling down at her little chubby face while she tried to suck my boob off my breast. I still felt my pillow against my cheek and my feet were still snuggly from my blanket instead of being contorted from sleeping on the old sofa. Even when she roused me again around 4am, I was still happy as a clam. Who knew that something as simple as 3 hours sleep could feel so wonderful???

I may just die if she ever makes it through a 4 hour streach. Four whole hours of sleep? Is that even healthy? And I’m told that in a mere 3 months, she may even be sleeping through the night! Happy! Happy! Joy! Joy!

Don’t worry, all day long she doesn’t go near that nasty old crib. Oh no, that little snuggle baby stays right in my arms. After all, they say babies grow fast so I better enjoy all the free kissing time now while I got it. All too soon, it’ll be “mom, stop it! Why are you always trying to kiss my cheeks?”

Now that Leina and I have establish some semblance of a nursing routine, I’ve decided it’s time to tackle the next big hurdle. Sleeping. As much as I love snuggling with her, Kevin misses me and I miss my sleep. Problem is, this kid has never had to sleep anywhere other than someone’s arms and she doesn’t want to change.

Last night was the first round.

I fed her and put her in the dreaded crib. Predictably, she woke quickly and started to cry. We let her go for about half and hour just to see if she’d wear herself out and go to sleep. No such luck. So we comforted her and she got to sleep on Kevins chest for the next few hours until her next feed. After that, we tried that crib again. She wasn’t falling for it and woke up within minutes. This time, we let her cry for an hour but no luck. She was refusing to sleep.

I’ve been racking my brain all morning trying to come up with another plan that doesn’t involve her crying alone and in the dark but so far, I haven’t had much luck.

I’m thinking you need a heart of stone to be a parent. Good thing I”m so stubborn. I won’t give up yet. She will sleep in her crib. (at least by her 2nd birthday….)

I think we’ve passed the doggie hump.

Last night during Leina’s night time nursing, the pack all came together. That’s right, Artie decided to join us. Now, the last few days, Artie has been either outside or upstairs sulking. His attention time has dropped from center of the universe to very distant galaxy. Even worse, the number of walks has dropped from three to two. He hasn’t been a very happy boy.

But last night Kevin, Tutu, baby and I were all talking while the kid fed and in came pooch. He looked around the room and then plopped down at our feet to sleep. Amazing.

Of course, after him came Wicks who began eyeing the crib so we’ve decided to teach Artie to guard the baby room and chase off any cats that try to enter. He seems very keen on this new duty. Anything involving chasing the cats is a plus in his book.

Slowly, slowly, our little home is developing a routine. Of course tomorrow, Tutu leaves me so everything will probably be thrown into totaly chaos. I’m not too sure how I’m going to take care of Leina with only two hands. It’s so much easier with four! Ah well, at least I have one more night of Tutu help before I’m thrown to the motherhood wolves. Better enjoy it!