Flying Solo, Night 1

It appears that I have survived the first night without Big D. I got home at 6:00 and immediately had a diaper to change. Then I put The Monster in the bassinet while I scooped the kitty poop at warp speed. When that was done, The Monster got a bath then a bottle. Then a couple of more diapers were changed before I took a shower while The Monster hung out in the bouncer chewing on links. Such a tough life, isn't it? One more diaper, then I had to pump. Then another diaper - I think she's going for a world record - and then bedtime. She went down relatively easy at about 8:00. Then I sterilized bottles while I watched Big D's flight status online as he flew into California. ("California here we come, right back where we started from. Cali-forn-yahhhh..." And actually, he's going to be in the O.C. I told him to say hi to Ryan, Seth, and Summer for me. Marisa doesn't get any love, since left in favor of Neutrogena and Keds ads.) Before Big D called at 9:00, I even had time to eat some grapes and have some cranberry juice. Overall it was a fulfilling evening. I tried not to think about the sitting on my bum that I would have done if I had been alone for a night before I was a parent, but I couldn't help but imagine watching the Deadliest Catch and the Real Housewives of NY reunion show. Instead, I made sure Tivo was set, and then before bed, I gave Sadie (my pre-marriage cat) some extra attention after she accidently jumped into the big-person's tub after I poured out the baby tub's water into it. Cats aren't fond of wet feet.

Miss Sadie:

The Monster slept well until 3:00 when she began her stirring. By 3:15, she was ready for a bottle... which she got. She went back to bed easily at 3:30 as did I. At 3:31, she woke up and began making motor sounds and scratching the sheets of the bassinet. "Brr, brr" Scratch, scratch, scratch. At 3:33, I got up and tried to put her back to bed. She went back down at 3:38. By 3:40, she was up again. At 3:41, I was trying to rock her back to sleep. During the few minutes that I tried, she spit out three pacifiers onto the floor. Grr. I was pissed. She was more interested in looking around the dark room and making motor sounds. Finally, I was like, "fine - just lay there!" So I put her back down and got back in bed. "Brr, brr" Scratch, scratch, scratch. "Brr." FOR HALF AN HOUR! I tried holding the Boppy pillow against my ear so that I couldn't hear her. I could hear Big D saying, "You're gonna have to learn to sleep through it." Which made me angry at him, and the poor thing wasn't even there. My blood pressure was so high, I could hear the ringing in my ears over the womb-sound machine and the air conditioner. I started thinking of hotels I could stay at next week to get Big D back for having three baby-free nights. I was fixin' to flip out, when I realized that she had gone back to sleep on her own. It was 4:30. Amazing. The pediatrician was right... they can go to bed without being rocked to sleep. For everyone who just rolled their eyes, you can kiss my big booty. When you've been chronically sleep-deprived, you'll do anything to get your spawn to sleep, even if you know it may create problems later. Dr. Ferber and the Baby Wise people would throw a fit if they knew that we rocked our 5 1/2 month old to sleep. F them. It's so easy to say during the beautiful daylight hours, "Just put her down, she's old enough to soothe herself to sleep." But when it's 3:00 in the morning, and you haven't had a good night's sleep since October, you do what you know works. It is not the time to experiment. But lo and behold, she went to sleep on her own. Unfortunately, 4:30 is the time my alarm goes off, but given the last hour of frustration, I snoozed until 5:15. Then I got up, did my thing, and at 6:15, woke The Monster up with kisses. She immediately smiled at me, and I apologized for saying I'd sell her to gypsies. I dropped her off at school, and her teacher said, "She looks so tired this morning!" Uh huh...