Growth Spurts

Growth spurts are good. They are a necessary part of, well, growing. Unfortunately, they can have some (temporary) side effects... As near as I can tell, Nathan has had 2-3 major ones so far, and they are NOT a fun time for any of us. The endless cycle of fuss > eat > fuss > change diaper > fuss > eat > fuss > repeat ALL DAY LONG is exhausting. Add to that his new "skill" of fighting sleep and you have a recipe for one cranky baby and one very frazzled and frustrated mama.

Of course, these days always seem to occur when Paul is on shift and/or otherwise occupied :-/  We had one such day a couple weeks ago. Paul was attending a weekend-long conference and was gone from early morning until very late at night two days in a row. I ended up calling him around 10:45 p.m. that Saturday, crying, and begged him to please come home ASAP. He got home around 11:30 to find me rocking in the glider, crying, and nursing a screaming baby for the third time in three hours. Thankfully he sent me to bed and took over trying to get Nathan calmed down enough to sleep. One hour and a 1 oz bottle of formula supplement later, he succeeded.

Yesterday was another rough one. My grandma and uncle had been here over the weekend to meet the newest member of the family. Overall, it had been a good visit and Grandma got in lots of snuggle time with her great-grandson. Unfortunately, it had also been a very stimulatory weekend (we all went to church for the first time on Sunday). By the time they left Monday morning, Nathan was already over-stimulated and in no mood to nap. Cue the growth spurt cycle and we soon descended into meltdown mode. Only this time, we added in impressive amounts of spit-up after every feeding. By late afternoon, Nathan was on his third outfit of the day. I was still more or less in pajamas, but with several layers of spit-up (including down my cleavage and in my hair!). I had also changed a massive blowout diaper (as in, up his side all the way to his armpit!) and been peed upon.

Nathan was very fussy, having refused to nap for longer than 20 minutes all day. I even loaded him into his stroller (taking advantage of the random "heat wave") and went for a long-ish walk around the neighborhood. His eyes were WIDE open the entire time. Finally, around 6:30 p.m., out of sheer desperation, I stuck him in his carseat and went for a drive. I didn't really need to make that deposit at the drive-thru ATM last night, but it was the only valid errand I could come up with that got us out of the house but allowed us to stay in the car (it was raining cats and dogs by that point). There was also a Starbucks with a drive-thru right across the street from the bank...

After 45 minutes in the car, the little booger was still not asleep (he usually goes out like a light as soon as you turn the key) and I had come to the realization that I was not going to be allowed to eat dinner, let alone prepare anything for it. So we drove a good 10 miles out of the way to go through the drive-thru at Culver's (screw healthy-eating for one night - I needed a cheeseburger and fries STAT). Every time we stopped (at a light, in the drive-thru line, etc) he fussed. I ate my fries in the car on the way home. Still not asleep. He started fussing again as soon as we got in the door, so I changed and fed him, and stuck him in his crib to fuss some more while I shoveled my (now cold) cheeseburger. Usually we try to put him down for the night between 9:30-10:00, but by 9:00 I was starting to unravel. I put him in his pajamas, prepared a bottle that I had pumped earlier, and fed him in the nursery with the lights on low to help minimize stimulation. By 9:45 he was in his crib, not sleeping but at least not fussing. By 10:45, he was finally asleep and actually had a pretty decent night, only waking up twice to eat. Victory!

Days like yesterday are hard, but every time we survive one I feel my confidence increasing a bit more. Yes, it sucked that Paul was once again on shift. And yes, I was a not-so-hot mess by the time it was over. But we survived. This doesn't happen every day, and I keep reminding myself that this too shall pass. He's already growing and changing so much. The "newborn" phase is drawing to a close, and as difficult as it can be at times, I want to enjoy what is left of it while I can. And hopefully, when we go for his 1 month check-up on Friday, we will get some good news about his weight gain over these past couple of weeks!