Tears everywhere

Before school Julia has a meltdown because I want her to change a shirt she spilled juice on. Then the rain starts. Now, 2 hours later, Jacqueline has been screaming bloody murder (Julia asked me to define that phrase a couple of days ago.) for 45 min off and on. She's teething, she's tired and she hasn't eaten much. I can't find a good solution for any of those problems so I just left the room and am writing this.

Dear SAHD

Dear SAHD,

I have am 8 month old who seems to only take naps while I am carrying her. My wife has the advantage of nursing but if I even think about putting her in a horizontal position when she is tired she howls like a child who is being beaten within an inch of her life. What do I do? Is there anyway to get her to lay down for a nap?

Exacerbated,
Deaf Dad

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Dear Deaf Dad,

I have a recently discovered solution that might work for you.

Love her and play with her so she will let her guard down. Feed her as much as possible even if you are squeezing two of her feedings closer together than you should or would like. Take her to the crib and lay her down. Walk away long enough to get another cup of coffee and take a few bites of your lunch. At this point she should be screaming bloody murder - no need for a baby monitor it will be loud enough.

Get a swaddle or blanket large enough to swaddle. Firmly break her concentration by firmly saying the child's name, pick her up and sooth her. Next you want to swaddle her. If she's anything like my child you have to do this straight-jacket tight. Sooth her more and lay her in the crib. Lightly pat her chest while slowly decreasing pressure. If you get no change in facial expression when you stop it is time to walk away and enjoy the solitude.

Hope this works for you.

Signed, SAHD

Why?

Today has been a day of a pooping, crying, awake infant combined with a motormouth, awake preschooler.

Why didn't I become that professional anthropologist?

No sleep for the weary

Yesterday Julia decided that crying is better than sleeping.

As far as we could tell there is nothing really wrong with her, her temp was at the low end of the acceptable range, her diaper had been relatively poopless. She was eating and burping but after 5pm she did more crying than not. It got worse around 9:30pm when Tara and I got a little short with each other. We tried every trick in the book (literally) to help get her to sleep. Finally at 1:30am I decided to try something one of my "new father" books suggests - let her cry it out, unattended for 10 minutes. I changed her, swaddled her as tight as I could manage, turned the lights off and took a shower. I heard her cry through the entire shower - my mind was racing wondering what was wrong. As I was toweling off at about the 8 minute mark, her crying slowed and by the time I was out she was was asleep. She slept the rest of the night ... thankfully!

I think it was the broccoli

Julia & I just finished - I hope we are finished - our first marathon cry session.

She's now sleeping across my lap but she has been crying and her stomach has been gurgling since 10:30. It's 12:10 now.

I'm looking through 2 of my parenting books and one of them talks about colic and mentions broccoli as a bad idea for breastfeeding mothers. Guess what we had for dinner!?!?!

Yep, we had broccoli.