Unpredictable

One of the most challenging aspects of parenting for my Type A personality has been our baby's unpredictability.   Just when I think I know what she likes or a trick to calm her down, the next time I try it the results are completely different.  For example: riding in the car, her swing, certain songs, laying on the changing table... sometimes all of those things cause her to break out in the happiest grin and she instantly stops crying and loves life.

An hour later, any of those same things could cause her to scream her head off like she's being tortured.

The area where her unpredictability frustrates me the most though is her sleep patterns.  One night she will sleep for three hour stretches, the next she's back to wailing every two hours or less.  More than once this past week I was getting up at midnight, two, four, and six to feed the screaming, hungry monster and if you do the math it basically means very little consecutive or cumulative sleep for Mama.

Her naps are just as erratic, sometimes a good two hour nap can occur anywhere, like while we're playing on the floor.  Other times I know she's exhausted but she won't snooze for more than ten minutes before she's fussing again.  I try to calm her down and settle back into the nap, sometimes I try to let her cry it out a bit and see if she'll go back to sleep on her own... but often she doesn't return to the nap.  This makes it hard when I think I have two hours to run an errand with a sleeping baby, and it turns into just twenty minutes of nap time when the day before it would've been an hour or more.

Now I know according to the books I'm being a bit high with my expectations.  Most ten week old babies don't follow any set schedules yet, but it doesn't mean I don't wish I could understand her behavior a bit better.

Of course there a few things she does consistently love... like playtime with Daddy and snacktime with Mommy.

The good news is, that everyday is different and if I have one rough night or extra fussy day the next one could be the complete opposite.  Two more weeks before everything completely changes anyway and I return to work.  Let's just hope that by then I can get more than an hour of sleep at a time!