Hanging with the Hockenberrys: Memoirs of a Newborn

I was looking back through some old blog posts and reflecting on the newborn months. It's funny how I (accidentally on purpose) put the first few months of having a baby out of my mind. Looking back they don't seem near as hard as I thought they were back then. Heck, they even seemed easy at times (and no, not just the times when our parents were here). I do remember some of the hard stuff, but only because my friend Katie has a beautiful 2.5 month old daughter that is in the throes of the newborn stage (and is also colicky - Katie is a saint!) But for the most part I only remember the puppies and rainbows. Maybe the odd unicorn thrown in here and there. I recently even thought to myself that maybe having another baby wouldn't be so bad...

Cue Monday. Those first couple of months are flooding back to me. The child is suddenly a bad sleeper. (Yes, I realize that it has only been two nights, but I'm running on fumes here. It seems like months). The routine for the past couple of nights has been this: We’ll lay him down, he’ll fall asleep. 30 minutes later he’s flopping around and fussing. So we go in, rub his tummy, stick his paci in his mouth, move his blankie (also known as the Tater scrubber) up by his face, etc. He falls back to sleep. Thirty minutes to an hour later, we repeat. And then we repeat again. We do this about 3-4 times before we go to bed. After the last time (whenever that may be) he sleeps about 4-5 hours, then he’s up again and doing the same thing every couple of hours from about 2 am on. And each time I lay him down after his nighttime feedings he has started flopping around too. It’s like he’s figured out the rolling thing and his body wants to practice it in his sleep. Half the time when we lay him down he immediately rolls onto his stomach. Why? I don’t know, because it sure pisses him off once he gets there. We'll roll him back onto his back and he immediately tries to roll onto his stomach again. Cue the freak out. Last time I was in Babies 'R Us I saw this infant sleep sack thing that came with a crib sheet – the sleep sack had Velcro on the back of it. You put the baby in the sleep sack and attached him to a Velcro pad on the sheet. Voila! Baby can't roll over. It was being discontinued and was on clearance. At the time I said to Kevin “Well, no shit it’s on clearance. Who in the hell would Velcro their baby to the mattress?” Three weeks later, THIS GIRL would. (Okay, I really wouldn’t, but I can’t help but imagine the possibilities). Aside from sticking Tater to the mattress, I am at a loss as to what to do to fix this. Actually, I do know how to fix it. We wait. Because when you have a baby that's the only thing you can do. A week from now things will be completely different. Hell, it will probably be completely different by tonight (please, for the love of god). But for now I feel like this will never end. No, I don't think there is anything that has caused this change. He's had a cold for a couple of weeks now, but it really hasn't bothered him too much. Honestly I think it is just Greyden being a baby (as in being an actual baby, not a wuss. That would be Mommy and Daddy in this situation).

My fingers (toes, eyes, legs, etc,) are crossed for a good night tonight. Tomorrow morning Kevin heads out of town for a work conference. It's just going to be me and Tater Tot until Saturday. Wish me luck!

Thanks for the rockin' duds, Uncle Cam!