Doctors Appointment

Well this morning Kaylee had her follow up doctors appointment. They have wanted to monitor her closely due to her head being 1cm smaller then it should be at our last appointment and all the chaos throughout my pregnancy. Anyway, as expected she is perfect. The 1cm she was small last time, she makes up for in the 3 she grew this time.

Anyhow, I mentioned to the doctor that I have a fussy little girl. At first I coped it up to her just being a baby, then it was that she may have gas, then it was she was not sleeping through the day, now it is Mummy at a loss and wants to know how to stop her little girl from crying so many hours in a day.

After a series of questions and honest answers she told me that she thinks Kaylee just needs to be sleeping during the day. She said that most people tend to have this problem with babies not sleeping through the night but because Kaylee is sleeping so wonderfully through the entire night, then we need to establish a routine through the day not allowing her to stay up the entire day!

How do we do this I ask, as I swear I have tried everything. The swing, the car, the stroller, the vibrating chair, rocking her in my arms in the rocking chair. We have even bought one of those "blackout" curtains for her room to give the idea that it is night time.

Simple answer from the doctor is to put her in the crib and let her cry. According to her night schedule right now- which is 7-730pm she goes down to bed, sleeps until 6-6:30am, then she should be ready for her first nap at 9-930am. Doctors instructions are to follow my usual bedtime routine steps minus the bath. So warm up a bottle, close the curtain, feed her in the rocking chair, then place her in her crib. If she cries then I am supposed to sooth her then leave the room. I am allowed to go back and comfort her 3 times. After this, of she continues to cry, then I let her cry for the remainder of her 2 hour nap. 11:30 I get her up or wake her up if she is still sleeping, keep her up until about 2pm in which time i repeat the process of putting her down for an afternoon nap.

According to my doctor, it may take about a week to master this and for her to realize she must nap or at least stay in her crib for this time. She told me that babies need a routine and their lives are much easier and they are more content once they have one. She also advised me that their is no such thing as a baby that will not nap and I must force this habit in order to have a happy baby.

Alright, so here I am, home from the doctors. I began with the bottle in the rocker and to my astonishment she actually dozed off. I placed in her crib with her soother (aka Suss) and left the room.

20 minutes later she began to scream. I did the 3 times go in comfort her, give her back the suss and then leave. Now I am sitting in the basement writing this blog to keep myself from thinking about the fact that I have a very unhappy little girl screaming in her crib. It gets better right? 1 week and then she will stop being fussy, nap and be a happier Kaylee. I am giving it one week. If at that point it doesn't work then I don't know.....

I was also asked by my doctor to keep a "baby diary" on my counter and mark down things in the day. IE: 6:30am wakes up, has bottle, fusses from 6:45-7am- as an example. With writing everything down I may be able to determine a pattern to what is making her fussy if it does prove to be something other then being over-tired.

Other then that, her stats are as follows: Height: 65cm= 96 percentile Weight 13.01lbs= 64 percentile.Other then being a cranky baby she is extremely healthy, the doctor cannot get over how string she is, holding herself standing up with some balance support from Mom.

I think I am now going to swiffer my floors to drown out the sound of her crying. I will keep posting on her progress! Here are a couple pictures of her in her new favorite thing- Her Bumbo chair!