Baby's smile is back! Katrina was in a better mood today, though still far short of her 3-month-old exuberant self.
Cleaners were here this morning, so we had to skedaddle. I took Julian (who I had to pick up from Tonya's -- not supposed to be there after throwing up last night) and Katrina in the double jogging stroller, in the hopes of meeting up with the Cuperinto 2006 group at 9:45am. No sign of anyone congregating in the parking lot, so I instead took the kids on our old hike. It was so nice to be back there, though I sure missed yakking with my mom friends! We hiked every week, on and off for several years, it was quite a mainstay. Another thing I loved. But it's always nice to see the hills and trees and the trail and absorb the outdoors.
As it turns out, I ran into the 2004/2006 "group" anyway, which consisted of two moms, one who I knew and one who I'd only talked to in email. We stood chatting for a while, and I was glad to get in at least some commiseration for the baby stress. I need it!
On the tail end of the hike, a crampy feeling I've had for two days turned into gas-pain-like knives in my stomach. I hate that feeling. Every step got more and more painful. I was relieved to get to the car, but felt exhausted and wiped out and just awful.
Boom. Another temperature this afternoon. This can't be happening! 101.4. But the sharp gas pains were the worst part, and tormented me all day and night, and even as I type. It's hard to carry my high-maintenance baby around when I can't take any pressure on my tummy.
Mercifully, I got about a 45-minute nap after getting Katrina down easily with ... you guessed it, the pacifier. I just had no energy for The Fight. And it's not clear anymore I should. If she takes the pacifier to sleep, fine. But if she won't take it, then it's back to crying. Eventually I'll phase it out entirely.
Sleep report: An hour and 20 minutes of crying last night, then baby fell asleep on her own. But it didn't end there; she woke up and cried for about 10 minutes. Then around 3am, she woke up, I nursed her, but she didn't go back to sleep!!! Dreadful! Picking her up to comfort her only made it worse. I double-checked everything: clean diaper, no wet pajamas from spitup, clearly tired, lots of holding and comfort and back-rubbing. Nothing doing. Sorry, baby. I put her back down and went upstairs, leaving the crying to Dave, who can block it out much more easily.
By the time I settled into bed upstairs, I didn't hear any crying, so she'd gotten over it in about 10 minutes again. And I got a good morning's sleep, except for the interruption from the intensely sharp pains in my abdomen. Katrina slept solidly until about 8:30am, just fine.
I got thinking about Betsy's remark that it was easier to get Dylan down if she got him to bed early, like 6:30 or 7:00pm. Of course, babies don't get much more agreeable than Dylan, but it's a useful data point anyway.
So I gave Katrina an early bath, and am typing this quickly before embarking on the bedtime battle. I'm happy to say that giving her a bath will now immediately curtail a Fuss, and indeed tonight she was happy and playful in the bath. I'll have to hold onto that memory, because what's coming will be anything but happy.
Extremely painful abdomen, another temperature, high-maintenance baby...a Valentine's Day bust. Think positive: beautiful hike, lots of nice moments with baby today, and eventually I'll manage to hang on to health. I'm counting on it.
2/14/07
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