Every time I think that I couldn't possibly love Grace any more than I already do, she smiles and my heart just grows even bigger for her. This little baby has captured by heart and soul and I would do anything in the world for her.This week I realized I have exactly ONE WEEK left until I go back to work. Before I can get my lesson plans and school work ready, I need to prepare Grace for her huge shock to her system that's about to happen!
I am proud to be a working mom. I am proud to know that I'm contributing to our family income, that I'm going to be raising our little girl and also working full time. But of course I'm sad and worried about leaving her. I want her to be as ready as she can be for this.
I just picture her at daycare, waking up from a nap, with unfamiliar surroundings, unfamiliar sounds, unfamiliar people, and it breaks my heart. Thankfully, she will be with my mom 40% of the time (Tuesdays/Thursdays). And for the first few weeks, she will be with my mom at my house, with her own familiar surroundings.
So, in order to best prepare Grace for daycare, I realized she needs to be able to do the following things:
1.) Sleep in a flat crib. (Which she had never done in her life)
2.) Fall asleep on her own. This means without being nursed to sleep (Which happens very rarely. That's apparently a drawback of breastfeeding: Babies fall asleep while nursing, and both parent and baby come to rely on nursing as a sleep crutch)
(Mental note for if we ever have baby #2: give a bottle a day from day one so that the baby never has a chance to forget how to drink out of a bottle).
Regarding problem # 3.), bottle refusal has me worried. When I put the bottle in her mouth, she refuses to suck, and lets it sit there, moving her tongue all around it, causing the milk to drool all over her face. Out of the past 4 times I've tried to get her to take a bottle, she only took one once, (after plenty of milk getting spit out or drooling all over her). I'm very worried that she won't eat at daycare or for my mom, but everyone seems to say "when she gets hungry enough, she'll take the bottle". I'm hoping that's true.
Problems # 1.) and 2.) both have to do with Grace taking naps at daycare, which are going to be vital for her, but will surely be a problem. I've been nursing her to sleep or bouncing her to sleep for every single nap and sleep since she was born! She doesn't know how to fall asleep on her own. And if she is somewhere new, without being able to fall asleep for naps, it will become a nightmare! She gets cranky if she is awake for any amount longer than 2 hours! She'll be at daycare for about 10 hours, so she'll definitely need to sleep at least a few times in there.
Enter "Merlin's Magic Sleep Suit". I've known about this product for awhile, but the minimum recommended age is 3 months old. So, as soon as Grace turned 3 months, I ordered it from Amazon.com. Apparently, the sleep suit restricts/muffles the baby's arms and legs enough to calm her down, and "magically" you can put your baby down awake and she'll fall asleep on her own (no bouncing or nursing).So, Friday night we gave it a try. She fussed for about a half hour (with some crying, but more fussing), and then fell asleep. She woke up again an hour later. This time she fussed for about 15 minutes, and then fell asleep for 5 straight hours. Flat on her back, IN HER CRIB. It was amazing.
Today, she took 3 naps in her sleep suit (in her crib). Each one, she fell asleep on her own after about 5 minutes of noise making. The downside is that each nap was only about 30 minutes. (When she used to nap in the swing, she would sleep for 1.5 - 2 or maybe even 3 hours). So, now night #2 is approaching. Can the magic sleep suit actually be our answer?
I ordered a second "Magic Sleepsuit" already for Grace to have at daycare. It will give me so much piece of mind to know that she is able to fall asleep there. Overtired baby is not pleasant to be around and would be a bad situation all around.
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