the first weeks of Jackson's life......... I honestly don't remember much of it. I do remember being VERY proud of how good of a sleeper he was by 12 or so weeks and I am still proud of him today. Levi seems like a totally different baby. Some nights he is pretty upset and uncomfortable seeming for a few hours, I am not totally sure if Jackson was like that, but I don't think so.
Levi doesn't really like the pacifier which is fine, I don't want to be one of those moms that stuffs a pacifier in their kid's mouth every time they cry. But with Jackson we used it as part of our nighttime routine, we would swaddle him and put the pacifier in his mouth and rock him to bed. The swaddle and the pacifier were an indication to him that it was time to go to bed for the evening (i.e. longer than a nap). Levi is so difficult to swaddle, I feel like I am going to break his arm trying to straighten it out to get into the swaddle. The most we have gotten him to sleep in the swaddle is 3 hours. He really is not into the pacifier at all. He spits it out pretty quickly and on the occasions in which he does fall asleep with it, he usually wakes up within 20 minutes.
More than anything else though that is different is the almost complete inability to put Levi down. He just loves and loves to be held. We have yet to get Levi to really appreciate the swing. Its funny because most adults see the swing and say something like "I wish they made one of those for me", and while I have read about babies that don't like swings and people have told me about them, I really didn't believe it. Tonight Levi was crying, he had nursed and nursed and nursed and I really wanted to fend him off for a couple of hours. I decided that if he really was hungry, I would warm up some of my frozen milk and give him a big 'ol bottle to knock him out. I put him in the swing and went into the kitchen to warm up the bottle. When I got back, he was completely passed out. I was momentarily bummed that I had warmed up the bottle and super excited that he had fallen asleep. I thought "this is it, it finally worked and I hope there is more to come". Well, he slept for about 10 minutes and then was WIDE awake again. So, I gave him about 3 oz of breastmilk and then tried the swing again. Well now he is staring at me, a little fussy and well, it is clear that he doesn't like the swing.
When do I throw in the towel on the gadgets? We are nearing 5 weeks and he doesn't like any of them. I honestly can't wear him in a sling all day. I understand the romantic idea of it, vacuuming while the baby is sleeping in the sling and all but I am not a 100% stay at home mom. I need for Marissa to be able to deal with both children when she starts next week and I am pretty afraid that she won't be able to deal.
I am not completely freaking out. I know that this will pass. I know that we will get Levi into a routine, I know that we will figure out his quirks and he will learn to enjoy our routine. Until then, we will just do the same thing we have been doing- the bare minimum in housekeeping, pushing aside the work we need to do to get ready for school to start and continue to hold and rock and comfort the baby. He won't be a baby much longer and we need to enjoy this time while we can.
It sounds like Levi is a much more high-needs baby than Jackson. Wilson was like that--we couldn't put him down for a nap, or he'd only sleep for 15 minutes. Babies like that just had more need to be touched. Maybe Marissa can learn to use the sling as well. Wilson still wakes at nighttime, but we adapted by co-sleeping. In fact, he still wakes during his nap. It may feel like a bit of a crisis at this point, but you'll find your rhythm again. You will surely get lots of advice on this. My two cents: keep doing what you're doing. Accept Levi for who he is, and hold him a lot. But, find ways to make it easier on yourself (co-sleeping, etc...) Let me know if you still want to try to Arm's Reach Co-sleeper.
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