On schedule

After 10 weeks of feeding "on demand," I'm now a scheduler.  Feeding on demand was often a nightmare really. Thankfully she's been a great night sleeper (knock on wood, knock on wood, I know) but then she's really been on the fussy side during the days...Elliott would get fussy and seemingly want to eat every hour to two hours during the day.  Seriously, she would eat and then we would all just wonder when she'd want to eat again--knowing that it would probably be pretty soon. She'd never really get filled up and I was going crazy. Even adding in formula wasn't helping. In sum: no one was all that full or all that happy.

SO I'm going Babywise. It happened quickly. Mitch was on call the night before last and when he walked in the door at 6:30 am, I said, "Elliott's now on a schedule. She eats at 6 AM, 9 AM, 12 PM, 3 PM, 6 PM, and 9 PM." And then I left for the dentist--hey, why not live it up? Pretty much that was it. I was fearful (understatement of the year) that Elliott would be upset and crying for food between feedings. But she totally didn't. She also didn't sleep really AT ALL during the day...no matter how many times I explained to her that she needed to follow the eat, wake, sleep cycle, she kept her eyes open. "I have to keep my eye on you, mommy, you've got a fire under your ass evidently," is what she must have been thinking.

Today was day 2 of The Schedule. She rocked it, eating right on schedule and actually napping (with a bit of help from me, the paci, her sleep sheep, the rocker, but, hey, she's two months old and Rome wasn't built in a day). She even slept in her crib for a bit which is practically a first in her lifetime.

Life-changing. Yes, my life has improved already, but this change has also led to a few tears...and not just from Elliott. Since I'm trying to get Elliott to sleep her naps in the crib (instead of being held, which I've indulged her in for too long, I know), I tried soothing her in new ways today that somehow I just never needed because putting her to the breast or bouncing her around were always so easy to do. Essentially today I suddenly found myself soothing her in the ways I soothed Miles in the hospital. I patted her diaper until she relaxed, whispered in her ear while she listened, caressed her head until she slept. After watching her drift off to sleep so peacefully, I closed my eyes and cried while I stroked her head from back to front, thinking of the hours that I had done that for Miles.