Baby blather

The last two nights Miss Lucy has slept from bedtime until 5:30 am.  We are confident it is a short term thing, but have enjoyed it none the less.

My mommy senses (similar to Spidey Senses) had me waking up both nights at 2:30 and 3:30 with "phantom" baby sounds.  At one point I was out of bed, in my bathrobe and walking toward the door when I realized that no sounds at all were coming from the monitor. 

I have foolishly awoken the baby in the past for silly things like putting her in the car for required trips, but I will not be doing it in the middle of the night to feed a sleeping baby.  The idea is to get her to not have night time feedings - like the rest of us.

So, yesterday was our baby class reunion.  Four families showed up and strangely all four of us had C-sections. Two were planned and one was an emergency and mine was, not so much emergency but a smart decision after a day of useless labor. 

The four babies were all at different developmental stages.  Lucy, the second youngest had the best head/neck control and was the most alert during the "reunion".  The boy who was due on Lucy's due date came a week earlier than Lucy and the child weighed in at over 14 pounds (now, not at birth.)  His mom has him on a strict 3 hour schedule - feeding, cleaning, naps... repeat.   He's up to 6 ounces of formula per feeding - so if he's eating 8 times a day he's taking in 48 ounces of formula.  Lucy, is quite happily consuming 24 ounces per day.  The pediatrician said that babies need 2.5 ounces of formula per pound - which means "schedule mommy" is giving that kid about 300 extra calories per day.  Our instructor gently tried to indicate that they needed to talk to their pediatrician and mentioned that there's an epidemic of obese 6 month old babies in the US.  I'm not quite sure I would have been able to hear her kind and gentle hints.  The need to keep the baby on a 3 hour feeding schedule (according to our books) goes away once the baby passes their birth weight.  When the kid is thriving they will let you know when they are hungry... but if you feed them every three hours they will learn to be hungry every three hours.  It's not going to be fun at their house if and when they decide to stop the madness. 

Just so you don't think that I'm overly superior about my own parenthood skills, she informed us (gently) that we weren't using the car seat restraints correctly.  Yes, the baby was strapped in, but we have been applying the clip that goes across the chest too low.  So, a quick adjustment (along with a scream of displeasure from the princess) and we're back in business as good parents. 

The other two babies at the reunion were remarkable in that the oldest baby there is the one who was the smallest with the least display of body control.  She was tiny and still VERY floppy.    The other little dude was so cute I wanted to eat him up, but he slept the whole time.  It's easy to fall in love with a sleeping baby. 

Lucy's 2 month well baby check up is Monday and we'll get either validation that we're on track with her size and development or a slap in the face that maybe our baby class instructor was talking to both super control freak mom AND us as well.  Lucy will be getting shots so expect Mommy to need a cocktail after the appointment. 

Have a great weekend.