Battening Down the Hatches

I think we have come upon that phase that all newborn parents dread, the Six Week Growth Spurt. Finn's lasted about a week and a half, and left me scarred for life. I can remember on the last day of it, I held him, boobs aching, and cried "I don't know what you want from me!" As he cried too, of course. Then he fell asleep for 4 hours, I had one of the best naps of my maternity leave, and it was over. Just in time for me to go back to work.

Lucy will be six weeks tomorrow, so I have been antipicating with dread the onset of the SWGS. One clue that it was coming should have been the wonderful day we had on Tuesday. It was truly a great day, the kind of day I imagined they would all be like as I waddled my pregnant self around work and thought about how much better my second maternity leave would be now that I'm An Experienced Parent (Ha!). Lucy and I got on fabulously. She ate well, and slept at all the expected times. We had some really fun "play" time, and there was barely any crying. Even once Finn was home, peace reigned, everyone was happy, and dinner was prepped on time. I actually thought I was getting the hang of things, finally.

The day that Finn's SWGS started, he was exactly 6 weeks old, and we took him in to my work to show him off. M. was home that day so that I could go to my post partum check-up. It was a nice day, and as we walked around our neighborhood late in the afternoon, we actually had a conversation for the first time that didn't focus on the prospect of Finn being an only child. We vocalized thoughts that parenting was actually pretty fun, and maybe we could do this again sometime so that Finn could have a sibling. Clearly the powers-that-be didn't want us to be comfortable in our roles as parents just yet, because that night all hell broke loose. I don't even really remember the details of it, my memory has failed me, probably as a survival tactic. But I do know that I have never been so sleep deprived for so long in my life.

So clearly, the powers-that-be again don't want me getting to comfortable as a parent of two, and I think we are entering this dreaded phase. Clues to support this theory:

- As mentioned, had a really great day this week, enjoyed being home with Lucy immensely
- Am planning to visit my work today to show Lucy off (weird coincidence?)
- Lucy decided on Wednesday evening that 4 ounces will no longer satisfy her, she now needs to eat at least 5. And she's not going any longer between feedings to compensate
- Starting yesterday afternoon, she became impossible to get to sleep. Not fussy, just wide awake. It took M. and I (mostly M., he was great) 2 and a half hours and some serious exercise ball-bouncing to get Lucy to sleep last night. Naps were limited to about 30 minutes each.

Lucy already seems so big to us (compared to Finn at that age), M. and I are predicting that she'll be wearing 2T by the end of the summer if this keeps up :-). I just hope for 3 things: 1) Having gone through this before, hopefully we can muster through with more patience and fortitude than we did with Finn (sorry, kiddo, we made lots of mistakes with you!); 2) I hope Lucy's SWGS is shorter than Finn's. I haven't blogged about this because I don't want to bore you AND it upsets me, but Lucy is no longer breastfeeding at all, and she's not even getting any pumped milk. The up side to that is that I know exactly how much food she eats at a sitting, and she doesn't have to grow like crazy with only the aid of my crappy milk supply - poor Finn had only my boobs, and that's probably why he needed 10 days to get throught he growth spurt. So maybe we can get through this with less collateral damage... 3)And if the SWGS can't be short, I at least hope it's over before my sister Stacey and her daughter Cameron arrive next Friday.

Wish us luck!