I can’t decide which one I dislike more: changing his diapers or waking up for night feeds.
Changing Noah’s diapers is a real art in itself. You need to get the timing just right. Should I change him before or after feeding him? If I change him before he gets his milk, he usually wails the house down because he’s hungry. His little legs will also kick frantically at everything and anything, while he writhes around on the changing table, making it very difficult to apply the nappy rash cream on him and strap his diaper on properly. Changing his diaper after a feed isn’t that much better either. He’s usually asleep, and I end up waking him up, causing him to sometimes protest by crying (again) and kicking (yes, again). An added ‘bonus’ of changing him after his feed is that he tends to pee or poo in large quantities, right in the middle of his diaper change. That’s not to say that he won’t do the same thing if his diaper is changed before a feed, so it’s really a matter of luck. As C puts it, ‘The boy has impeccable timing.’ It really is quite annoying when you’ve just finished cleaning him properly and ta-dah, more poop shoots out. We’ve both also experienced the joy of clearing up the poop that he decides to release in the few seconds between us removing the dirty diaper and putting on a clean one. The poor changing mat has definitely seen better days. How can a little baby poop SO much at one time?
Night feeds are also a real pain. As though it isn’t bad enough that I have to wake up a couple of times in the middle of the night, the little boy somehow takes a longer time to drink his milk at night. Add to that the endless rounds of trying to burp him, one hazardous diaper change and trying to get him to go back to sleep, I end up spending about two hours awake each time. Don’t get me wrong, I love my baby to bits, but why does it take him so long to fall back asleep at night? I also love looking at his eyes but not at 3am, when all he seems to want to do is look at me. He’s taken to sleeping on me after his feeds and wakes up when I try to put him back into his cot too soon after he has fallen asleep. Then it’ll be another round of feeding and burping and soothing him to sleep. I’ve fallen asleep so many times in the middle of his feeds and while he sleeps on me! Think we really need to get him into some kind of routine but I think we’ll start the training after C comes back from his two-week long business trip. I don’t know how we’re going to actually train him, despite reading many books and articles on sleep training, but that’s a post for another day.
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