Several months ago, I read "Simplicity Parenting". I really enjoyed the book, though I think the author was preaching to the choir in my case. He spoke a lot about simplifying life, including things, schedules and environment. One big thing that I picked up from this book, was looking at days and evaluating how busy they are.
Particularly busy or exciting days are "A" days.
Rather normal, run of the mill days are "B" days.
Especially slow days are "C" days.
Hubby and I have always been fairly good about making sure we don't have too many A-days all at once and that the A-days are balanced with C-days. The author of Simplicity Parenting suggests that for every A-day, you should have 2 C-days, either samwiching or interspersed within the A-days, or following the A-days.
With Samuel, I've been aiming to only go out one day during the week (Sunday church would make 2 days). Seems that a day out, which might be from 1 hour to a few hours, results in at least 1 fussy day following. At first, it might of meant 2 or 3 fussy days, but lately its been only 1 fussy day. I think he is just extra tired.
This week, we had 2 A-days. Tuesday, we took a trip to have lunch with my sister and go to Ikea. Unfortunately, the trip to Ikea was a complete bust as they have recalled ALL their cribs which they neglected to note on their website. Of course, I also neglected to call them the day before, so shame on me, too. On Wednesday, we did our normal grocery shopping (which right now counts as an A-day). Now, as of Saturday afternoon, we've had 3 fussy days for the 2 A-days. I talked to the pediatrician, and he declared colic.
So, now I don't feel so bad about letting him sleep in the swing.
Rachael's ponderings and ramblings about life, teaching, gardening, knitting, home keeping and the various other topics and hobbies that prompt her interest.
Oh dear... I had a few babies who were sensitive to outings and busy days and that's hard. Soon, he'll grow out of that, but for now, trust your Mom's instinct to do what's right. Our last child did have colic. He screamed every night for 4 hours straight without any consolation. He wouldn't nurse and could not stop crying no matter what we did during that evening time frame. By around 4 months those episodes gradually became shorter and I'm sure that by 5 months they were gone altogether. He did sleep an awful lot in the swing... but I had 4 other kids to look after, so my policy was always "let sleeping babies lie" Doesn't matter how many kids you have - if baby is sleeping peacefully, let him be! :) Release the guilt!!!
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