Shortly after Siena's birth I began to work out. Surprising, right?! I know, I know, I don't really like to work out and I am kind of the definition of lazy sometimes... so it is definitely shocking to hear that only a couple weeks after Siena's birth, I decided to work out. Let me tell you how it happened.
One night, Mike was out of town with the band and Siena was only a couple of weeks old. I put her in her crib around 8pm for nighttime. At this time, I was attempting to get Siena to love her pacifier. I know, per many things I've read/seen, that babies need to suck to feel calming (the 5th "S" of
Happiest Baby on the Block) So, with the pacifier in mouth, she was armed and set to have a LOOONNNGG night of sleep!
I trek across the hall to my room and crawl into my comfiest bed ever (this is how you feel about your bed when you haven't touched it in 18 hours and you've been chasing a toddler around with a newborn attached to you while attempting to shove food in your own mouth and survive) and close my eyyeeesss - uh oh. Baby crying. Mom duty.
Went back to across the hall, search through the dark room to find my way to her crib, and stick the pacifier back in her mouth, wait for her to start sucking, then pull my hand slowwllyyy back.
Okay.
Back to my room. She'll fall asleep this time, I just know it. My bed is sooo comfyyyyyy... Uh oh.
Baby crying.
Mom duty.
and the cycle begins
After about the fourth time of this sick and twisted back and forth, I decided I would just stay in her room and wait for her to spit the pacifier back out just so I could put it back in so she could go back to sleep.
I head into her room to wait.
...waiting...
This is so silly. Maybe I could do something to pass the time. I can't read, it's too dark. I can't watch a tv show or sing or do a dance, that's just too much. How about I just stand against the wall and do a wall sit? Oh wait, those were always torturous, just passing the seconds.
I decided on doing some squats. After the squats, I decided to do push-ups. Pacifier back in mouth. After push-ups, sit ups. Sit ups - pacifier - back to squats. Let's add in some calf raises - pacifier. Now we're just getting crazy.
I went through this for probably another hour. It definitely felt good to work out in some way - but this was the night that I realized I couldn't do this any more. So when she finally passed out from crying every ten minutes after she spit out the pacifier, I finally found peace in my bed, and had the gift of sleep. What a gift that is!
The next morning, or maybe the morning after that - some time following this work out/pacifier/work out/pacifier night, I realized something. She needs to find her hand. And me shoving a pacifier in her mouth is getting in the way of her instinct to shove her hand in her mouth and suck on it.
That was the end of me working out.
I tend to lean towards being supportive of my babies sucking on their fingers/hands. I think a pacifier is really awesome, but I realized early that Siena needs to find her own way to suck because we just get caught up in this crazy cycle of having to shove it back into her mouth because she can't keep it in there.
So, a few weeks later, this is the cuteness you get:
As grateful as I am to have those times with Siena in the middle of the night, I am even more grateful and sane when I get to have a few hours of sleep. Since finding her hand, we have many more peaceful nights with a sane Mommy in the morning. It's a lovely combination :)
