Jet Lag and Parenting

Beware, this could be long . . .

Well, we're all having a difficult time readjusting to Ohio time, Abigail especially. She took a nice long nap yesterday afternoon and also fell asleep on the way home. I let her sleep about 20 more minutes when we got home before waking her up. She was cranky at about 7 pm so we started bedtime. She fell asleep by about 8:00 pm. I couldn't believe our luck. She was down for the night!

Wrong!

She woke up at about 9:30 pm ready to play. She did not want to be laying in her bed or falling asleep. Andrew took her for a while but when he went to bed at 10:30 pm, I took her into her room. For a while, I laid with her on the bed and let her play with a stuffed animal. When she started to look tired, I tried rocking for a while. Finally, around 11:30 pm, I laid her in her crib. She fussed just a little but I finally got her back to sleep around 11:45. Yes! I went to bed and promptly fell asleep.

1:00 am. I wake up to Abigail crying. I go in and try to put her back to sleep with the pacifier but she's not having any of it! So I nurse her for a bit and then put her back to sleep. She goes down pretty easily. I lay in bed awake (blogging in my mind) until about 2:00 am when I finally get up and go downstairs for a snack, since my rumbling tummy is keeping me awake. I finally fall asleep after a small snack.

3:45 am. I wake up to Abigail crying. I get her out of her crib and lay with her in the twin bed but that just makes her even more upset. I try nursing her which sort of works. I continue to lay with her in bed while she flops around trying to get comfortable and fall asleep and we eventually fall asleep. I can't see the time from the bed but I would imagine it was around 4:30 am.

6:15 am. My alarm clock goes off for work and yes . . . I get up! We're trying to not let Abigail sleep any more than normal today so hopefully each night will get better. Now for the second part of my post. . .

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Andrew and I are very fortunate. We really agree and get along well with many things: We share a similar faith, similar political stance, similar family background, similar interests, and we generally agree on money issues. Amazing, right?! However, we are discovering that we do not agree on parenting! Around 9:30 pm last night, I was exhausted and just wanted to go to bed but Abigail was up and wanted to play. Andrew, being the good dad and helpful husband that he is, offered to keep her up for a while so I could go to bed. At 10:30 pm he came up to bed and put her in her crib. She instantly started to cry and sob. Andrew continues to completely close her bedroom door and to completely close our bedroom door so we can't hear her crying!! I am completely freaked out by this. What if she really needs us/gets sick/etc? We can't hear her!

Let me clarify. I am all for letting Abigail cry a bit when needed. She pretty much does whenever she goes to sleep. However, I am not willing to let her scream and cry in her crib while I lay there asleep and uninvolved. I at least want to be alert to know if she really does need something. The reason why this is causing some difficulty for us is that when Andrew offers to help me, at times I'm not so sure I want to accept his help because I don't like the way he will help.

Let me clarify again . . . I think Andrew is a wonderful daddy and I know he would never do anything to hurt Abigail. I simply feel like I am more in touch with the emotional side of parenting. I hope that makes sense. I have hesitated to write about this much because I don't want to portray Andrew as mean or an unconcerned dad at all, because he's not. We're just different.

Anyone else with this problem? Perhaps it is just me and my need to be in control, which is a different post for a different time. Anyway, this tired mommy is just rambling. I know Abigail's sleep will be getting better as she readjusts to this time zone. I mean, I had a hard time sleeping too!

Next up (which I may also post today): The Food Dilemma! Abigail is getting ready to start solids - probably this weekend. I am in a huge mental debate as to what her first food should be. I have done TONS of research on the matter and will share that at some point.

(All food will be organic or farm fresh/raised in nature)

A banana? Will she eat veggies if she tries fruit first?

Pureed meat? Sounds gross but that is what has been recommended.

Egg Yolk? Also has been highly recommended but I'm concerned about an allergy and the portability of this food for next week.

Rice Cereal? Has not come highly recommended by the whole foods books and articles I have been reading but this is what main stream America (doctors) recommend.

More on this at a later date.

Hawaii pictures will be coming as soon as I can get more than 4 hours of sleep in my brain.