Ups and downs

It's been a rough week for Molly. She crashed pretty hard after our trip to Rochester. She slept in my arms through our first neighborhood play group Monday morning, oblivious to the chaos of so many little babies toddling around.

Then she slept most of the afternoon away, including a trip to the midwives for my 6-week follow-up visit.

Then on Tuesday she woke up -- seriously woke up. She's been screaming, on and off, ever since. She came out of her bath with crazy hair that won't go away, and it's been a perfect reflection of her mood. She stayed up until about 11 p.m. Tuesday, requiring constant rocking and shushing and cuddling to keep the screams under control, and sometimes even that didn't work.

The book I've been reading on baby sleep predicted all this. It says the sixth week is the fussiest for all babies and by 12 weeks the fussiness usually goes away. The guys says nobody knows exactly why babies fuss at six weeks. It seems to have something to do with their brain development.

Anyway, Wednesday was a little better. She took a couple naps and somehow I got her soothed early in the evening before the serious fussing started. I had her in bed by 5:30 p.m. and she slept five hours solid, woke up for a quick feed and change, and then slept another five hours. Bliss!!!

Then yesterday she wasn't happy anywhere but in Mommy or Daddy's arms all day -- literally all day. She'd fall deeply asleep but as soon as you tried to put her in her bed she was wide awake, and ready to scream. It's nice to snuggle, but it's exhausting when you can't do anything else. I'm so glad both of us are home right now so we can take turns.

She didn't sleep much last night and I have a cold, which is a rough combination. All things considered, though, I think we're handling it OK. It makes me glad that she doesn't have colic -- I don't think I could handle screaming like this day after day for weeks.

Also, it helps that in between the screams she's smiling and laughing more than ever. The little dragonfly mirror over her changing table still cracks her up -- why, I have no idea, but it's adorable. She smiles at the sight of our faces, and you can kind of get her going by making silly faces at her. Plus she's very soft and she smells good and it's incredibly satisfying when something you do, like singing or talking to her or squeezing her feet, calms her down. She's such a snuggle bug!