6.22.2010

Baby Daze

The Led Zeppelin song, Dazed and Confused, in particular the line "been dazed and confused for so long..." has been a theme song in my brain the past 6 weeks.  The saying "A baby changes everything" is so true - the brain cells nonwithstanding. 

Good lord...

She's changing so fast.  And just when I think "at last - she is going to sleep for more than 2 hours" she surprises me and sleeps 30 minutes.  Before wanting to eat.  Again.  For the 50th time.  That day.

There are of course lots of opinions on how to cope with this exhaustion.  The breast nazi's (pro breastfeeding folks) tell me to ride it out and adjust my attitude.  Don't think of it as exhaustion but focus instead on the good I am doing for my baby.

I would focus...IF I COULD.

Then there are the other supposed experts on the other side of the fence who advise to supplement with rice cereal or formula to help stretch out those sleep periods.  Then I read where this is a myth.

Then there's the grandparents, who are under the illusion that their children (that would be me) were these perfect babies who slept 4-5 hours at a time off the bat, who rarely if ever cried.  Exhaustion?  Why, they didn't experience that.

Which proves my point that parents experience infanthood amnesia, which is nature's way of having us forget the struggles of this time period to ensure we have more children.  Much like pregnant women experience both pregnancy and delivery amnesia.  I can vow for that.

As I said, she is growing fast.  Much like a weed.  And like a weed she has a purpose.  Unlike a weed though, she has a beauty to her that I find intoxicating.  It enables me to reach to her when she's crying at 3am wanting to feed, only having done the same thing 2 hours prior. 

See ya on the other side of the daze...