Wonder Weeks Part 2

I dare not predict that we're done with the 19-week mental spurt, but the last two days have been much happier for everyone. After a really tough Friday, in which the poor little thing only managed two 20-minute naps, and was beside herself with grumpiness and tiredness, she went on to sleep for TEN hours straight, a new record. To make things even better, we got a pretty early night and ended up getting 7 1/2 hours in one block ourselves. To tell the truth, this was the longest either K or I had slept without waking since halfway through her pregnancy!

Poppy went on to have three naps for a total of 2 1/4 hours, a massive improvement, and she was happy and engaged all day. She went to bed at 7:30, about 45 minutes earlier than we had been doing, and had a good night's sleep again. Today, we managed three more naps, once again clocking in at more than two hours. Even when we were out shopping this afternoon and Poppy was clearly tired, she didn't get grumpy. In fact, she was a sheer delight to be around all weekend.

Adding to our satisfaction with the weekend is the fact that it looks like our attempts to get her to learn to go to sleep more easily and also take a bottle are both showing small signs of success.

Fingers crossed that things continue to improve.

The Wonder Weeks

Crying. Crying, crying, crying. Why is this happening?

It's been perhaps four days of progressively more difficult parenting. What had been a baby that stayed on her routine pretty well and slept well (only up once during the night for a feed) was turning into a fussy, clingy, unhappy little thing.

Last night she woke four times in the three hours after going to bed. This was unheard of since she was much younger. We could only guess that she perhaps had an upset belly.

In desperation, K posted about it on Facebook. There were LOADS of responses as our friends sought to find answers for us, from a crazy swinging hammock to driving around in the car to whiskey on the gums. However, one post unlocked the vital piece of information we were missing. It pointed us to a blog posting on Ask Moxie that talked about a book called the Wonder Weeks. Based upon extensive research by Dutch academics, it describes how virtually all babies go through a similar pattern of mental development spurts, independent of the widely-discussed growth spurts. These spurts manifest themselves as an increase in crying, clinginess, crankiness and unsettled sleep. And unlike physical spurts, which tend to vary in timing somewhat, these mental spurts are pretty universal. There's even a chart to show you when the spurts happen and when your baby is going to be at their most unhappy. Poppy is just over 17 weeks old. We looked at the chart and BOO-YAH, there's a rainy cloud symbol right above 17 weeks!

This explains so much. To understand the phenomenon is to be able to accept it, and instead of looking for magic remedies we can just sit tight and wait a few days for her to come through this phase. It won't be pleasant or easy, but at least it won't be scary or mysterious.

The good news is that in between these spurts, babies are at their happiest and do their best sleeping, so we have plenty to look forward to!

Size DOES matter

Poppy had her four-month appointment with our ace pediatrician Dr. C at SF Bay Pediatrics on Thursday, and it confirmed what we thought: she's long, lean and has a big brain.

She's in the 75th percentile of height and only 50th of weight, so right now she's skinny and tall like me. She's also in the 75th percentile of head size. According to the Nova documentary that K and I watched last week, the human head grows based upon the brain growth within. Humans with stunted brain growth end up with small heads. Since she's got a big head, there's probably a big ole brain in there, which might be why she is so curious and seemingly switched on all the time. Everyone who meets her says the same. This is a good thing!


In other news, she has truly discovered her tongue and has really enjoyed playing with her new toy. Exhibit A:

Back to the blog

We've been very poor at keeping the blog updated. Initially this blog was just a place to talk about the pregnancy, but once Poppy arrived it seemed to be a good place to post about our experiences as new parents and updates about Poppy's progress in the world.

I'm going to try to be better about that from now on.

To be honest, she changes on a daily basis, so there's plenty to talk about. Whether it's the fact that she slept for nine hours in a row last night, her unusual feeding habits lately, her newfound rolling abilities or just some new photos, posts should be coming thick and fast.

So, how about those nine hours of sleep she got last night? Pretty crazy. We didn't do our best to capitalize on it because we went to bed later than we should (we try to make it 10:30 but somehow last night it was 11:30, whilst Poppy hit the hay around 8:30).

Here's a couple of cellphone pictures of her before and after her trip outside today. Don't worry, she didn't go in the laundry, but it is a pretty funny shot...