Thursday, July 9, 2009

Sharing the Wealth OR Control Freak?

So far, Robin and I have done a pretty good job of splitting parenting duties, and we each have our little areas of expertise. This week however, the tables have turned and I think I can safely say it has all of us thrown off.

I have been tutoring at Lanier every morning, helping kids who still need to pass their Exit-Level TAKS English tests to graduate. This means I have been leaving around 8:30 and returning at 12:30, and Robin has been taking care of Lydia. Up until this point, I had Lydia all day, and we had just finally established something resembling a nap schedule and a routine. I was really happy about this and excited because she seemed to be back on track with her night-sleeping after our trip.

So much for all of that. Something about the past week has totally thrown her off. She has woken up 2 or 3 times the past two nights, leaving both Robin and I feeling frustrated and exhausted. (**I know I shouldn't complain about this because some of our faithful blog readers have been dealing with this for months, but I've found that I get easily spoiled by advances in Lydia's sleeping, and then really frustrated when she takes a step back. This is normal, right?) She hasn't kept to the same napping routine during the morning, meaning that she is all cranky with Robin, and then I get all cranky with Robin because I come home to a crabby, tired baby, and I'm already crabby and tired, and she wasn't that way with me.

I have tried very consciously to not be a control freak when it comes to Lydia. I don't want to be the only one that can comfort her or get her to nap or go to sleep, but it's nearly impossible to not become a little controlling when your entire days have been spent, well, controlling and manipulating her schedule. All of this makes me realize that a piece of the challenge when I return to school will be relinquishing this to Robin and then not getting angry at him when things don't go well. I've certainly had my share of "chalk-it-up-as-a-loss" days with Lydia, especially when I was alone with her at the beginning, so he gets to have them, too.

On an unrelated note, does anyone have suggestions for diapers to use? Lydia's Seventh Generation diapers are not cutting it. She is having major leaking multiple times a day, and (since I am refraining from losing my temper about the sleep thing), THE LEAKING IS REALLY MAKING ME ANGRY!!!

3 comments:

  1. I hope that Lydia's sleeping turns around for you; I don't wish this upon anybody!

    They certainly aren't Earth-friendly, but we like Pampers. I recently tried a box of Huggies because they sell them at Costco, and this was a huge mistake because they don't breathe AT ALL, and Drew gets super clammy from them.

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  2. I'm a Pampers fan, too. Definitely not Earth-friendly but Oliver never has leaks or blow outs in them and they are cheaper than Huggies (I think).

    Also, have you done any reading on the "four-month wakeful period"? Maybe this is what's going on with Lydia? From what I understand it's temporary but due to the fact that babies are so alert and taking in so much of their world right around four months and sleeping starts to take a back seat for awhile.

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  3. I completely understand the frustration between wanting shared parenting but MAINLY just wanting things to go easily and smoothly (which often means you have to do it yourself or find some incredibly sweet and creative way to suggest a better method to your spouse)-- NOT an easy process. I totally feel for you.

    We still put Josephine in a disposable overnight, and we also use them on trips-- we haven't had any trouble with leaking out of Earth's Best. I can only find them at Babies R Us which is slightly inconvenient, but they're chlorine-free and natural in all those good ways. Maybe worth a shot? I agree-- there can only be so many things going wrong!

    Meanwhile, I need teething advice from you because the extra fussing is driving me MAD and she won't take anything I'm offering her to chew on besides my finger (which is NOT a sustainable solution)! I'm ordering an amber necklace to see if that helps... Anything helping Lydia lately???

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