Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Making Sense of Adrienne

I had a major epiphany the other day.. Adrienne is NOT Brooke. Wow! Who would have ever imagined that? You see, because Brooke was a mega comfort nurser, really, I just assumed that Adrienne was and went with. Each night Adrienne would be tired and I would nurse her (because that's how Brooke always went to sleep) and she would just scream hysterically. I kept thinking that she wasn't eating because she had gas or she needed to burp. It finally hit me, though, that Adrienne was trying to say, "Stop trying to shove food down my throat, Mama. I'M NOT HUNGRY!" Now that I've finally figured all of this out, there's a lot less screaming going on in our house. Adrienne still screams off and on throughout the evenings, but the big difference is that I know what it takes to calm her down now... And that's NOT nursing.

Adrienne likes noise... The vacuum, hairdryer, the TV, music, etc.. All of these things actually help to knock her out instead of waking her up. Her favorite "white noise" is when I make a sound kind of like a "buzzzz." She also loves to be rocked. She just can't resist falling asleep when I take her upstairs and sit with her in the glider. All of these things are how we have to get Miss Adrienne to stop screaming each night.

And holy cow, when Adrienne is out for the night, she's OUT. Last night she slept from 10 until 6 this morning. It's wonderful, let me tell ya! She always sleeps incredibly for us and that has really helped keep me energized for those grumpy moments she tends to have. I don't know how moms of non-sleepers do it! I guess I just got lucky in this area!

Adrienne had this horrible diaper rash that I couldn't get rid of for the life of me. I had asked myself if there was anything in my diet that I was eating in excess and it hit me... I was addicted to strawberries. I was going through crazy amounts of them because they were so sweet and in season but as soon as I cut back big time, the rash miraculously went away. Maybe it's a coincidence? I don't know but I'm so happy that the rash is gone.

Alrighty, it's time to go work on dinner and spend some quality time with my Brooke while her sister naps!

2 comments:

rccalyn said...

I'm so glad you've found something that decreases the screaming! It's funny, Marissa was always a comfort nurser too, and Arianna - when she's done, she's done, and she will let you know!

I was just thinking tonight how different my girls are too. Marissa was always such a happy easy baby, and so is Arianna. But Arianna takes it to a whole new level! I love the personality that's starting to come out!

*~tRiStYn MiChElLe~* said...

Wow...so true! I never knew that about strawberries!!! Hmm...