Who's Training Who?

As the harsh reality of returning to work looms in the near future, I've renewed my commitment to get us in a daily routine. Because my Precious One is a lot fussy, it's been a huge challenge. I can admit that I don't like to hear her cry; what parent does right? Well I especially don't. It's very unnerving for me, specifically her top-of-the-charts shrills. She belts out like someone is trying to kill her. Little body, BIG voice!

Olivia psyched me out a couple days last week by sleeping nearly through the night. I hopefully thought that we had turned the corner on this up-all-night girl time she and I shared. Alas, not so. It appears it was all an illusion, that, or we've seriously regressed. From birth, Olivia would not really take a pacifier, which was ok with us b/c it was one less habit to have to later break. Well, in the last few days we've been relying more heavily on the paci b/c she's rooting a lot more and seems to get frustrated that she can't open her hand enough to get it into her mouth. She mostly keeps her fists clenched unless she's eating (and getting full) or asleep. I've tried to help her open her fists but by reflex they just close right back up. This frustrates her to no end. So we've been giving her the paci and it's been working.....until she pushes it out of her mouth and then gets mad b/c its no longer there and she wants it. Then we hop up and replace in her mouth and within 5-10 mins, repeat this cycle x 5 and I'd had enough. The last thing I want is her to have a dependence on the pacifier! We were only using it to help her self-soothe, but it doesn't appear to be working.

I have two books that are supposed to give great insights into how to soothe a fussy baby and get them to sleep through the night as a newborn. The Happiest Baby On The Block and Babywise came highly recommended by a number of parents on TheBump.com. It feels as though we've out phased THBOTB b/c Olivia won't stay in her swaddle. The shushing works sometimes and sometimes not. With that, I've moved on to Babywise. It's premise is that the feed/waketime/naptime cycles should be set by the parent and not the infant. Easier said than done, I know. What baby doesn't either fall asleep immediately after eating or want to do so? I thought I could push this philosophy off on Olivia today cold-turkey.....her response...ABSOLUTELY NOT! LOL

Last night was really rough. She was sound asleep in her Pack-N-Play crib in my bedroom while I was downstairs. The minute I walked into the room she started to stir and within 2 minutes was wide awake screaming! This, even after I did my best attempt to tip-toe in MY bedroom and get what I needed and leave. I picked her up and tried to soothe her by rocking her and patting her back. She went fast to sleep. As soon as I tried to put her back in her P-N-P crib her eyes popped open and she had a major meltdown! Rinse and Repeat x 7.....worn out! After several failed attempts I decided to try and slip her into her own crib in the nursery. EPIC FAIL!! Around 6am I threw up the white flag, left her asleep up on my shoulder and got into bed and propped myself up. Did I mention that I didn't get any sleep last night? Oh..ok, just checking.