Allie had another ghastly night, but not as ghastly as the night before. I fed her early, 8:30p-ish, and it took her from 9pm-11:30p to stop fussing/crying and fall asleep. Because Mr. W took today off to go with us to the pediatrician for Allie’s 2-month check-up, he took bedtime duty from me. I think he said she finally fell asleep as he was holding her at 11:15pm and he put her down in her crib at 11:45p where she finally slept. Rebecca said something about the new moon. Mr. W and my mom think she was overstimulated from the activities of the weekend.

At her pediatrician’s office, she got her vaccinations (finally). She cried a little, but nothing nearly as horrid as her screams of mommy-eardrum-and-heart-slaughter yesterday morning that reduced me to sobbing as I tried to exercise her legs while changing her. Her doctor thinks the sleeplessness may be a result of her messed-up routines in the day of those fussy times given her young age. If she were older he might think she’s teething. She checked out healthy and fine physically. Here are her stats:
weight: 12.5 lbs (85th %)
height: 24 inches (93th %)
head size: 15.35 inches (56th %)
The doctor noted she “runs a little cool.”

I asked him about sleep training and he said it wasn’t necessary this young, but at 4-6 months when their memories are more acute, parents have to be more careful the routines made and habits formed. He said at this point, the “cry it out” methods at naptimes and bedtimes are not recommended because babies’ needs are biological and not due to “spoiling” or “habit,” and if ignored this early when they’re trying to learn who’s there for them, they may develop a hard time bonding thinking no one responds to their needs. This is different from letting them fuss just a little as they’re put down. Leaving them for a couple of minutes to see if they’re just fussing in-between sleep cycles, or as they fall to sleep, is one thing; leaving them in there until they cry themselves to sleep for 45 minutes is unproductive. He said to be careful of books and methods written by people who don’t have scientific research to back up their advice. He thinks up until 4 months or so, I can pretty much follow the baby’s own schedule for naptimes; if she seems sleepy around the same time each day, to keep her on her own schedule and enforce those naptimes. I’m reading a book recommended by a neighbor about sleeptraining by Dr. Weissbluth, “Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child,” which says to apply a 6pm-6am sleeping schedule at 4-6 months. My doctor thinks that if we find that too early of a bedtime, to not worry about it. It’s not as detrimental as Dr. Weissbluth makes it sound if we don’t follow baby’s brain development sleeping patterns like a sleep Nazi.

He likes Aquaphor for keeping baby’s skin moisturized. Said Johnson & Johnsons’ stuff is too watered down and altho easy to apply because it’s easily absorbed, it doesn’t really do much for baby’s skin. As for the red rash-like lines between Allie’s neck folds, he said it’s skin irritation from the skin folding in on itself, sometimes trapping moisture so it rubs itself raw, and to apply a modest amount of Aquaphor to the areas twice a day to help insulate and prevent the chafing.

Oh yeah, and burping after the middle-of-the-night feeding: Dr. says to give it a try but if she doesn’t burp in 3-4 minutes and she’s asleep (my usual problem), go ahead and put her down to sleep. It is unnecessary to keep her upright for 10 minutes after these feedings to reduce spit-up; lack of burping doesn’t cause spit-up and if there’s such a big bubble on top that it would cause spit-up, she would’ve burped it out pretty quickly within the 3-4 minutes of trying. This cuts down on the length of my 4am feedings.

Daddy & Allie engaged in deep conversation about the efficacy of sleep training at this young age of 2 months: