Growth spurt? Bassinetn't.

Lest we believe JJA is basically quiet, unfussy, and perfect, here comes December 1st, his five weeks plus two days birthday.  His antics last night put his calm, all-I-want-to-do-is-be-held Thanksgiving behavior into stark relief.  One of the only things that kept my non-sleeping, growing ever-grouchier mind (I thought of myself as the papa lion or gorilla who must leave the cave/nest during suchlike times lest they eat their young) calm was thinking about how I might write about it on Jackson's Journey.

It started off swimmingly.  After a few weeks of "co-sleeping" with J in our bed, we knew it was time to return him to his bassinet.  We watched an episode of "The Office" while he breast fed and passed out.  I gave him a tight swaddle, calmed him with a few shushings, and placed him in his bassinet.  For a first, we used our "white noise" machine, playing "rain" by his head.  His little eyes seemed intrigued by the sound as he pumped away on his Nuk pacifier.  I got back in bed, and Tara and I did the ever-so-quiet, don't rustle, is-he-about-to-cry frozen position of all parents, but sure enough, he zonked out.  The rain noise was sorta soothing even to me, and it was great to have our bed back without a baby between us.  As my mom would say, this was a bit of alright.

Then, he slept until just past 3am--about three and a half hours.

And that was it.

For the next several hours, we listened to him grunt, fuss and cry, while: breastfeeding, swaddling, rocking, trying to sleep, and breastfeeding again.  We were up so long, we went straight through to the next feeding!  The worst was putting him down, finally, at five o'clock, listening for him to start up again but he didn't, and silence prevailed...until 5:20am.  Neither of us had even started to drift off before he was wailing again, showing the power five weeks offers, looking for his two-and-a-half to three-and-a-half hour feeding.  Ack.

We did get a bit of sleep in the morning, but not a lot.  My muscles hurt, like I lifted weights.  Our friend Suz, mother of three ages six, four and two, says weeks 6-8 are harder, not easier, than the first weeks.  She says wait until weeks 13-14, and it gets good.  Man.  Zzzzzzzz.