Different as night and day
Posted by Inexplicable Ways on October 7, 2009
Night: Cedar is a dream when it comes to nighttime parenting. She nurses to sleep around 10pm. Then she wakes at 3am and nurses lying beside me. She wakes again at 6am for more food. And I believe her deepest sleep happens between 6:30am and 9:30am. She does not have crying fits at night. She only grumbles a bit for food when she wakes.
Day: There are Crying Fits. She will not nap lying down. So I wear her in the wrap which wears me out! My body hurts after wearing a baby for most of the day. I’ve tried to stealthily lie down and carefully untie the wrap in bed. She wakes in a Crying Fit. Our day goes like this:
Eat
10 minutes of smiley time in the bouncy seat
Crying Fit
Wrap while walking/bouncing for 15 minutes
Sleep in wrap for 2-3 hours
10 minutes of smiley time
Diaper change
Crying Fit
Eat
Repeat.
The WORST part is that she hates the carseat. So I don’t want to go anywhere because my sweet baby will be screaming in the backseat. And no, she will not take a paci. So far. We’re 30 minutes from everywhere. Any tips for carseat peace? I’ve tried white noise and rolling the windows down and different music styles. I even tried Rush Limbaugh. But then I was screaming.
I look forward to nights.
Kelley said
My sympathies. Greta hated the car for a long time. She still doesn’t do well for extended periods but we finally got to the point where she would ride decently for 30 or so minutes around 6 months.
Jenn said
Rowan hated the sun in his face (still does). I’ve pulled over on the side of the road countless times to rig up some sort of light-blocking contraption – usually a changing pad jammed between the window and the frame. I got a lot of strange looks on the road, but it helped sometimes.
Sarah S. said
Ah, Wyatt had lots of crying fits too, especially in the car so I know how you feel. I had a random CD with a very soothing woman’s voice that would usually calm him down. Actually for Wyatt it took until he was able to play with toys before he wouldn’t scream in the car. One of my friends found that a tape recording of her husband singing calms their baby down. I recently learned that Wy loves Itsy Bitsy Spider which I will sing over and over again in the car if needed. He also seems to like to hear little kid’s voices. Can Nora sit by Cedar and talk to her? Just throwing out some suggestions…I know how helpless it feels to listen to your baby cry in the car!
Denise said
Is the carseat one of those portable ones, that you can carry? I remember getting Zach in his and swinging it until he was asleep and then putting it down and rocking it for awhile and then being able to walk away. Maybe if she gets used to it when it is not in the car. Zach often did the same thing and all that would calm him would be holding my hand. I put a lot of miles in driving with my hand in the back seat and one hand on the wheel!Eventually he would hold Kyles hand.
Brady said
Preston still cannot stand his carseat
We have tried everthing, sometimes if I play annoying music with a strong beat, he will quiet down or sing to it 
We also got this giraffe that plays calming music and jungle noises. He likes it and it has helped recently for car trips 