The past week has been crazy in the Fukumoto house, to say the least. Marcos' parents, his sister, AND his sister's fiance are visiting from Brazil, Dallas, and California, respectively. I know all you other Type A's out there feel my pain. I've had anxiety about this visit for months now. Every time I brought up one of my "concerns" to Marcos, I swear I saw his hand twitch.
Make sure they wash their hands before they hold her.
They have to be quiet when she takes a nap.
They should rent a car so they're not sitting around all day.
Tell your mom she can't pick her up if she cries in the middle of the night.
You're going to make sure you're home to help me with bedtime, right?
Make sure they know that they can't all take a shower at the same time, or we'll run out of hot water.
Needless to say, it's been a long 5 days...and I still have 5 more to go. Every where I turn there are people! People asking me where something is or how something works. I've grown accustomed to spending my whole day alone with Rory and Marli, so it's been quite an adjustment for sure.
Rory, on the other hand, is in heaven. She has not one, but five playmates at her beck and call all day long. Every morning I sneak out of the house to get coffee and leave her with her aunt and grandparents. When I return half an hour later, she looks at me with a puzzled expression as if to say, "Oh you. I didn't realize you had left."
Unfortunately, all of this excitement has wrecked havoc on her nap schedule. She's not used to all the extra noise in the house, and she's such a light sleeper that a loud sneeze woke her up from her morning nap yesterday. I kid you not. A sneeze. So, I was relieved when everyone left to go shopping during her afternoon nap. I figured she was so tired that she would sleep for at least 2 hours. So, when she began stirring an hour into her nap, I was determined to let her put herself back to sleep without any interference from me. I anxiously watched on the video monitor as she tried again and again to transition into the next sleep cycle. Eventually, her whines turned into a full blown cry, and I knew that I had two choices:
1. Allow her to keep crying until she reached our time limit, or
2. Sneak into her room and "help" her go back to sleep.
To be honest, my decision was a selfish one. I hate hearing her cry and I knew that if we were all going to survive the sushi dinner we had planned, she needed a good nap. So, I sneaked into her room, quietly lifted her out of her crib and proceeded to nurse her. She fell asleep within minutes, but rather than put her back in her crib, I decided to just watch her sleep...something I haven't done in months.
After spending less time with her these past few days, I felt disconnected. So, I decided to take the opportunity to enjoy my baby and appreciate all of the little things that I've been too busy to notice lately. I noticed that her feet were hanging off of her nursing pillow. Wasn't it just yesterday that the same pillow seemed to swallow her up? I noticed that her hair was getting lighter and starting to wave slightly. (Finally some proof that she shares my DNA.) I noticed that her eyelashes cast long shadows on her cheeks while she was sleeping. I noticed that she still has a small dimple in her right cheek. I noticed that her hand was wrapped tightly around my finger while she slept. I noticed that tears were running down my cheeks as I sat there and listened to the melting snow outside the window and watched my baby sleep.
I'll be the first one to tell you that nursing your baby to sleep will surely backfire on you when it's time to wean or you are trying to get your baby to sleep through the night. But, I have no regrets about breaking this rule yesterday. Sometimes you just have to rock your baby to sleep. And not because they need it, but because you do.
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| Pardon the drool...we're teething. |
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