High Needs Baby

Today felt like a hard day.

Do I say that a lot? I think it a lot. This blog was never meant as a place for venting my frustrations, but maybe it bears saying that life in this household is far from peaceful most days. All the pretty pictures and words on here can sometimes convey this unrealistic peek into our lives...

So, what exactly makes it such a "hard day"???? I can only say that life here seems to revolve around 2 things. 1) Chloe's sleep choices. I say choices because, I mean seriously, can we make a baby sleep? (If so, please please please tell me how to do it.) and 2) the amount of noise Chloe generates. This goes up exponentially when her sleep quantity goes down.

I can't count how many times I have read this article about babies like Chloe -- high-needs babies... fussy babies. Every time I read it, it brings things back into perspective a little bit for me. She is a high-needs baby in every facet of that article. (It is like the author was spying on us and writing everything down especially after she was just born.) Most of those 12 traits are manageable now that we understand her better and she can express herself better... except in that one little important area of sleep.

So what made today seem especially hard? Actually it started yesterday: Chloe was really whiny in the morning followed by a big fight to get a nap, which finally happened after 2pm. Then we listened to Chloe fuss and whine and talk (loudly) in her bed for over 2 hours last night... finally trailing off sometime after 9pm. (Poor Evan, right??) Up this morning at her usual 6:30am with screaming -- demanding to be held -- Has everyone abandoned me!!! I'm alone in here!!! She was very whiny and acting tired all morning until it was "naptime" (usually around 11:30am). She fought and kicked and screamed about napping until finally collapsing at 12:30pm after nursing. She woke up 5 minutes later when I tried to lay her in bed ...screaming again. After 20 minutes of that, it just had to be over. (We have let her scream for an hour at naptime before. Ignoring her only works on her terms.) Bedtime as usual tonight. Rocking and nursing at 6:30pm -- again fighting to be contained in my arms -- absolutely not tired at all. In bed wide awake at 7pm. Then the fun began between a very loud awake sister and a very annoyed and tired brother. Screaming and shouting at each other for 20 minutes: "Shush!!! ... NO!!! ... Shush! ... Noooo!!!"... Evan finally gave up and quieted down, but Chloe kept it up for another 20 minutes. By 7:45pm she was asleep.

So I just need to know how she does it??? How?? How did she stay awake for more than 13 hours? She's been doing it since birth and it never gets any easier when it happens. It isn't because she is sick or teething or whatever else you could be wondering. This is just the way she is. We can't "fix" it, we can only "deal with it." It is just plain frustrating and draining.

Well, if you actually read this far.... that's it. I'm done venting. I just needed to put some reality in the blog. You know now the side that pictures can't capture... We do have fun, we do love our kids, we do enjoy most days together.

Thanks for reading and I promise the next post will be back to cute kid pictures and stories! ;-)

Posted by Bree