Thursday, December 1, 2016

Day 70 - Which hour is "The Witching Hour" again?



During the course of this parenting experience, one thing has become painfully clear.  In the immortal words of Joe Dirt, "I'm new. I don't know what to do."  So therefore, I've had to swallow my pride and not be afraid to ask people.  That's the good thing about being a first time dad in my thirties; there are plenty of people who have already screwed up one child, or maybe even two, that I can ask for help.  One of my favorite parenting theories has got to be "the witching hour".  To describe it, it means that there is a time of the day for each child where they go from being a total sweetheart to essentially being a flying monkey from 'The Wizard of Oz'.  In other words, no one likes them and you're likely afraid of them.  Unfortunately, Ellie has gotten on a kick of extending "the witching hour" from a relatively short period of time to an all-day escapade.



Her dislike of the eight o'clock hour has become well documented over the past few weeks.  It used to be that I could lull her back to sleep by simply hitting the music button on her swing and plugging a pacifier into her mouth.  No longer is that the case.  Her new trick is actually sitting up in her swing to stare at me as I come near.  Whereas I hear a peaceful, soothing lullabye, she hears that Arabian snake charmer song (I literally don't know what else to call this song) and is immediately overcome with a desire to sit up.  Today was a rarity in the fact that I chose not to fight for the morning nap and instead allowed her to get up and play.  To paraphrase G.O.B. Bluth, I made a huge mistake.



The problem is that instead of making her remain in a position for sleep, I instead allowed her to exit that mindset too early.  Therefore, the baby adrenaline kicked in and there was no chance of sleep to be had for the morning.  Luckily, Ellie was still on her schedule for feedings so I didn't have to fear running out of milk for her.  Since she was wide awake, I chose to toss her in the car seat and go out and run a couple of errands.  Side note, she looked really cute and innocent wearing a stocking hat for the first time, so there's that.  When we got back home, I knew she was tired but she was continuing to fight sleep at all costs.  I finally had to resort to putting her on the bed and laying down beside her for her to finally sleep.  Unfortunately, that nap would only last for a whole 24 minutes bringing her total nap time for the day to approximately an hour and a half.


I think the crux of the issue continues to be that Ellie is teething.  Obviously I don't remember that feeling so I can't really identify with what she's going through.  All that I can do is attempt to console her and distract her using any means necessary.  And those means are continually diversifying.  There's the ever popular take her for a drive method.  There's the bouncing on the exercise ball.  Don't forget about giving her a toy.  The girl does love her toys!  Especially Leon.  #DaddyWrite

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