Worse...then Better

The third month of motherhood began rather difficultly. I had a bout with the early stages of mastitis during the first week. It was terrible to deal with, particularly as the primary caretaker of a newborn when I was so physically exhausted that I just wanted to rest. I hope that my personal experience with mastitis never gets any worse than what I have experienced to this point in my life.

Gabriel was congested still when the month began, thus his sleep was not as good as it could have been. After reviewing my books on baby sleep, I convinced myself that I was teaching Gabriel all sorts of bad habits. This bothered me immensely, but with sleep having become such a precious commodity, I decided that we were just going to sleep any way that we could. Then I read what Moxie has to say about babies and sleep, and felt better about how I was doing things. Miraculously, (or possibly not, since Moxie said that it would happen) Gabriel's congested nose, and the time in which he was most likely going through a sleep regression, passed, and the sleep got better without me doing a thing about it. Gabriel decided that going for a walk is a good way to relax and fall asleep. When he nurses to sleep, he often nurses until he is almost asleep, detaches himself, and finishes falling asleep. I still sleep only a few hours at a time, but I find the current situation rather bearable. Now if we just finish getting naps ironed out, things would be running fairly smoothly.