Thank you, Tylenol

I love Tylenol, if for no other reason (which, admittedly there are several) then for making such an infant-friendly medicine dispenser. 

We got to my parents' house in Portland pretty late on Wednesday night.  Amelia had slept the entire way down and didn't so much as wiggle a finger as David carried her in the house as she sat in her car seat.  Once we got inside, she woke up but only barely.  My mom waited up for us (Dad was out of town on business) and was so excited to see Amelia that we handed over the dazed baby to a very eager granny.  Amelia was obviously still very tired, but after an hour of visiting with my mom, sister, and brother-in-law, she was on an over-tired buzz. 

I tried to nurse her.  We gave her a bottle.  We laid her down.  She screamed.  We sat her up.  She fussed.  I rocked her.  She screamed some more. 

The only thing that worked was giving her that blessed Tylenol bottle and letting her go to town on the rubber applicator top.  She didn't scream when we would sit her up in the portable crib and let her play so that's what we did.  David was exhausted. I was tired and getting more tired every second that passed.  There was a small lamp on the desk in the room where we were staying so I turned that on and we decided to let her play for a bit and see what happened.  She's never been the kind of baby to fall asleep while playing, eating, or anything else, so I really wasn't expecting her to just topple over and succumb to slumber.  After a few minutes she started whining.  Then fussing.  Suddenly the Tylenol bottle was completely abandoned and she was staring at us through the mesh of the crib, lip puckering.

I'm not opposed to a little "cry it out" action, and I would have just let her do her own thing in her crib to fall asleep had it not been for 5 other people in the house trying to get some sleep.   

I had this under control.  My daughter has been on this earth for a mere 6 1/2 months - she can't beat me at this!  I knew that nothing was wrong except that she didn't want to sleep.  Or, rather she really did want to sleep but was so exhausted that she couldn't figure out how to relax herself and fall asleep. 

I picked her up, put her paci in her mouth and assumed "the position".  It requires her head cradled in my left arm with my left hand wrapped around to hold the pacifier in place while my right arm holds, and subsequently pats, her rear end, all the while standing in place and bobbing up and down while swaying side to side.  It hurts.  It hurts real bad, and at first she was really mad. 

Just as a side note, you know how "they" say you should relax when your baby is upset because it helps them relax?  I so wish that weren't true.  I have to go into full-on zen mode to tune her out so I can compose myself enough to relax my body.

So, back to the cradling, patting, bobbing, and swaying.  I was doing all of that.  It started to work.  It's funny that the second it started to work, it worked quickly.  She had been crying pretty hard so when she fell asleep she was still sniffling.  That always breaks my heart.  I thought for sure since she was calm and sleeping when I was holding her that she would wake up the second I dared lay her in the crib.  Nope - she stayed asleep, sniffling and all.  At 1:30am.  She woke again at 6:30am then at her normal wake-for-the-day time of 9am.

It would take a while to explain the sleeping arrangements at my parents' house right now since my sister, brother-in-law, niece and nephew are crashing here until their house is finished, but I'll say that we are sleeping in my mom's office and I'm sleeping on a twin mattress on the floor while David sleeps on the floor.  Just thought I'd explain the context of the pictures.

Edit from my last post:I love my sisters, and being that they were very young in my childhood memory, I doubt they meant anything by the looks they gave me.  As a matter of fact, maybe I have a Cinderella complex and just imagined that they were glaring at me when, in fact, they were actually not glaring at me at all.