Babies Sleep A Lot

Why is this a surprise to family members?

We have Mady on a pretty decent "schedule" of waking, eating, playing for about an hour, sleeping for about two hours and then we start the process over again. It's working for all of us. Mady is happy, Mommy is happy, she does decently at this pattern through the night...it works.

MIL stops by quite frequently. QUITE frequently. And she hates that every time she's visiting, Mady is sleeping. Come on. She's not even 5 weeks old, she sleeps the majority of the day. Last week she came over and went in our bedroom to "look" at Mady. MAGICALLY, she was "wide awake" so MIL asked if she could hold her. Okay, sure.

Then yesterday, she calls and announces that she's on her way over. I warn her that Mady is sleeping and she asks how long she'll be sleeping for. I told her it'd be 45 minutes to an hour before she'd likely wake up again. She said okay and said she was on her way. She gets to the house and immediately walks into our bedroom. Doesn't ask if she can go in our room, just waltzes in. First off, that's rude. Even though the baby is in there, it's still our BEDROOM. At least say, "May I go in to look at the baby?". M is sleeping. She comes out of the bedroom, waits 2 minutes, goes BACK in, comes out and says, "She's wide awake and playing. Can I hold her?"

I told MIL that I'd prefer her to sleep longer and she'd soothe herself back to sleep in a minute. She replied, "Well, she's wide awake and playing. Can I hold her?" The EXACT same thing she'd just said to me. I KNOW MIL woke her. At that point, I was defeated and angry so I said, "Sure" in a really nasty tone. MIL ran in there, picked her up and tried playing with her. OF COURSE, Mady is now grumpy. She's crying, whining...all in all, being a bear. MIL keeps saying, "What's the matter with her?" Um, you woke her. You took her off of her schedule and now she's pissed. What do you THINK is wrong with her? She left shortly after, leaving me to deal with crabby baby.

I was terribly rude to her because I was so angry. This is now the second time MIL has woken her and it drives me crazy. Who wakes a sleeping baby for no reason? She's always complaining that Mady is sleeping when she comes over. Well, she's a baby. She sleeps. I warned her before she got here that Mady was sleeping and it didn't bother her then. If it doesn't fit into your schedule to wait until she wakes up, then pick another day to visit.

No more. I'm putting my foot down next time. I told Brett that I won't play "nice daughter in law" at the sacrifice of my baby. I'm not suggesting people not come over to see the baby, not in the least. But, if Mady is sleeping, visit with US until she wakes up again. Then you can play with her, feed her, whatever...all you want to.

Ugh. Vent over.