For any mamas out there with more than one young child of any age or quantity, you are amazing. To all of the mamas who don’t fit that category, you are also amazing.
Seriously.
But holyyyyyy, Riley man is 10 weeks and 2 days old and he is giving me hell! (That’a boy! I was wondering when his Irish temper would come out) I’ve read that between the ages of 8-12 weeks can be diffifult for various reasons…
The first would be the 8 week shots. Riley just got his at 9.5 weeks because his pediatrician, as praised and popular as he may be, was impossible to get ahold of. Seriously, I called at 12pm on a Wednesday one time and the answering machine was more or less “thank you for calling we are closed for the weekend. Please do not leave a message, but call back Monday morning.” There is so much wrong with that in my opinion. I get that pediatricians are often not JUST practicing in the office, but at times are on-call at the hospital, but Wednesday at noon??? Really??? And don’t leave a message? What is the receptionist even there for? Anyways, rant aside, we have an amazing family doctor here in town now.
The second would be growth spurt/development leap. For my baby at least, he will have a few days of hardly napping at all during the day and being extremely fussy at night followed by a few days of sleeping and eating like crazy and showing off new coos or babbles. During our last run-in with the growth spurt fairy, Riley had a 12-hour wake period! (A couple 15-30 min naps but come on that doesn’t count when it takes that long to feed yourself in between)
The third is actually a very interesting reason and I am 100% sure that this is why my guy is so miserable. The recent literature I’ve gone through suggests that around this age (8-12 weeks), babies’ senses are well on their way to development and sights, sounds, tastes, textures, it’s all brand new. What is not developed yet is the ability to tune out all or select stimulations and so the baby gets overwhelmed.
To me, this age has been the most challenging so far. My head starts to throb after so many hours of screaming. Not crying. Screaming. Aside from that, it’s still really not that bad. As a mother (maybe even as a father, but I can’t speak for them as I’m not a man), you just develop a sense of impenetrable calm. After about 5 minutes of screaming, my head hurts but my brain kind of just tunes it out.
Would I be as calm if I had this screaming as well as another little one to get to bed on time, bathe, feed, etc.? Who knows. I’d like to say no I would not be. But I also used to be scared of babies and now look at me!
Anyways, I salute all of you mothers of fussy babies, mothers of multiples, mothers of young children, and all other flavours of mommies. You all rock and we are all kicking butt!
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