crying--it comes with the territory

Anneli is five weeks old now. (Officially last night.)

Last night was horrible, so far the worst one we've had. She must have gotten no more than three hours of sleep. She just cried for hours and we had a shit time trying to calm her. Nothing worked. I think she just wore herself out by 5:00am. She has had the tendency to be alert late at night, but I was really struggling to figure out what was making her cry so much. I thought she might have been gassy, but she burped after each feeding. When I finally crawled into bed, it was almost time for Ryan to get up. I got in about an hour of sleep before Anneli woke up hungry. (Ugh.)

She's been calm today. In fact, she's sleeping right now (in the rather strange and noisy way she sleeps). She can't do anything quietly. I'm pretty sure that all those placid, well-behaved babies on TV must be drugged. She grunts while she sleeps, occasionally meowing and yipping. She sometimes cries for a second, like she had a bad dream. (What do babies dream about?) I've resorted to leaving the baby monitor off because I can't sleep restfully with all of her noises. I can still hear her since she's just in the next room. I just wish she could sleep quietly. -__-

I've realized that I go back to work in just under three weeks. I'm hoping that we can get her on a regular sleep and feeding schedule in that time so I'm not constantly tired at work. I also need to figure out how to work pumping into my schedule at work since I'll have to do it during a couple of my classes. Luckily I'll only have about seven weeks of school left, and then I (we) can have the summer with Anneli.

The in-laws want to visit to meet their granddaughter. I hope they do it soon, before I go back to work. Otherwise, I won't be able to juggle work, the baby, my husband, and the in-laws all at once. It would be nice for them to be here and watch Anneli during the day, but it would come with its own set of hassles and extra work for me. Between now and April 9 would be great, but I haven't heard anything yet about likely dates for their visit. If it doesn't happen by early April, I may have to say no and have them come in the summer. I only have so much energy (and sanity).

Anneli's 100-day party is May 24. (She is actually 100 days on May 25, but the Saturday before works better for everyone.) We have to start thinking about the invitations for that.