Hey, so those photos I mentioned earlier are finally up…http://carbofamily.shutterfly.com

Have a doctor’s appointment on Thursday. Dan is working half-days this week to help me get through what has been another tough one. I think it’s the 6-week thing that all babies go through, only my sensitive little GERDling is taking it particularly personally. So am I, but whatever. I’m going to see if some drugs and a little extra time off work can get me through this. At least until the point where she’s manageable enough to take to daycare…maybe by 3 months of age.

Anyway. Gotta go. We’re moving her into her own room tonight. At least one of us will be able to get some sound sleep then, even when we’re taking turns on bouncing duty…!

What an awesome weekend! I really didn’t want it to end. Dan and I did some brief wine tasting in Sonoma on Saturday and got to know the area. Mommy’s social skills were a little rusty, if you know what I mean, but I managed alright in the end. Then yesterday, we went out and enjoyed a pleasant Sunday afternoon with old friends over at AT&T Park, where the Phillies lost to the Giants and we got sunburned beyond belief. (In the midst of packing the kids up for daycare, I forgot the sunscreen for us! Daddy’s big Italian schnoz is now a big RED Italian schnoz.)

So all in all, it was a nearly perfect set of days. We kept musing that we really should have been checked into a hotel somewhere, catching up on some zzz’s. But you gotta do what you gotta do, I guess. We needed to feel human again. Remind each other why we got married and had these stupid kids in the first place (just kidding on the “stupid” part - they’re both brilliant!) and be friends again. Not that we were fighting or anything, but a dirty house, sleep deprivation, malnourishment, screaming babies and testy toddlers can really put a strain on the old marriage. It was nice to reboot.

Shutterfly is all messed up right now, but once they fix it, you can find photos of our adventures, as well as the aforementioned brilliant kids, here: http://carbofamily.shutterfly.com.

After all the rest and relaxation, my back was feeling pretty dandy last night. I was thinking maybe I wouldn’t need to see the chiropractor after all. But less than 24 hours later and a good half that time spent holding and/or carrying Miss Indie around, and it’s all screwed up again…what can you do?

The weekend sojourn also led me to make some ridiculously inspired comments to Dan about reflux and babies and sleep, somewhere around the hour of 4 a.m. this morning. I think I concluded the monologue by telling him that he could go ahead and make fun of me tomorrow; I apparently already knew that it was a weak attempt at optimism, and would not last to see the light of day.

Basically I was saying I’m ready to really put up my dukes against this GERD thing. That I’m not going to let it get me down, and I don’t want to let it rob us of the joy of having one last baby in the house. Because they really do grow up quickly. And if Indie really is the last baby, then we need to enjoy what precious “happy awake time” good old GERD allows us.

But, my friends, GERD is a beeeatch. She is not playing nice. Even though the Prevacid seems to be kicking in, I still don’t think we’re quite at the right dosage, and we’re still seeing these really tense reflux “flare-ups” during the day and night. There’s no rhyme or reason to when these things happen, but when they do, you can bet on a few things: 1) Indie will become inconsolable and start freaking out; 2) she’ll become stiff/arch/snort/hiccup/cough; 3) she’ll frantically seek out the binky or the bottle; 4) then she’ll reject anything you put in her mouth; and 5) she will keep. on. wailing. and repeat steps 1-5.

The real crappy thing about these is that they really do happen whenever they want to happen. If we’re just hanging out and actually having some “happy awake time,” and a flare-up creeps up on us, she will immediately start screaming, and you can say goodbye to happy awake time for a long, long, time. If it happens when she’s asleep, she will start to squirm/hiccup/cough/and/or spit-up, then follow it with the requisite screaming. (At least this is the case when she’s in a lighter state of sleep — my theory is that when she’s sleeping deeply, as in the middle of the night, she seems able to sleep through the flare-ups.)

The trick for us is to stay calm during these episodes, no matter when they happen, for as long as possible. Because sometimes, just as quickly as they creep up on you, they’re gone. She will — again, without any rhyme or reason — suddenly latch onto the binky, take a few sucks, allow us to soothe and calm her, and eventually (sometimes very quickly) pass out in our arms.

It’s so weird! It is not gas, I can tell you that much, because she has a very distinct “I’m gassy and need to toot or burp” cry, and this ain’t it. My biggest worry is that these stupid little flare-ups are going to add up to some very big sleep deprivation (for her, and for all of us!) That’s what happened with Penn, and I think, ultimately, is what happens to a lot of kids who aren’t diagnosed and started on the right treatment early enough.

Sleep is sooooooooooo important for babies, that’s one thing I know for sure. So I’m just going to try to forget everything I’ve read in my numerous books about it (except for the basics…it’s good to know that their “night sleep” becomes consolidated around 6 weeks of age - something to look forward to! - and that the morning nap will start to appear next, around 12 weeks, followed by the regular afternoon nap…and so on…) and just focus on something I saw on askmoxie.com once — just do whatever you have to do in the first four months to get them to sleep. ANYTHING GOES. If bad habits start, you can always fix them later. And I think this is especially true for kids who are bothered enough by reflux to be medicated for it — just encourage them to stay calm and sleep as much as possible!

I had this in mind today while trying multiple methods to get Indie to sleep in some place *other* than in my arms (simply because I was getting tired of holding her and just wanted a break.) The best we could manage was 30 minutes in the carseat, on top of the bassinet while the “vibrate” feature was on. Is that ridiculous or what?

I got her to sleep for 4 hours straight on my chest last night, which probably contributed to the returning back pain. I’m sure she’s up there bouncing with daddy as we speak.

The lack of rhyme or reason to this all is really what gets to me, I guess. We had a few nightmare days; then a few good days; then she was great on Saturday for Shannon and Annette; then, it seems, not so great on Sunday with Sue at the daycare. (As Sue put it when we picked her up [imagine this with a thick Brazilian accent and it’s WAY funnier]: “I think she has colic or gas or something. I called my friend who is a night-nurse and she thinks it will get much better in 3 weeks time. When are you going to start bringing her here?”)

Good stuff. We can actually tackle that very-loaded question on another day. For now, I’m just going to try to channel that “it’s-4 a.m.-and-I’m-coming-off-a-great-weekend” optimism to get us through these next few months. (Remember when I said on here, many moons ago, that reflux peaks between 3-5 months past a baby’s due date? Straight from a pediatric gastroenterologist’s mouth, and he was right…PJ was killer at 4 months and then it just faded in the wind after that.)

So….in the meantime….we just have to take it one day at a time. And hope for the best.

Is there anything better than suffering through a long, hard week with a cranky newborn, to be rewarded at the end of it by this?

I think not. I rescind my comment on your site earlier today, sis. The only thing that would make me happier would be if he wrote the little words himself.

Some days they’re worth it. Some days, they’re not.