Well, everyone, it’s the first time I have posted on here for a very long time — I had been leaving the blogging duties to Mr. Ben.  Tonight, though, I HAD to post because Abby hit a major milestone last night:  she slept through the night!!!  She went to sleep around 9:30 last night.  She woke up at 5:15 and was a very hungry girl!   Now, if only Ben and I had gone to sleep when Abby had gone to sleep, we would have been really happy!  Our little baby is getting so big so fast…

P.S.  Also, I am writing this post from my brand new MacBook Pro.  Happy Birthday to me – thanks Hubby, Abby, Ted, Julie, and Colin!!!!

Then we hit a rough patch where she wouldn’t even sleep at all over the course of those night hours. She was constantly fussy and irritable. She wouldn’t eat well, going for just a few minutes and then refusing to continue. Those couple of mornings Kirsten and I were like zombies.

Then we decided to try getting the “Happiest Baby on the Block” DVD from the public library and watch it. We had purchased the book a few weeks ago, but hadn’t had time to read it. Hopefully the DVD could give us an abridged version of the most important information, we hoped. We watched it Monday night this week and started applying some of the concepts that evening. To our complete surprise, they worked!

While Abigail is not sleeping through the night or anything, she does sleep for up to three hours at a stretch now, and goes right back to sleep after feeding. She even has better, longer feedings. Kirsten and I now wake up feeling much more rested. What did we do specifically?

1. We swaddled her more tightly. We’d been swaddling her already, but loosely, to the point where she could get her arms free very easily. A tighter swaddle ensured she couldn’t get her arms loose and wake herself up by accident.
2. Brought a radio into the bedroom to play static as a white background noise. It works, it calms her very quickly.
3. Introduced a pacifier. She’s nursing very well now and despite that, we were nervous to do this. We decided to make the jump and she’s taken to it quite well and hasn’t experienced any “confusion” when trying to nurse.
4. To soothe her after eating and a good hardy burp, I will take her from Kirsten and put her on her side in my arms and gently rock her that way. It works much better than keeping her on her back in my arms.

By their powers combined, the above steps have helped us, seemingly, get Abigail on the “right track” for a better sleeping pattern. I’m not saying she won’t regress some nights, but for the time being at least, Kirsten and I have gotten two nights in a row with around six hours of sleep, and that is something that we can both be very happy about!

Her mother woke me up at about 1:30am that morning saying she had been having some “bad cramps” since about 1:00. Those bad cramps turned out to be contractions. By 1:30 they were already coming about every six minutes and were lasting for about one minute or so. Being the Lamaze-trained father-to-be that I was, I knew that if we got closer to four or five minutes between each contraction, it was go time. Well, we hung around the house for a while and finally, around 3:30, decided to call the hospital to see what they thought. They said we should “come in to be evaluated.”

Well, thankfully, I’d been finishing our hospital bag packing between contractions and we were all set. We threw the poor puppy into her crate, loaded the car, made sure the car seat was in place, and took off for the hospital. Sure enough, we get there, they take Kirsten into a triage room, and about a half hour later, the doctor gives the word that we’re going to have our baby that day! I was in total shock! I could little understand at that point, that later that day, I’d be holding my precious little one in my hands.

We’ve already been home for a full week and things are going pretty well. She’s not the greatest sleeper in the world; preferring instead to be the most active between the hours of 10pm and 6am. She naps all throughout the day. This is good for Kirsten, who is staying home with her for eight weeks, it allows her to get some basics done… like showering. It’s amazing how God programs us for parenthood, however. I might feel like a zombie for a little while after getting three to four hours of sleep, but somehow, it’s always enough. I can function that day when I really need to.

I can say that I wasn’t prepared for fatherhood. Prior to her birth, when people would ask if we were ready, I’d respond: “yeah! I think so! As much as you can be anyway.” I didn’t really know how accurate that statement would be. There’s nothing, no class, no parental wisdom, that can prepare you for the feeling you’ll have when you first see your son or daughter and instantly, you’re changed. I know I am. I melted that first time she looked at me, and I think I’ll keep on doing so throughout her entire life.