| 5/11/2005 | |
| In The Moment Of Heat | |
| The last couple of days have opened my eyes to what is going to be a problem if I can't figure something out. The last few days have been warm. Well, warm if you're from around here; hot if you're from the Great White North like I am. Apparently Juliet takes after her father in that respect as well. One of the critical factors in getting the babe to bed is swaddling. Swaddling requires a blanket. A blanket is incompatible with heat. This presents a problem. Julie's feedings have gone very well since the introduction of the Playtex Nurser Drop-In bottle thingy. This is my second product endorsement (the first being Baby Mozart). However afterward, if you can't appease her with the variety of activites we try, there is little hope. In order to keep her cool we strip her down to her diaper. In order to keep me cool I strip down to my shorts. Bobbin' doesn't work very well with the skin-on-skin contact. She doesn't like the sweat build-up between my arm and her head & neck and neither do I. Neither of us wants to put on any clothes and swaddling just isn't safe. So what's a Dad to do? Step one: get used to crying. You know she's healthy, just not happy. It sucks but deal with it. Step two: I found that I could pseudo-swaddle her in one of those hospital blankets. They are way too small for a real swaddling at this point, but when folded diagonally in half the resulting swatch of fabric is long and can be used in a swaddling fashion to act as a bit of a baby straight-jacket while leaving most of her skin exposed. This give her the sense of security from having restricted movement while providing a much reduced R value. Step three: Put her down awake. In theory Julie is a too young for this but in reality I have been putting her down awake periodically for weeks (or months; when was that journal entry?). As long as she is very relaxed it usually isn't a problem. This night she wasn't particularly relaxed but there wasn't a whole lot I could do given the circumstances. She screamed, but it was obvious that she was very tired (I don't sleep or eat well when it's hot either and she didn't really nap during the time I was home). Hannah and I decided to put her down and give her twenty minutes to calm herself before we intervened. She was out in eleven minutes. Lettuce pray that this can be reproduced on a regular basis. Methinks that the purchase of an air conditioner or two is in order. I hate to drop the $$$ on the devices and the electricity to make them work but it's pretty obvious that it is going to be necessary once the real heat arrives. I was afraid of this. Bleagh. |
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