First night

Update to previous post:

First night down on our new sleep plan, and all is ok. Sasha slept 6.5 hours straight. Actually she did night wake a few times but she settled back down ok. I'm used to her sleeping 8-10 hours, but after 6.5 hours she was up, talking to herself, and playing with her glowworm. Maybe she'll take extra naps? Not sure what to expect yet but I'm playing it by ear to see what her natural schedule or biorhythm is.

Day shift is great for Sasha. Yesterday I took her to a program that our school district has for babies and toddlers. It was awesome!!! She got to play with 234895723495 toys and other babies her age. If we keep this up, we'll make it a regular occurrence. Then today I took her to a park...something that was usually very difficult to do on a night shift. She had a blast!

Our new plan

It took a LOT of thought, but we finally decided to make a BUNCH of changes. We are going to switch Sasha to a day shift schedule, night wean, try the cry-it-out check and console method, and see if we can't FINALLY get her to sleep through the night.
It's a drastic change but it's necessary. So far, she's been a real trooper and taking it well but we're still only on our first night so we shall see.

I work night shift, and so Sasha and my husband have been night shifters with me as well. Lately, now that she's walking, it's not working out! She's so loud, and we're in an apartment complex with neighbors. When I come home at night from work to feed her I can hear her all the way down the complex hallway. We're going to upset our neighbors if we can't keep it quiet at night.
Add to that the fact that I work full time, and have to come home for her nursings twice a night. It's too much.
We've been doing the co-sleeping/nursing combination and she wakes up at least 10-20times a day to nurse. Therefore previous attempts to switch to day shift and have my husband sleep with her have been unsuccessful. She would keep waking up, and neither my husband nor Sasha could sleep at night without me. If we could get her to sleep through the night at NIGHT, then she and my husband could actually get out of the house and do stuff during the day when everything is actually open. Coffee shops! Book stores! Parks! Malls! Anything! They're so cooped up in this small apartment all night and they're both getting stir crazy...it's not even winter yet. Ever have to watch tv or stay up at night at home? Nothing but infomercials and there is nothing to do. My husband has been so incredibly bored and drained.
I read recently that frequent night nursings decrease a toddler's appetite for solids. I don't know if it's true but that's definitely the case for us. We've had little to no success getting Sasha to eat and it's been a huge source of guilt for us. She's not grown since her 9 month check up. No height change, and only a few ounces in weight. She's drastically dropped in percentiles. I'm hoping that night weaning her will help her take solids. If this does not work, then I'm in trouble.

I gave the Cry-it-out check and console method a try for a nap and it worked well, and it also worked well putting her to bed. She was OUT, completely asleep after 10 minutes only! She cries 1 min, I check and console. She cries two minutes, I check and console. She cries 3 minutes, I check and console, and she is out like a light. So far.

Wish us luck! So many changes at once but she's taking it well so far. I hope this works. It will drastically improve our quality of life if it does. Getting my husband and Sasha out of the apartment during the day will be a godsend.

Growling, biting, and clawing

From the title, I guess you'd think I was talking about a kitten. Despite the fact that I sometimes wonder if Sasha is a kitten, she is a human baby girl with some strange habits lately.
Growling
Ok she's been growling lot for the last few months. The way she runs around the house constantly growling really does remind me of an animal. Thank goodness she started babbling and trying to talk again a few weeks ago or I'd be very worried. But since I'm pretty sure it's probably just a phase, I think it's kind of cute. I suppose I might be accidentally encouraging it as it makes me laugh and sometimes I growl back at her. Sure it might be cute now but eventually she'll reach an age where it's no longer cute and I hope she stops before then.
Biting
A new kind of biting problem. It's gradually grown on us but it is not really a serious issue. She gives us occasional explorative bites once in a while and my goodness does she have some sharp teeth. There's this one fun thing she likes to do. I take my finger and wiggle it up and down across her lips and she makes a funny noise. She loves it. But sometimes she'll just bite my finger instead. Again, it seems more like she's curious and wondering what will happen.
I'll chalk this one up to teething for now. I do not remember what it feels like to have teeth force their way through jaw and gums but it doesn't sound pleasant. And plus it must be a novelty to suddenly have all these new teeth in her mouth so I'm sure she's just exploring and being curious, trying them out and seeing what they can do.
Clawing
Ok, now this one is really frustrating me.
Sasha has always had a habit of rubbing my arm or neck as she drifted off to sleep. I have a mole on my chest. For the past week, whenever she nurses or dozes off to sleep, she started scratching and picking at it. It is driving me nuts. I know this sounds gross but now it's always bleeding and sort of hanging there and I wish there was a way I could just remove it. Any ideas for how to remove a mole would be appreciated. But even if I did remove it, I doubt she'd ever let it heal. Sasha now knows it's there and looks for it. Now even when I'm holding her, she occasionally tries to move my shirt to scratch at it. She looks for it when she's trying to go to sleep. And if she can't get to it then she'll just start clawing and scratching at my chest.

EDITED 9/13/07- Do you know that apparently this is one of the most popular pages on my blog? People from all over the world are doing google searches for "baby growling", "baby demon" or something similar and coming to this page or my other post about my growling baby. Maybe you just did it too? So it heartens me to know that a lot of other mothers out there are sitting there at their computers thinking to themselves, "Gosh my baby is weird. Why is he/she growling?". Cheer up, mothers of growling babies! I guess it must be normal if there are so many of us :)