Baby Einstein

Some researchers/experts claim that newborns don’t have much in the way of cognitive reasoning abilities. These people have never met my son.

Naptime is a struggle with L.J. because he has no interest in napping anywhere but on me. This is how naptime typically goes:

10:00 – L.J. is rubbing his eyes, yawning, fussing – clearly a tired baby
10:05 – I lay him in his crib after a few minutes of cuddling/rocking
10:10 – He spits his paci out and starts crying.
10:12 – I go in, reinsert the paci, pat and reassure him.
10:17 – He spits his paci out and starts crying.
10:19 – I go in, reinsert the paci, pat and reassure him.
10:25 – He spits his paci out and starts crying.
10:27 – I go in…

You can see the pattern here. And it can go on indefinitely. I’d say half the time he will fall asleep after 20-30 minutes and half the time gets so mad I end up picking him up and…you guessed it…letting him nap on me.

At my parents last week we discovered a magical item that enabled him to fall asleep without the dreaded paci game: the music/vibration unit that comes with the Graco Pack ‘n Play. We couldn’t figure out how it was supposed to attach properly, so we stuck it under his feet and he loved it. He actually props his feet up on it, which is completely adorable.

Even better, my mom figured out that it seamlessly clips onto his Rock ‘n Play bassinet – which means he is much more likely to fall back asleep after his 5:15ish feeding. Genius.

I got home yesterday eager to implement this magical Baby Whisperer. I went to get it out…and couldn’t find it anywhere. Panic. I looked everywhere. Mike looked everywhere. It is nowhere to be found. The only thing I can think is that I may have thrown the new unit out thinking it was the old, corroded unit. But I really have no idea and my mommy brain doesn’t have a prayer of recalling what I did with a small object I ordered 6 months ago.

So this morning at 10 a.m. we played the paci game. For an hour. Heaven help me. He eventually got really mad and I got frustrated, so out he came. I stuck him in the Baby Bjorn and he fell sound asleep in less than 2 minutes.

Mommy = Sucker
L.J. = Baby Einstein

(And by the way…Baby Bjorns are about the least comfortable baby apparatus I’ve come across so far. I feel 9 months pregnant all over again.)