Building Perseverance

I don't know if dealing with a fussy 8 week old would really count as a testing of my faith, but it's definitely a testing of my patience :/ Don't get me wrong...I love Emma more than anything and she can be a great baby, but for the past week, it's been, for lack of a better term, a challenge.

I would like to believe everyone when they say it'll get better. I don't want to wish any of my time with my darling daughter away, but I am greatly looking forward to when this "period of purple crying" is over! I have to be thankful that her nights have not been affected. She still sleeps a good 4-6 hours depending on how her day has gone. This past week, our days have gone a little bit like this:

Sleep 4 1/2 hours from about 9:30pm to 2 am, eat, go right back to sleep and sleep another 4 hours to 6:30, eat, stay awake for a little bit talking to mama and daddy, go back to sleep for about 2 hours, and the begins the terror....eat, stay awake for at least an hour, nap 20 minutes, cry, nap again for 45 minutes, cry, nap for another 20 minutes, eat, stay awake for at least another hour, nap 20 minutes, cry, and so on and so forth until about 9:30 and then she'll finally go down for the night for another 4-6 hours of good sleep. 

I am exhausted by the time 8 pm rolls around! I try to get her settled before she gets overly tired but these cat naps are making her so I'll and tired. I feel like I can't do anything for her :( we've started being "those parents" who will just put her down to see if she'll put herself to sleep...which works sometimes. I don't want her to get used to being picked up every time she starts crying but I don't know if she's at the age yet for it to be an issue...

I really need to start taking notes for the next one lol. At the end of every phase, I look back and see so many things I could have done differently that might have made things easier. I guess everynew parent does that :) I know that the next one could be completely different and I may need to throw all those notes out the window. We'll see. it'll be a while before we cross that bridge :)

I start back to work this week and I'm a little nervous :/ Partly because I'm not ready to leave my baby and partly because I have no idea what kind of stress awaits me when I get there :/ I'll only be working at the office two days this week so I really shouldn't complain. And after this week, it'll only be upped to three days a week at the office and two days at home. I think that might be more of a challenge, especially if we haven't phased out of this catnap period. I am a little excited to be around adults again but I know I'm going to be thinking about my baby constantly! 

Speaking of missing her like crazy, Rory and I had our first outing without Emma on Friday night. We try to go to at least one of the SEC tournament baseball games every May and this year wasn't going to be an exception. We were going to take her with us but my parents offered to keep her while we went. I missed her like crazy but it was a much appreciated break! I'd say I did good as I only cried for about a minute when my parents picked her up ;) I've decided our next "date" without Emma will be for mama to get some uninterrupted sleep! :)

For now, I try to look at this trial as strengthening my patience because I know I'll need it down the road somewhere ;) I'm trying to take in all the moments, even the fussy ones because I know one day, I'll miss all of them.

Hope everyone has a blessed Memorial Day!

God bless!