Growing too fast

Last few days have been rather rough at home. El has been going through what we think is a growth spurt. It may sound great that your own child is growing well - and it is - but there are also many consequences as a result of something growing very fast in a short period of time.

First, anything that grows very quickly in a short spurt needs a lot of energy. Think of it as a 50m sprint. You need tremendous amount of energy to push that short distance. Same with El.

On Friday night, after I got back home, my wife told me that El was feeding voraciously. She had fed on both breasts (El is strictly a breastfed baby - something I will definitely want to write about in the near future) not once but twice yesterday. Not only that, she fed for a full 20 mins on each side. As a comparison, on normal days, ie before yesterday, she would be content with 15, full on 20 mins on one side.

That same evening after dinner, El was on the breast for, dig this, 45 mins. Halp, my wife cried. I tried to tickle El in the vain hope that she would pop off but I got thwaped by my wife who pointed out that tickling her would result in her popping off with my wife's nipple. Good point. I conceded.

She eventually did pop off on her own and we thought hooray. This means she will be sleepy and more good hours ahead for the L family!

But you know, just as some governments promised more good years one year, the next year the financial crisis strikes. So like a thief in the night, the wailing started 2 hours after our midnight feed. First at 3, then 4, 5, 6. Yes. She was wailing to feed every hour. And each feed lasted at least 20 mins followed by soothing for another 10.

Effectively, we slept less than 20 mins every hour after 3am. If you add it all up, 2 + 4(0.5) = 4 hours. In reality, we slept less than that because it's not real sleep unless you get a stretch of sleep in.

The following day was pretty much the same. Wailed every hr and a half. It eventually got better as the day progressed but both of us were exhausted from the night before. To top it off, my mum, the secondary caretaker in the house, was out for the day. So it was up to us to fend for ourselves the whole afternoon, which we did thankfully.

It's Monday now and things seem a lot better. Growth spurts come and go; they may last 1 day, 2 days or a whole week. Good thing it was not longer than a couple of days for El.

But I am happy, despite the difficulties of that night, to see El growing, naturally. She's getting much longer now and weighs a lot heavier. I used to be able to rest her on my left arm without breaking a sweat. Now after 30 mins, my left arm starts to cramp and ache. Soon I won't be able to swing her around easily anymore :( Then she will start to question me and wear short skirts and bring boys back, who I will beat up, and then she will get married and move out :((

Sucks