It's not time to get up yet

Abby wakes up early.  No matter what time she goes to bed the night before she still wakes up around 5ish in the morning.  That is too early.  So far what we've been doing is going into her room, giving her a bottle and rocking her when she goes back to sleep until about 6:30.  This week it was clear that was going to work anymore.  She's just getting too big to be comfortable while we hold her and putting back in the crib wasn't doing any of us any good... she would just scream. 

So, this morning when she woke up at 4:58 I let her cry.  She wasn't screaming so it wasn't unbearable to listen to but she didn't give up easily.  After about 10 minutes my husband asked if I wanted him to go get her - NO.  She cried and whined for a little over 20 minutes before she went back to sleep, but she did go back to sleep and for another hour.

My hope is that she will "catch on" that I'm not coming in to get her that early any more and she'll start putting herself back to sleep until later every morning. 

Fingers crossed!

Physical Contact Overload

We all need physical contact with other people to have any chance at being normal.  Babies need it just to survive. I have no shortage of physical contact during the day.  In fact, I'm pretty sure I get more than enough.  If there were a way to harness it and share it with others who don't get enough I would have more than enough to go around. 

Don't get me wrong.  I LOVE that Abby needs me and wants me to hold her and cuddle her but by the end of the day not only do I not need to be touched I pretty much don't want to be touched once I put her to bed.  I feel overstimulated and in need of sensory deprivation.  It makes it hard for me to fall asleep.

This all became clear to me last night when Randy rolled over to put his arm around me and I had to fight the urge to jump out of bed.  We used to cuddle ourselves to sleep almost every night and now I wish I had the king size bed to myself most of the time. 

I LOVE that Randy is very affectionate.  He's always been full of hugs, butt grabs, kisses, hand holding, etc.  I'm pretty sure once he leaves the house the only physical contact he gets is the occasional hand shake or accidentally bumping into a coworker in the hallway.  When he gets home he plays with Abby and wrestles with her until it's time to chill out before and then I'm pretty sure he wouldn't mind a little contact with his wife.

I know that if I got some exercise before bed I would get a little release and I'd feel better.  I just have to force myself to do it.  I suppose all the other benefits of exercise wouldn't hurt either.  If that doesn't work I'm not sure what to do about this feeling.  I don't like it but I guess it's just part of the "gig" for now.