Eight Months: Part Deux (werebaby)

Quinn has appropriated our bed. She's taken it for herself and once we try to get it back for ourselves or even share it with her, she reminds us who's the boss. It's gotten to the point where the only thought I have when it is time for bed is this, "Do I really have to go to bed right now?" I know that we're in for a long night and even though it's all I can do to keep my eyes open and yawns interrupt every other word, I'll do anything to avoid the banshee scream of our daughter.

Xtimu offers that we should buy a sofa bed and I have to admit that the nights I wait up late for my lovely wife, I find that crashing on the sofa is sweet bliss. But how long is this going to last?

For the first five months Quinn was a dream at night. She slept completely through the night 90% of the time. We simply placed her in the crib and wouldn't hear a peep until morning, the exact opposite of Lucas. He was so difficult at night for the first three months, then gradually slept longer and woke up less. Now he's completely moved into his own bed in his own room and he adapted to that instantly. But the older that Quinn becomes, the more sensitive she is to our night activities.

I was very curious to see how we would respond to our second child. With the first one, every little detail seems so important and the responsibility that you feel toward their growth is overwhelming at times. I knew that it would be different with Quinn but never realized how much seems so unnecessary this time around...well, maybe not unnecessary but somehow made more efficient. Also, there are certain things that would've seemed impossible with Lucas but happen so naturally. Maybe some of it has to do with how much we've changed in the last four years; cooking more, conscientious about health and money, more time in the home; but it's also because we feel so much more comfortable...

...except at night. One of the major differences is that Lucas was so much more adaptable with our comforting techniques but with Quinn she's so rigid. With Lucas I would get up in the middle of the night and serenade him with the beauty of music and the dad-walk. Quinn's response to the dad-walk is to gradually escalate her complaints in my ear until I am completely deaf. It's becoming more and more apparent that the only thing that she wants at night is the boob, which is terrible for Xtimu. She wakes up more exhausted than when she laid down her head.

So...that brings us back to the sofa-bed. I've been hoping that the little one would eventually wear down and sleep more, the way that Lucas did but apparently the only ones wearing down are her loving parents. Now that I think about it, for Xtimu's sanity (as well as my own after all), we should start shopping for furniture.

The crazy thing about it all is that Quinn is a different baby during the day. She's all smiles and hardly ever gives us an ounce of regret. She will go to anyone, adopt them as her own and brighten their day with her presence. She is a beauty beyond compare and each morning the sun shines in her eyes. At night, once the moon fills the room, she turns into a monster! My new hypothesis is that she's afraid of the dark, that something in her nature, her karma, despises the darkness. She wakes from a wonderful dream to find the world swallowed by shadows and her brain freaks! It's so hard to see in so many ways but mostly because it's the fourth time she's done it in two hours! After awhile our compassion has fled out to sleep on the sofa and it's probably cursing desperately under its breath at the fact that we still haven't gotten a sofa-bed.