Last night, after four or five straight nights of good sleep and what appeared to be a nighttime routine, we decided to let M. cry. If you’re not a parent, you don’t understand all the conflicting advice out there about how to handle a crying newborn. Some people say you should comfort them immediately until they reach 2-3 months. Others say, if you’ve feed and changed them already, let the little buggers cry. They’ll fall asleep eventually and all will be well. As we’ve passed both the four-week mark, we decided to try out the Let Them Cry technique last night.
We laid an already fussy baby down in her crib, comforted her for a few minutes, and then went back downstairs. Before we could even get the monitor on, she was shrieking. We set about emptying the dishwasher and cleaning our dinner dishes, emptying the dehumidifier, taking the trash to the garage, anything to keep us occupied. Yet the crying continued. Our goal was to make it 15 minutes. We only lasted ten. When I went upstairs, M. had kicked her way out of her blanket and was soaking wet not from a poorly fastened diaper, but from sweat. Which of course means S. took her to the guest bedroom and slept with her in that bed until it was time for her next feeding. We did get her down for three hours in the middle of the night, but after her 6:00 AM bottle, it was back to the big girl bed with mom. As soon as they lay down, S. said M. was out. I swear, these kids are smarter than they want you to think.
A couple other Olympic moments from my wife. Naturally, she loved it when Kerri Walsh smacked Misty May on the ass after they won the women’s beach volleyball gold medal. However, I think she enjoyed it for different reasons than why us men enjoyed that moment. I bet that video was being passed all over corporate e-mail servers yesterday. The enthusiasm those two showed was fantastic. I read somewhere that the governing body for beach volleyball mandates that the players wear those skimpy bikini bottoms. Not that I’m complaining, but aren’t there a lot of sand issues when you wear something like that and go diving around the beach?
Before the women’s 400-meter final Tuesday, NBC had a feature on Mexico’s Ana Guevara. When they showed Senora Guevara up close and we heard her voice, S. exclaimed, “Someone give her a chromosome test!” If you don’t know what that means, or haven’t seen the Mexican Silver medalist, let’s just say she’s a little manly. I enjoy the medical commentary immensely.
I think we’ve got our next FloJo. Allyson Felix won the silver in the 200-meter final last night. She’s 18, mega talented, seems to be pretty mature for her age (she’s already turned pro but is attending USC), and is just beautiful. She needs to double up with the 100 for Beijing and she’ll be the next great US runner.