Friday, November 14, 2008

Grunts, Groans and Moans


Moana has started into a grunting stage. It happens mostly at night when she's sleeping. The grunts are so loud that it easy to mistake them for signs of wake time unease... they usually have me jumping out of bed (hence, the moaning) in the middle of the night to check and see what's wrong... until I get to her side and see that she's sleeping soundly. It's actually quite amazing that such loud noises can come out of such a small little person and that she can squirm as much as she does while still in dreamland.

I have found a little pattern to the grunts and groans. They generally start 45 minutes to an hour prior to her waking up to feed. Which is especially fun for me because that means if she eats from, say, 3-4 AM, the grunting will start again at 5 and then she's ready to eat again at 6. So that's a whole hour of sound sleep for Mama Simmons before I'm listening for the sounds of real hunger vs the fake hunger of the grunts. It's reminiscent of the fake BH contractions I had toward the end of my pregnancy... how to tell the difference between the real thing and the fake outs? For Moana, real hunger is indicated by the frantic nature of the squirming and urgency of the cry. Sometimes her hand goes in her mouth, and her feet are generally flexed when it's real. Her eyes may or may not be open.

I think part of this problem will be solved when she moves full time into her own crib/room to sleep at night. She's there part of the time now, but since grammy is still here visiting, we switch her bassinette in the middle of the night so grammy gets the late nighttime grunts and I get the early morning ones. When we get up in the morning, we compare notes on how the night went and try to piece together the puzzle that is Moana.

6 comments:

Angela and David said...

I loved listening to Zach moan and talk in his sleep. He has grown out of it but he certainly hasn't grown out of grunting very loudly when working on a poop. I try really hard not to laugh at him because he seems to already know that it is getting a laugh from me and it encourages him to be louder.

X-Country2 said...

Awww, how cute. You're getting quite good at this mom thing. :o)

N.D. said...

That's so nice grammy is helping out and maybe you are getting more sleep, hopefully! You are getting it all down, it sounds so weird that this little person is now so dependent on you! You are doing a great job Mama!!!

Clare said...

that is the cutest picture!!

Allison Chapple said...

Baker has slept in his own bed/room from night one and we still hear his grunts over the monitor. I've had to learn to let him be unless he starts wailing! Moana is a beauty...

Alicia Parr said...

Moana is so teeny. The grunting and other loud noises coming from cute, little babies is always funny. Like Angela, we laugh like crazy when he's making loud poo-related sounds. We also cheer when he burps. Not sure we're rewarding the right behavior.