Last night’s snuggle time in honor of our Vampire Baby night two years ago. So sweet.
The first night we brought E.V. home was miserable. (It was so bad that it’s officially become Shove family lore.) Emma Vance spent the entire night crying and miserable — and so did Ryan and I. ;) In fact, she was so wide awake all night until dawn that she earned herself the nickname “Vampire Baby,” which has stuck even two years later.
Thus, this time around, Ryan and I were prepared for the worst. I expected Vampire Baby II to show up last night, to spend the night sleepless and frustrated. However, it played out a bit differently than expected because instead of bringing home a Vampire Baby, we brought home a Cricket Monster.
You may have noticed that I grew a giant child. Emma Vance was 8 lbs. 11 oz. (the average baby being about 7-7.5 lbs.), which I always thought was big. Cricket weighed in at 9 lbs. 5 oz., and every nurse and doctor who handled her in the hospital commented on her chunkiness. (Actually, I’ve had several friends have 9+ lb. babies recently. I credit the recent snow storms; all we pregnant ladies did was sit around and eat chili for those snow days!) She didn’t lose much weight before coming home (about 7 oz.), meaning she’s still a big girl. I’ve been trying to work her into a flexible three-hour schedule, which E.V. fell into very naturally, but she’s been a bit hungrier than E.V. was. Especially last night.
Although she wasn’t a crying, verbal baby who kept us up all night, our little Cricket Monster drank about 2 oz. every hour or two last night. What?!? May I remind you that she’s TWO DAYS OLD. Her stomach is supposed to be the size of a walnut, but clearly that can’t be accurate. I mean, what kind of super-sized, GMO walnut of a stomach does Cricket have that she downed the same amount overnight that our 21-month old can drink before bed? Ack. Thankfully each time she awoke she was quick to feed and go back to sleep, so we were able to get a little rest ourselves. It was a much calmer night that we had with our Vampire Baby, but it was concerning; how in the world am I going to keep up with my hungry Cookie Cricket Monster’s appetite???
Today we opted for a three-hour feeding schedule with an extra, small feeding at the halfway mark between each big feeding. The idea is to keep ahead of her hunger, and over the next few weeks we’ll work toward that ideal three-hour cycle. Until then, if you need me, I’ll be the one with the Boppy permanently attached to me… :)
Ryan and Emma Vance, Vampire Baby night 2012