Attention, please.

Anyone with children has lived through the dreaded day/night swap. Usually, it happens when a baby is allowed to sleep to much during the day or is for some reason kept up at night, creating a day/night confusion in the baby and a desperately exhausting situation for the momma. This is not, however, what has happened to me. What Miss Olive is doing has less to do with sleep and more to do with her intense little personality. At first, I thought it was my milk supply. I went on a pumping and nursing marathon. But, I then realized that she wasn't unhappy. She didn't cry to eat during the day at all. This is not a growth spurt where she is nursing more often to boost my supply. She isn't nursing more often, she's just choosing to do it at night.

You see, Olive loves action. It just so happens that, in a house with three homeschooled siblings, there's a lot of action to take in. Nursing has become a boring task that's only purpose is to take her away from the fun... and she'll have none of it... during the day, at least. She has become very easily distracted while nursing (or eating solids, for that matter), and now it has gotten to the point where I cannot speak or she will break away and look up at me with a huge wide "play with me" grin. If someone walks across the room, her head bends around backwards to catch a glimpse. Heaven forbid her daddy walks in the room. Since she has developed this habit, she has been waking up at night to get in her calories. Her sleep isn't mixed up, just her eating.

Once I realized what was going on, I figured I would just tank her up during the day so that we would get back to normal. Well, you can lead a baby to milk, but you can't make her drink. At least that's what I have discovered over the last few days. I've tried putting a blanket over her, covering her eyes with my hands, going into a dark room, and even pumping and giving her a bottle. The only thing that had any success was to lay her on a boppy and give her a bottle while holding a music-playing-multicolored-blinky-light-star. She took a whopping 2 ounces this way. Beyond that, she will nurse fairly well before a nap, but definitely not when she's good and awake. Obviously, that's when the party's supposed to happen. The middle of the night is nice and boring where she can just drink away in a slumber state. Perfect.

Now, I have to figure out how to resolve this problem. Either I attach a disco ball to my chest, I figure out some way to get her full during the day, or I keep her from filling up at night. I may wear a crazy necklace while nursing (seems very Mardi Gras, no?). I may pump at night so that when she does wake up to nurse, there won't be much there yet she can be comforted back to sleep. I don't know what the solution will be, but I know I have to find it. Once babies start sleeping well at night it's hard to go back again.