Adventures with Petroleum Jelly

Early morning yesterday Baby E woke up at 3, 4:40, 5, and 6. Then finally at 7 for the day. I was UNHAPPY. And she was very clingy all day. I couldn't eat or shower until her morning nap because she would sob if I put her down at all. She keeps standing up in her crib during naps and night, and then doesn't know how to get back down. I don't know though why she is waking up enough to stand up in the first place. Dh was at a training conference, came home early (4 pm!) and I was only too thrilled to hand over the little one to him so I could go to Safeway by myself.

When I got home from Safeway, Dh and the baby were in her room. He was dozing on the floor, she was standing up, leaning on his back, making cute sounds. And there, on the floor, was an open container of petroleum jelly. I yelped, and grabbed the container. The jelly had some baby finger-sized gouges. And Baby E's face looked suspiciously moisturized! "Dh! She ate petroleum jelly!" Dh's defense was 1) he is really tired (admittedly, he did get up to start his day at 2:30 am!) and 2) shouldn't her room be the one place Baby E can roam free? I said didn't he mean the one place he could let her crawl around while he slept on the floor? He sheepishly grinned. I figured she was fine, but as Dh is the more nervous parent, he asked me to look online to make sure petroleum jelly can't damage babies. Did you know if you eat a lot of petroleum jelly, it can have a laxative effect? Baby E is not at risk, based on the amount missing, she probably ate maybe 1/2 teaspoon.

JDub came over with her little sis and we had fun gabbing for a couple hours. We had to pause our conversation at 8:30 because she had to watch The Office. I don't watch much tv,* but it was really quite funny.

Last night went much better, Baby E only woke up once at 5:30 (which Dh handled), then up for the day at 6:30 (which Dh also handled). I got up at 7:30. The baby's still being clingy, but with a full night's sleep I handle that much better. This morning I ate breakfast while Baby E pulled apart a huge stack of newspapers. We paused every so often to smile adoringly at one another. She is such a sweet girl.

*Mostly because we don't have Tivo and I don't like being constricted by "Oh, I can't hang out that night, Heroes is on" or whatever. If I had a Tivo, well that would probably be a bad thing. What Dh & I like to do instead is just wait until whatever show comes out on DVD, and then rent the entire season and watch it at our leisure. This means we cannot read the Life section of the newspaper while 24 is on, lest we accidentally learn who dies. Ha ha Plus, this way, no commercials. Which I HATE.