The foster mom called back and said she would pick Baby Girl up on Wednesday instead (a week early). I cried for a while and then decided to enjoy the time I had with her. She was certainly one of the sweetest babies I've ever met. :)
The main issue the foster mom was having was her not sleeping through the night. She also wouldn't finish her bottles and had a lot of gas. With her two older siblings (4 and 7) arriving at the same time she was overwhelmed. It was their first placement and I completely understand being overwhelmed adding 3 children all of a sudden like that. They just thought it would be helpful to get the baby out of the house for a while, even though they had only had her for two weeks.
When I got the phone call to do respite for a baby who wouldn't sleep I was delighted and said yes right away. I was determined to help this foster mom out and see if I couldn't get the baby on a schedule and, at the very least, get her sleeping through the night. Well, since I didn't end up having her for even a week I couldn't expect much to happen. Nevertheless, the last two nights she was sleeping 5 hours at a time and only woke up once during the night! The foster mom was so glad!
These are some things I did to help Baby Girl (with good advice from my mom and brother!)
- stopped putting rice cereal in every bottle since it was possibly causing gas
- changed the nipples and/or made the hole bigger for the bottles with rice cereal added
- introduced her to solid food (pears mixed with a small amount of rice cereal)
- bought a Boppy pillow to use while I fed her, saved my arms and she loved the softness of it; fell asleep a couple of times in it
To help her sleep through the night I...
- gave her a bottle right before bed with rice cereal added
- made the pack n play more comfortable
- put warmer clothes on her to sleep in
- tucked the blanket under her so it would stay put
- put her to bed later (9 or 10pm)
I hope we get another infant soon!
