Trial and Error

I feel like everything in my life lately is Trial and Error (with a lot more error than trial).  Most of this probably comes from the fact that I am now a mother and parenting in and of itself seems to be mostly trial and error.  I wish my baby (and my life for that matter) came with an instruction manual.  The problem is that every baby and everyones life is sooo different.  What works for one might not work for another.

I was thinking about this a lot the past 2 days as I got NO sleep yet again.  I decided to try putting Maia in her own room in her BIG crib.  She is a REALLY long baby and I just don't see her fitting in her bassinet much longer, so I thought it was worth a try.  Well, it turned out to be an epic fail, to say the least.  Not only was putting her to bed much harder (getting her into the crib takes a lot more effort than putting her in her bassinet...It took 2 tries both nights to get her in without waking her up), but she only stayed asleep for about an hour and a half both nights.  When you have to work the next day, this is not a good thing.  Thankfully Juan got up with her and took her for a few hours both nights...otherwise I'm pretty sure I would have died.  But seriously, if I could have had an instruction manual that said: "If you try putting Maia in her crib she wont sleep more than an hour and a half" I would have saved myself some serious sleep (which, since she JUST started sleeping more 2 weeks ago, I should have just waited longer before trying out the crib.  NO sleep is just still way too close to home for me).  Needless to say, she slept in the bassinet again last night (for 6 1/2 hours!).

As for the instruction manual....I need one that tells me things like "wait 5 more minutes and then put her down," "let her cry for 1 more minute and she will start to settle down," etc.  When she was first born it would have been nice to know that she needed a specific blanket so that she wouldn't break out of her swaddle and stay asleep (took me 8 weeks and a LOT of different blankets to figure that one out), that she likes to be SUPER warm (even if she sweats), to put her down more often (I don't know if this would have helped with the fact that she likes to be held all the time, but if it would have I sure would have liked to know it), and SO many other things.  Instead, it is all trial and error.  The only problem is, I feel like with a baby who grows and changes so fast there is often only error and no time for more trial.  Such is life :).