I survived yesterday...barely! Yesterday was Abby's first day, and she cries! I mean, I'm just not used to babies CRYING! My babies just didn't cry much, unless hungry, and the way to take care of that is with a bottle. This baby, according to her mom, SAYS that she never cries when she's hungry. Okay, um, like, WHAT?? So then she cries about everything BUT being hungry? I promise you one of us could just look at her the wrong way, and she'd tune up. She only sent the baby ONE formula bottle and ONE juice bottle, and 2 jars of baby food. She also sent me this insane schedule for her. Well, with all intentions of keeping Mom happy, I tried to go by said schedule. Said schedule DID NOT keep baby happy. And the only reason I tried so diligently to stick with the schedule was because the mom ALSO wants me to keep a log of every time she ate, what she ate, every time she has a diaper change, if said diaper was dirty or wet, and every time she has a time. Insane. You know, as long as she pays me up front on Monday mornings, and picks her up and drops her off when she says she is, that's fine, I don't mind doing it, but if there becomes problems with payment and tardiness, I'm going to have to jack up my price or stop writing everything down. I have kids, too, right? $70 a week is VERY inexpensive child care, and really, I'm not technically STAFFED to actually keep up with her every snack and dirty diaper that way...technically, that's for a day care, which is why day cares charge like TWICE as much, but like I said, as long as I'm paid prompty, I will be fine with it. So let's just chalk this up to being the first day, and a lot of Abby's fussiness was due to separation anxiety. The mom is a teacher and has been with her all day every day for the last 2 months, so maybe there will be an adjustment period. But after a couple weeks of this, I feel like the mom is going to get sick of hearing about her baby crying all the time, since she SAYS her baby is a "very good" baby. :::SIGH::: So anyway, Abby was dropped off at 7:30 a.m., and according to her "schedule", she was supposed to have a nap at 9 a.m., and her formula bottle at 11:00 a.m. She fed her breakfast at 5:30 a.m., and so by 9 a.m., Abby was screaming her head off. And I was supposed to listen to this for the next two hours? So I tried everything. First I thought maybe she's just tired and actually ready for her nap. I put her in Jacob's crib, with her pacifier. Her mom said she always goes to sleep with her pacifier, and that's the only time she takes one. Well, for one, she didn't even want her pacifier. She wouldn't even so much as open her mouth so I could put it in her mouth. She screamed more, so I wound up the mobile, which worked for like 5 minutes or so, and I thought to myself "YES! She is going to go to sleep!" WRONG! 5 minutes later, WAAAAH!!! So I picked her up, tried to rock her, and she screamed LOUDER. Then I tried singing to her, she screamed even LOUDER!!! So I got her bottle ready anyway, against mother's wishes, and gave her a little bit of it, which settled her down, so once again I tried to lay her down in Jacob's bed. WAAAAAAHHHH! Tried mobile again, more screaming, tried to rock her, sing to her, more screaming. So I sat her down in the floor with the boys to play with some toys, and she was perfectly happy. Then more fussiness came. I KNEW by then she HAD to be really tired. Finally at 10:40 a.m. or so, I was like "okay, it's close enough to 11" so I warmed up her bottle again, sat down in the rocking chair, and she chugged it down, and within 5 minutes, she was out like a light. Somebody TELL ME that baby wasn't hungry LONG before 11! I was able to get up and put her in Jacob's bed without her waking up, praise the Lord. A little before Noon, I started making lunch for the kids, and we sat down to the table at 12:05 p.m., and I heard Abby waking up, so I got her up too, fed her lunch too, and by 1:30 p.m, she was getting really fussy AGAIN, so I gave her a little bit of her juice, EVEN THOUGH, she wasn't supposed to have it 'til 3 p.m. By the time 3 p.m. got here, the juice was LONG GONE, and I had no more bottles to give her, so I was constantly looking out the window thinking, "Please, hurry up and pick her up! Please! I have no more bottles to give her!" I realize this mom is a NEW mom and this is her FIRST baby, but saying a baby can only have a bottle at this time and this time every day is like NOT RIGHT! ESPECIALLY when the baby is in a NEW place, and babies really rely on the bottle to provide some degree of comfort and security. Anyway, it's time for Scream Fest, so I better run do my job. This needs to get better SOON or I will be the one screaming and crying next!