So here it is...

The beginning of the adventures of Maya Luna. It sounds like an adventure a child can only dream of. But then again, this child doesn't sleep so maybe dreams aren't important at the moment.

A little history....

Maya was born to us via c/s in the middle of the night. 5:19am exactly. That makes sense now, she was a night crawler from birth. She also came via c/s because she wasn't cooperating and decided to take her own route and not the vajay way. It's all coming to me. She was a rebel without a cause from October 2, 2010.

We named her Maya Luna Uribe. Both loving the idea that Maya incorporated our history, the Mayan tribes that went from Mexico (that's where Martin is from) to Nicaragua (Holla! That's my homeland). Since Maya is both, it seemed only apparent to name her this. In my deepest of souls, I knew that I wanted her to be named Luna. Luna would be her first name. I fought Martin about it but he thought she'd get teased. Eventually I agreed. I now realize, I probably set her up for this night crawling when I first thought of calling her "moon." Of course she's going to be a creature of the night with a name like that. What was I thinking? Is it too late to get her name changed? Maybe I should name her "Sol." Yeah, sun sounds better. That way, she takes on the character of the sun and wakes up in the morning and sleeps in the night. But nope, instead, Maya likes the dark. Like a vampire, a wolf, a possum. What other animals wander the streets in the night? Hookers? Ok, she's not a hooker people. I will kick your ass if you say this.

Last night Maya decided that party time would be cut short. We called my mother in law Monday to ask her for advice on what to do. Everyone keeps telling us different ideas, but shoot, you can't go wrong with a woman who's had 5 kids. Not that my own mother couldn't help me, but I just wanted two experienced momma perspectives. Or rather 10. Everyone has an opinion. Anyway, I took my MIL's advice. She said "Claudia, you have to be the boss!" As scary as that sounded, I grabbed my balls, looked at Maya last night and told her:

"Maya, this is it. Today is the last day you keep me up til 4am. Your mother is done with her party days. In fact, your mother was never too much of a party animal. I can't hang. I can't stay up too late. I can sleep IN, but I can't stay up. So tonight, you are going to sleep. Whether you like it or not. Oh and guess what? That swaddling you hate, yeah, you are going into a swaddle - a death swaddle! I am the boss. You will not escape the swaddle and you WILL sleep tonight! You will not get me with the tears. I am the boss!"

She looked at me, gave me a smirk and farted a few times. Bet she was thinking, "yeah right Mami, I'm the boss. You even told daddy that before I was born. I heard you. You said it!"

So we set ourselves up for the fight. I told Martin that whether she screamed or not, she had to be swaddled so she'd stop sucker punching herself and waking up. Why does my kid gotta beat herself up? So we did as we were told. Grabbed our balls (martin grabbed his own - keep those balls away from me, that's what got us in this mess) and fought her in the evening. Gave her a warm bath. Tried to entertain her, wear her out and guess what? Maya fell into a sleep spell at 945ish and we both jumped in bed and turned off all the lights. Of course, she fell into a spell and into the swaddle she hates. But when you are 6 weeks, and dead tired, you don't fight the swaddle of death. You just go with the flow.

I knew that she'd be up in a few hours because this girl is like clockwork with the food - so 1245 rolled around and she was up and fussing, being a little oinker wanting her food. So here I go, sleep walking to the kitchen, get her bottle, change her diaper, feed her and put her back in the bassinet. I turn that music thing on, you know, the one that resembles sounds in the womb, so she can think she's hearing my farting, throwing up, and hungry belly and shut the night light out. Welp, she wasn't deep in her sleep and realized "Hol' up, someone got me all tied up in a straight jacket! Hell to the nah, I'm breaking free!" So here she goes "grunt grunt grunt, fuss fuss fuss." I try and ignore her, because, like my MIL said, I'm the boss. She is fine. Leave her alone. Hell to the nah, Maya wasn't having it, and starts screaming. So I get up, swaddle her back up, back to bed. This goes on for who knows how long.

Maya: grunt grunt grunt, wiggle wiggle wiggle, fuss fuss fuss, scream!

Me: I'm the boss! *death swaddle* , paci, and back to bed I went

etc.

So finally I decide to let her cry. Yeah martin needs to sleep, but really, so do I. He has to get up but he can sleep through construction noise right outside our window so I'm sure a screaming baby isn't going to wake him. I was wrong. I guess when your precious princess is screaming, anything wakes you. I watch him in the dark as he comes over to the bassinet and I ask him "what are you doing?" to which he replied "she's crying, I'm going to get her." My response to him was I was letting her cry. Not too hard. He went to the bathroom and back to snoring thereafter.

Anyway, it was 330 am. Daddy's alarm goes off and Maya is still fighting me. I get up. Make her a bottle, feed it to her, and after 3 hours of battle, I win. She's out, in a swaddle, til 9 in the morning.

In yo face Maya! I beat you. Today I will beat you again. I am the boss like my MIL said. I will defeat the animal of the night.

She's cute though, huh peeps? I think she's cute in the day. At night, not so cute!