If the shirt stinks...

While we're on the subject of spit-up, my mother recently told me that my grandmother and her sisters (all of whom had a gaggle of kids) used to say, "When you turn your head and can't smell spit-up on your shoulder, it's time for another baby."

I thought of that and smiled as I wiped huge chucks of cottage cheese off my back seat after dropping the Bean at daycare this morning. (How DOES she manage to miss herself entirely and fire that stuff all over the seat, which is well beyond her feet?)

But back to my grandmother and her sisters. A few months back I was crying to Nana about how the Bean was not sleeping well at night. "She has her days and nights confused. You have to turn her upside down." Normally, this would seem totally irrational. But I was beyond sleep-deprived and way past desperate. Pen in hand, I said, "OK, Nana, this is very important. Tell me exactly what I have to do."

She chuckled. "Before you put her in for the night, just flip her over so she's upside down, then swing her around upright again, and put her in her crib. It always worked for me and my sisters."

No lie: that night she slept for 10 hours straight. She's been sleeping through ever since. It may have something to do with that fact that that night was also the Bean's third (and final) night of Ferber sleep training, but I'll still tell any desperate parent: turn that baby upside down!