We had a perfectly pleasant morning: my friend & her 18 month old Little H came over at about 9:30. Little E was falling asleep as they arrived, and slept for for most of their visit. Litltle H played in the garden whilst the mummies had tea and crumpets and schemed about a week down south that we are planning in a few months time. They left at about 11:00 so Little H could have his nap at home.
Little E and I then walked to Floreat Forum to buy nappies and go to the library. She grizzled a bit on the way to the shops, but then fell asleep in the pram. The pram is a bit hit and miss at the moment: sometimes she is quite content in it - lots of fist sucking and thoughtful staring, other times constant complaining. She woke up whilst we were still at the shops (incidentally, two minutes after she woke up the complex's fire alarm went off and everyone had to leave - I assume the place hasn't burnt down) - but was ok until about halfway home when she decided she was hungry. Really hungry. Seeing as I could not magically transport us into the lounge room, it took about another 10 minutes to get home and she screamed (literally screamed) the whole way. (I might add at this point that she had eaten less than two hours previously). Toy dangling and talking and bribing with the dummy did not help. Nothing helped. She howled so hard she cried real tears, which I have only seen her do twice before, when extremely worked up.
When we got home her slave immediately produced lunch and she gobbled it, but for the first few minutes stopped every few seconds to give another sob, and to stare at the mean slave- who-denies-food accusingly. She then fell asleep on my chest for a bit, woke up, and had several huge spews requiring two changes of clothes, probably because she swallowed so much air during all the crying. Then I tried to put her down to play, and she cried some more. She cried every time I put her down for over an hour. I stuck her in the green bnouncy chair for two minutes whilst I made myself lunch that I could eat with one hand, and she hung onto the frog with one fist the whole time, still crying. Finally I walked around the house for ages, then sat on the couch with her on my shoulder until she fell asleep. I then tried to put her in her bed and she half woke up and cried some more, but then settled down and finally fell asleep.
After sleeping for half an hour she woke and ate (again) then cried and spewed (again). She then reluctantly consented to lie in her play gym and play for 15 minutes, but very grudingly and interspersed with grizzles. She then cried some more and we worked our way through most of a Coldplay album whilst walking around the house. By then I had really had enough and stuck her in her cot, where she blew raspberries, had a conversation with the shaft of sunlight on the wall, grizzled a bit more so as to remind me she still wasn't very happy, then passed out.
I'm not sure what the moral of this story is, except that fortunately we don't have many days like this. I'm not sure how people whose babies are frequently and inexplicably upset cope with it - I'm assuming that all the unhappiness was due firstly to the perception that food was being unreasonably withheld when normally it is produced within a few minutes of it being requested, and secondly feeling sick from all the crying and gobbling.
Now that she is asleep I am feeling philosophical and Anne-of-Green-Gables-ish and am content to say that tomorrow's a fresh day with no mistakes - although we will see if that lasts if the crying starts again before D gets home!
4 comments:
With the benefit of n=2 hindsight I can say that there's a lot going on in babies' heads that parents can't gauge so Anne of Green Gables philosophies are probably the best way to get through! The nice thing is that babies become more explicable as they get bigger so "wahwahwah (where's my food?)" turns into "muuummmmeeeeeee I'm hungreeeeeeeeeeee"
Every human- baby or not- has good and bad days in their repertoire and unfortunately for babies we can't always solve the problems. For M (who by all accounts had some shockers in his repertoire) I concluded that learning that I couldn't always solve his problems, but I could offer comfort was a point of parental development- ultimately as a parent that's most of what we'll be doing.
Hope today's better :)
PS. both my boys were much happier in the pram once they was sitting semi-reclined than flat- in M's case definitely reflux had a role, and in J's case I think he liked the scenery.
Oh, dear! We shouldn't have left and you could have had an extra pair of hands. Poor you!
Did I tell you that I remember something almost identical happening with Henry when I took him to the shops and I tried everything, including a nice warm shower.... not popular, singing, bouncing, feeding and in the end, feeling like I was about the explode, I put him in his cradle and shut the door. Babies and toddlers do do their best to confound and frustrate you and then pretend nothing has happened the next day :)
Thanks V and Em - today has indeed been better, in fact all the sins of yesterday appear to be forgotten!
The best thing a child health nurse ever said to me was "No babie's ever died of crying"!
Hope that offers some comfort :)
PS Gregg says the more kids you have the easier it becomes to ignore them haha!!
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