One Month Update
Dear Lana,
Happy One Month Birthday!
As I write this post, you are resting in your swing and ripping some of the loudest farts I’ve ever heard. If the volume of the fart were adjusted for the size of the being it comes out of, you would be a serious contender for some type of world record. Rico, on the other hand, would compete in the noxious smell category. He managed to unleash a fart at bedtime one evening last week that actually woke you up and made you cry.
Speaking of crying, you continue to have at least one episode of colic every day, but you keep it fresh by switching up the time of day or evening in which you have your episode. You’ve also started crying actual tears in the last week, which makes your meltdowns all the more stressful and heartbreaking for me. I’ve been studiously reading The Happiest Baby on the Block and attempting to apply the methods recommended for calming you when we’re at Severe or High Rage Level Alert. The techniques actually work most of the time, but the first step of swaddling has proven almost impossible given your ridiculous limb strength and perseverance. I’ve yet to create a swaddle that you can’t wrench your arms out of, and that includes the wraps I’ve done with our Swaddle Me Blanket and the time I employed packing tape to try to seal the receiving blanket wrap. I probably shouldn’t admit that I used tape to wrap up my baby, but I didn’t put it anywhere that touched your skin so it probably doesn’t qualify as child abuse.
I also learned from my book that you have an intense temperament, which is described as a cross between passionate and explosive. The example of an intense baby that wakes up screaming for food like she will die if she doesn’t eat RIGHT NOW and then shakes her head so violently that she doesn’t realize the bottle is in her mouth could have been written about you. The explosive description is particularly fitting since we operate with the efficiency of a bomb squad with a live, ticking device when you wake up ready to eat (bib, burp cloth, bottle on the double!) and tip toe around the house like we’re trying not to set off a bomb when you’re asleep.
You continue to eat with great enthusiasm and you have a knack for waking up hungry whenever anyone else attempts to dine in the same vicinity. It doesn’t matter if you’ve just finished a bottle and drifted off to sleep -- the second food touches a plate you are raring and ready to go. I took you for your first public outing that did not involve a doctor’s office on Thursday: lunch at the local Mexican restaurant with my friends Missy and Toni. You behaved yourself amazingly well, but I had to feed you an entire bottle as soon as you caught a whiff of the chips and salsa.
During your non-raging waking periods, you are becoming increasingly more fun to interact with. You look at us with great interest now and seem fascinated when we talk to you and use funny voices. You even seem to enjoy my singing, which means you will really enjoy the audition rounds of the next season of American Idol. You love laying on your changing table and looking up at the animals hanging from its pegs and you find the music and mobile on your swing mesmerizing. The tune from that swing is burned into my brain and I hear it when I sleep, but I will put up with anything that makes you happy.
You are my beautiful, intense, challenging, sweet, gluttonous, adorable baby and I love you very, very much.
-Mom
Happy One Month Birthday!
As I write this post, you are resting in your swing and ripping some of the loudest farts I’ve ever heard. If the volume of the fart were adjusted for the size of the being it comes out of, you would be a serious contender for some type of world record. Rico, on the other hand, would compete in the noxious smell category. He managed to unleash a fart at bedtime one evening last week that actually woke you up and made you cry.
Speaking of crying, you continue to have at least one episode of colic every day, but you keep it fresh by switching up the time of day or evening in which you have your episode. You’ve also started crying actual tears in the last week, which makes your meltdowns all the more stressful and heartbreaking for me. I’ve been studiously reading The Happiest Baby on the Block and attempting to apply the methods recommended for calming you when we’re at Severe or High Rage Level Alert. The techniques actually work most of the time, but the first step of swaddling has proven almost impossible given your ridiculous limb strength and perseverance. I’ve yet to create a swaddle that you can’t wrench your arms out of, and that includes the wraps I’ve done with our Swaddle Me Blanket and the time I employed packing tape to try to seal the receiving blanket wrap. I probably shouldn’t admit that I used tape to wrap up my baby, but I didn’t put it anywhere that touched your skin so it probably doesn’t qualify as child abuse.
I also learned from my book that you have an intense temperament, which is described as a cross between passionate and explosive. The example of an intense baby that wakes up screaming for food like she will die if she doesn’t eat RIGHT NOW and then shakes her head so violently that she doesn’t realize the bottle is in her mouth could have been written about you. The explosive description is particularly fitting since we operate with the efficiency of a bomb squad with a live, ticking device when you wake up ready to eat (bib, burp cloth, bottle on the double!) and tip toe around the house like we’re trying not to set off a bomb when you’re asleep.
You continue to eat with great enthusiasm and you have a knack for waking up hungry whenever anyone else attempts to dine in the same vicinity. It doesn’t matter if you’ve just finished a bottle and drifted off to sleep -- the second food touches a plate you are raring and ready to go. I took you for your first public outing that did not involve a doctor’s office on Thursday: lunch at the local Mexican restaurant with my friends Missy and Toni. You behaved yourself amazingly well, but I had to feed you an entire bottle as soon as you caught a whiff of the chips and salsa.
During your non-raging waking periods, you are becoming increasingly more fun to interact with. You look at us with great interest now and seem fascinated when we talk to you and use funny voices. You even seem to enjoy my singing, which means you will really enjoy the audition rounds of the next season of American Idol. You love laying on your changing table and looking up at the animals hanging from its pegs and you find the music and mobile on your swing mesmerizing. The tune from that swing is burned into my brain and I hear it when I sleep, but I will put up with anything that makes you happy.
You are my beautiful, intense, challenging, sweet, gluttonous, adorable baby and I love you very, very much.
-Mom
Labels: monthly update
posted by Guest at Friday, September 29, 2006
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