3 months plus 9 days ... and counting
Not to much to report here. Another tough day for baby Nathan (and therefore, sister Mela).
Poor Mela got yelled at today for things that are really just normal behaviour for a toddler (she threw her nice Columbia mitten out of the stroller during our walk this morning and lost it, she walked on the living room carpet with muddy shoes, she kept whining for things that I clearly couldn't get her while I was nursing, etc).
None of this would faze me normally but combined with incessant Nathan fussing, I turn into an ogre.
The good news is that I got a great book from the library today ("Your Fussy Baby" by Marc Weissbluth). The author is a famous sleep researcher whose other book ("Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child") I read like a bible when sleep training Mela. I like him because he's very evidence-based (i.e. goes by what studies have actually found).
It was very reassuring to read examples of other babies who sound exactly like Nathan.
The good/bad news is that he says "extreme fussiness" isn't caused by anything the mom's doing (e.g. milk, caffeine, coddling, not coddling, etc) but seems to occur genetically.
This means that apparently I can have my morning coffee and bowl of cereal again. The bad part is that I'm powerless to help Nathan feel better.
The best thing I read talked about how common it is for babies to be fussy the first three months of life and said that other cultures even have specific names for it. Apparently one culture refers to it as the "100 days of crying" and another describes it as crying for "3 months and 10 days."
Well guess what tomorrow is, folks?! Yes, it's 3 months and 10 days!!!
I know that this will mean nothing to Nathan but after a particularly tough week, I'm holding on to whatever hope I can.
And after reading some of Weissbluth's advice for sleep training, I actually got Nate down for a bit this afternoon and Mela and I played a rousing game of Toss the Ball.
Which included lots of kisses and hugs.
Here are your daily pics:
I love using a fork! It's so hilarious to stab your food!
Tooth brushing - how far we've come!
Look, mom, they're clean!
It's a good thing he's so cute:
Remember this hoodie? It's a lot more flattering now than it was then!
Bath times have become a lot more calm ...
And he does sleep on the couch sometimes (woke up right after I took this, of course):
But mostly, he likes to cry. Even in his sleep, he sometimes cries out repeatedly. Sometimes he stops (like this time). Sometimes he doesn't.
Thank god for the good times:
Poor Mela got yelled at today for things that are really just normal behaviour for a toddler (she threw her nice Columbia mitten out of the stroller during our walk this morning and lost it, she walked on the living room carpet with muddy shoes, she kept whining for things that I clearly couldn't get her while I was nursing, etc).
None of this would faze me normally but combined with incessant Nathan fussing, I turn into an ogre.
The good news is that I got a great book from the library today ("Your Fussy Baby" by Marc Weissbluth). The author is a famous sleep researcher whose other book ("Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child") I read like a bible when sleep training Mela. I like him because he's very evidence-based (i.e. goes by what studies have actually found).
It was very reassuring to read examples of other babies who sound exactly like Nathan.
The good/bad news is that he says "extreme fussiness" isn't caused by anything the mom's doing (e.g. milk, caffeine, coddling, not coddling, etc) but seems to occur genetically.
This means that apparently I can have my morning coffee and bowl of cereal again. The bad part is that I'm powerless to help Nathan feel better.
The best thing I read talked about how common it is for babies to be fussy the first three months of life and said that other cultures even have specific names for it. Apparently one culture refers to it as the "100 days of crying" and another describes it as crying for "3 months and 10 days."
Well guess what tomorrow is, folks?! Yes, it's 3 months and 10 days!!!
I know that this will mean nothing to Nathan but after a particularly tough week, I'm holding on to whatever hope I can.
And after reading some of Weissbluth's advice for sleep training, I actually got Nate down for a bit this afternoon and Mela and I played a rousing game of Toss the Ball.
Which included lots of kisses and hugs.
Here are your daily pics:
I love using a fork! It's so hilarious to stab your food!
Tooth brushing - how far we've come!
Look, mom, they're clean!
It's a good thing he's so cute:
Remember this hoodie? It's a lot more flattering now than it was then!
Bath times have become a lot more calm ...
And he does sleep on the couch sometimes (woke up right after I took this, of course):
But mostly, he likes to cry. Even in his sleep, he sometimes cries out repeatedly. Sometimes he stops (like this time). Sometimes he doesn't.Thank god for the good times:
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