Crying Baby

http://www.healthychildren.org/English/ages-stages/baby/crying-colic/pages/Responding-to-Your-Babys-Cries.aspx


So, if you knew me personally, you'd know that Kylie has a bit of a crying problem. Not really a huge problem, but a problem, nonetheless. She's a baby who is blessed enough at home to have two older brothers and parents who are always around to immediately tend to her every sound. I truly, truly believe that the immediate and constant response to a moment of frustration for her has led to her being very sensitive to any obstacle. She's very inquisitive and loves to explore, but she will get frustrated over practically nothing and let out a wail of utter distress. And it's not usually something that she will get over quickly unless you help her with what she wants. In other words, she's very dependent on her parents and me to do things that other infants might not be so needy with.

I'll give you an example of some of thing things I've noticed with her. When she was a little bit younger, she would be sitting and holding a small toy. If the toy dropped from her hands and landed next to her leg, well within grasping reach, most of the time she'd just scream and scream until I handed it to her. Even though all she'd have to reach her hand down and pick it up, she wanted me to hand it to her. Since she's become more mobile and crawling, that issue hasn't been that frequent.

The other big problem is her sleeping. Nap time was a nightmare for a long time. She wouldn't want to be put down to sleep, so we'd have to get to her fall asleep (just holding her, rocking, swinging, whatever) and then try to transfer her to the pack and play. Problem is that Kylie is the lightest sleeper ever, so moving her up the stairs or placing her in the pack and play always woke her up. So we decided to keep her in the swing to fall asleep. For a LONG time, the only way she would ever sleep was if she was swinging, music playing, with me sitting in front of the swing pushing it past it's normal limits to swing higher and faster. I also had to be looking at her. If any one of those factors wasn't right, she would just cry hysterically. If I was sitting there but not pushing her, she'd scream. If I was sitting there and pushing but looking away from her for even a moment, she wouldn't sleep. If I thought she was asleep, but she wasn't, and I'd get up to leave she would scream immediately. Falling asleep took a process of sometimes an hour worth of swinging, opening her eyes every couple of minutes to make sure that I was still there. It was... as I said... a nightmare.

Now she is 9 months old. I have been trying to find information online for a while now about normal behavior for babies this age, and help with the situation. I understand a clingy baby, and I am a firm believer that babies cry for a reason, even if it's just to say they want a hug. However, I was convinced that this behavior wasn't normal, and was totally unnecessary. After many weeks of debating, I finally decided to try a day of letting her cry for short periods to see if she would calm herself. And honestly... she did. I put her in the swing on that first day, and told her it was nap time. I gave her a kiss on her head, and I put the swing on. When I walked away, she cries as I expected. But I stood around the corner of the room and waited. After 3 minutes, I walked back in and gave her more kisses, calmed her, and walked out again. After 5 minutes, I went back in and did the same. The third time that I left, she cried for only a couple of minutes and then fell asleep. And it was the first time in... I couldn't even tell you how long... that she managed to get a nice, refreshing nap in. So from that point on I do this to let her sleep. At around the same time each day now (In the morning, it's about 10 AM, sometimes later; and around 2PM for her afternoon nap) she starts to act sleepy and sometimes cranky, I put her in the swing, and she almost always falls immediately to sleep now. Sometimes she gives a little fuss, but it never lasts more than a few minutes.

My point?

I read that article and it made me feel better. I think the most important part of it is that sometimes babies just have to cry a little. There's no reason to let a baby scream for long periods of time when you're available to console them, and I don't believe that crying-it-out is ever a suitable method for very small babies. But once a baby reaches about 6 months old, I do think it's important for them to learn to be frustrated a little bit. Not a whole lot, but just a little.

Kylie was also able to roll at a very early age, and she has always been a little ahead of the game as far as movement goes. But she also went through a phase where she would refuse to attempt to even move. She would fall over (gently, no injuries) and just lay there and cry unless I sat her up. She was more than capable of rolling and even sitting herself up, but because she was always sat-up by someone else when she fell over, she wouldn't try it herself anymore. I'm convinced that the only reason she even learned to crawl was because I encouraged her to work through her frustration and at least try it.

Needless to say, Kylie has given me a run for my money over the course of the months that I've watched her. She's one particular little baby sometimes, and knows what she wants. But I can't help but look at that little smile and love her!!

Some past Crafts that I never posted.

So, I'm really terrible at updating this bloggy thing. Here are some of the crafts that I'VE been doing over the past few months. Nothing spectacular, but just felt like posting.

This first one is one of several I'm working on for Kayla's room.



Muno, from Yo Gabba Gabba.


Here is another from the set:



I'm pretty proud of this, except that Muno's eye didn't turn out a perfect circle. =(



The following is cat's Halloween costume paw. She was a black cat with white paws. I also made the tutu, as well, but the paw is the impressive part! Hand-sewn, too!






This next one is sort of saddening. I made this 'tag' for my sister-in-law's baby shower. We created a clothesline decoration of baby clothing for her, and I was going to pin this to the clothesline so she knew who the things on there were from without having to go about it in the brash way we wound up doing... just telling her. But there was QUITE a lot of things on the line, and there was nothing on there to tell her who made it. We lost the tag somehow on the trip over to the shower. Still haven't found it.



I think it looks really cute!


And of course, the thing I make the most and hardly ever get around to showing off... a bow. This one was made for my niece for Halloween.




I have so many plans for stuff to do, and so very little time to accomplish a single thing. Sigh.

Some of Kayla's seasonal art

For loving crafty things as much as I do, I really don't have my projects that Kayla has done to show off. Or that I've done, for that matter. I have a lot of ideas and not enough time to execute any of them, because when I do have a free moment, I usually use it to allow my mind to wander aimlessly, leisurely, before being ripped back into reality with a screaming infant and destructive 2 year old.

And not to mention that trying to do any craft with Kayla is like torture. She either doesn't want anything to do with it, or has a nuclear meltdown when it's over because she wants to keep doing it.

Anywho.

These are some of the stuff she's made From the past few months. I think they came out pretty cute. Granted, some of these were very little of what she did, and mostly my effort in cutting out shapes and putting it all together. But still, her heart was in it, and I consider them her creations.


For the fall, she made an autumn tree:















Then for Halloween, some ghost feet:















Then I got really ambitious for Thanksgiving, and she did a few:

































One is just hand cut-outs, one is made with hand-prints for feathers, and the other is made with fingerprints. These were extremely tiresome to make. This is one example of when Kayla would scream because we had to wait to paint. In between each of the layers of feathers, you had to wait for the paint to dry. Oh boy.


And finally, this is the only Christmas one we've done. It's pretty basic, but still:


And that's it. Sadly. I have another idea for Christmas, which involves more painting and waiting for things to dry, so I'm sure it will be a nightmare. Worth it, of course, because she gets to paint and have fun, we get a cute end product, and the world keeps on spinning.

Another long gap!

As a very basic update to things around here..... BAHHHHHH.

Halloween was fun. Kayla was a tutu kitty cat, and she went trick-or-treating with Kylie's family. It was really great to see Kylie in her own home. I think that if it's possible, any caretaker should take any opportunity to see their children in their own homes for a little while. Whether there's any merit to it or not, I really felt that seeing her play with her brothers in her own home, eat dinner at the family table, and just observing her where she lives really made me feel closer to her. When I see her now it feels like she's extended family instead of a stranger's child.

Thanksgiving was also very nice. We spent the weekend following it at Brian's parent's house. Kayla got to see Emma, Gabriella and Tom.

And December has been hectic. We didn't even decorate outside this year. It kept getting put off for one reason or another, and now it's just too late to bother. All that work for only a week or two of enjoying it... no thanks. The tree is up and that seems to amuse the girls enough. Christmas cards are addressed and ready to be sent, but I just have to get more stamps.

Not much as changed around the house as far as the babysitting has gone. A gate has gone up across part of the kitchen blocking some shelves with appliances and the cat litter box. Kylie has free run of both rooms, which is more that we did for Kayla. She likes sliding around on her bum. We also installed a fridge lock, which is the greatest thing ever. Although, it broke recently. So I guess it's not really the greatest thing ever, but it's still a neat little thing that saved a lot of headaches.

Kayla and I have done a few cute projects over the past few months that I'll have to upload in another post.

Wow, all over the place. Plans for Christmas are very unsettled. All we know is that Christmas day, we will be with my family for dinner at 2. Other than that, I have no idea what's happening. I guess we shall see.

Ok, that was a very, very short updated on the past couple of months. Off to read, and then to bed!