January 7, 2012

Compared to the past few days, today was uneventful. The morning started off calmly enough, but soon the day turned miserable for Olivia. It seems that today she was plagued with tummy troubles, (gas, etc.). This was her first real day of burping, and it was clearly traumatic. She was consolable, but the slightest disturbance seemed to bring her to tears. This made her face all blotchy with baby acne, and she didn't get as many naps as usual. It also meant that she wanted to nurse almost every half hour - which got to be a little tiring for me, but we soldiered on. Thank goodness for Mimi  who took more than her share of turns bouncing, swinging, changing & consoling Olivia. Poor Olivia - it was a rough day to be a baby!

We did have one exciting developmental step today. Olivia was particularly taken with my black cardigan, especially as it lay next to my white tank top. She was transfixed by it while nursing. Then, with no help from me, she reached across her body with her right arm to grab the edge of the sweater and pull it toward her. Yay Olivia! Already crossing the midline?! You are amazing!

To calm her we tried all our tricks - looking at books, looking at Christmas lights, swaying, swinging, bouncing, etc. We even played some of the songs that Adam sings to her to comfort her ("Haul Away Joe" by The Clancy Brothers & "Roisin the Bow" by The Irish Rovers), which worked!, but soon a wet diaper came along and her world came tumbling down again. Things finally started to really settle down a little before 10pm and now she has been sleeping for more than an hour. Phew! Poor Mimi is passed out, too. Let's hope that the night is uneventful.