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sevI was asked, Monday, while Lila was hollering in her car seat and my friend was driving, whether six-week-old babies were just totally random. I answered with something along the lines of "kind of, but not really."
And now I want to make a Baby Alert Scale and post it somewhere. With "Green: reasonably predictable" at the bottom and "RED: ENTIRELY RANDOM!" at the top. And a little baby-shaped magnet I can move around on it. Because sometimes, her (perfectly logical from the point of a six-week-old, I'm sure) preferences and behaviors are completely indistinguishable from random.
Walking around the kitchen, trying to make lunch. Lila's squalling, as she has been doing for the last thirty-six hours whenever I'm not managing to give her the *exact* stimulus she wants. Fortunately, that exact stimulus has been one of two things: Napping on my lap -- my lap, mind you, not on my chest or in my arms or anywhere else other than her back on my lap with her legs tucked under my arm, preferably my left arm -- or sitting up on my leg, preferably my left leg, bouncing up and down on the exercise ball. At a very specific tempo. Very non-random. Randomness alert level green!
Neither of these soothing activities is conducive to a meal, however, so she's strapped onto my chest while I try to bounce around the kitchen at exactly the right tempo and put my food in a bowl at the same time. Which works not-so-great, but it works better than setting her down would.
At least for awhile. By the time my lentils come out of the microwave and I'm ready to start eating (one spoonful, then a walk across the kitchen and back, then another spoonful...we did this yesterday) she's full-on upset and nothing is helping. I start the mental checklist: is she tired? bored? wet? hungry? too hot? too cold? Change diaper and see what else might be wrong....nothing, as far as I can tell. *I'm* tired, bored, and hungry, but she seems to be none of these things.
Fine. If she's going to be upset no matter what I do, I might as well put her down so I can eat without worrying I'll drop lentils on her head. So I march into the living room and plunk her down in the swing. Momentarily consider running upstairs for my earplugs, but decide to just hurry through my meal.
And thirty seconds later she's totally silent, and a few minutes later when I finish eating and go check on her, she's sound asleep.
Randomness alert level RED!
And now I want to make a Baby Alert Scale and post it somewhere. With "Green: reasonably predictable" at the bottom and "RED: ENTIRELY RANDOM!" at the top. And a little baby-shaped magnet I can move around on it. Because sometimes, her (perfectly logical from the point of a six-week-old, I'm sure) preferences and behaviors are completely indistinguishable from random.
Walking around the kitchen, trying to make lunch. Lila's squalling, as she has been doing for the last thirty-six hours whenever I'm not managing to give her the *exact* stimulus she wants. Fortunately, that exact stimulus has been one of two things: Napping on my lap -- my lap, mind you, not on my chest or in my arms or anywhere else other than her back on my lap with her legs tucked under my arm, preferably my left arm -- or sitting up on my leg, preferably my left leg, bouncing up and down on the exercise ball. At a very specific tempo. Very non-random. Randomness alert level green!
Neither of these soothing activities is conducive to a meal, however, so she's strapped onto my chest while I try to bounce around the kitchen at exactly the right tempo and put my food in a bowl at the same time. Which works not-so-great, but it works better than setting her down would.
At least for awhile. By the time my lentils come out of the microwave and I'm ready to start eating (one spoonful, then a walk across the kitchen and back, then another spoonful...we did this yesterday) she's full-on upset and nothing is helping. I start the mental checklist: is she tired? bored? wet? hungry? too hot? too cold? Change diaper and see what else might be wrong....nothing, as far as I can tell. *I'm* tired, bored, and hungry, but she seems to be none of these things.
Fine. If she's going to be upset no matter what I do, I might as well put her down so I can eat without worrying I'll drop lentils on her head. So I march into the living room and plunk her down in the swing. Momentarily consider running upstairs for my earplugs, but decide to just hurry through my meal.
And thirty seconds later she's totally silent, and a few minutes later when I finish eating and go check on her, she's sound asleep.
Randomness alert level RED!
