Intense Baby

So mama's little baby is becoming, uhm, intense.

I think I am beginning to understand, finally, what is meant by "high needs baby".

A fine example: I make dal, it is in my bowl on the table, and I sit down with Pearl on my lap. She is not really eating a lot of food yet, so I don't have a spoon or anything for her set up. As soon as I sit down, she yells hysterically, breaking into a non-breathing sob difficult to describe. I walk her around, wondering what could have provoked this outburst. When she calms down, maybe 2 minutes later, I go back to the table. But before I even sit she cries again. I leave the table, grab a spoon for her, sit down. She is so happy she smiles and shoves the spoon in her mouth. OK.

She insists on being held the vast majority of time. I do this anyway, so not such a big deal.

She needs to walk and play constantly (good thing).

There are no quiet moments of discord. They are all loud, shrieking, screaming, sobbing, crying, fussing, yelling. Quiet to utter despair in 2 seconds, sometimes I can fend it off, sometimes I just have to deal with mad/sad/frustrated baby.

She sleeps for two, 45-minute naps a day. She sometimes won't sleep until 11:00pm, waking up at 7:30. She wakes a lot at night to nurse. She wants to be in the world, RIGHT NOW. On her terms.

And my job is to let that happen. Now, sharing attention with her big sister is proving to be another problem in and of itself. My sensitivity to crying is much higher now, for the better. Some things you just get used to.