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[Previous entry: "Who'd Even Take Her, If She's Gonna Be Like That?"] [Next entry: "Her Own Two Feet"]
03/25/2008: "But Just in Case, I'll Stock Up on Garlic"
This teething thing can be the pits, you know? I feel bad for my poor kid, and yet, sometimes she's so damn funny I can't help laughing at her. At the moment she's sobbing her poor exhausted little heart out in bed because (awful mother that I am) I'm sort of putting my foot down about the need for a nap. But before you call Child Services on me, rest assured that I spent a goodly amount of time rocking the baby and soothing her and calming her, as well as administering Orajel, which is my secret weapon these days.
While I was rocking her (the first time), she was actually starting to settle down. She knows the nap routine and plays her part quite well. Upstairs we go, usually we say goodnight to Daddy - assuming he's in his office - then I close the blinds in her bedroom and lastly I close the door. As if on cue, as I close the door, Dessa rubs her eyes. Even if she's not overly tired, she rubs her eyes. Drama queen.
Then we sit in the glider and I sing to her, or tell her a little story or whatever and she begins the fight. Oh the wailing and fussing and sobbing that ensues! All while her little head is resting on my shoulder, mind you. If the wailing goes on long enough and my shirt sleeve gets soaked enough I remember that she's teething (I'm a shit mom, let's face it) and administer Orajel. Then we rock and I sing and she fusses some more but generally she calms down a bit. She did today. But her new thing is to calm down for a few seconds and then pop her head up and look around like she's never seen her room before. Which is exactly what she did. Pop! Up came her head, but this time she pushed against me so she was looking right into my eyes, and then she smiled a little and said, "Mama".
I swear to God I think this time she knew what she was saying. She didn't go on with "mamamama" and she was making eye contact and I need the boost today, so go with me on this. My heart filled and I hugged her tight and then continued trying to settle her down. It wasn't going so well, but after a few minutes I put her in the crib and exited, stage right.
As per usual, she screamed and hollered and banged her feet against the crib, which makes it sound rather like there's a WWF wrestling match going on in there. Sometimes that's the precursor to sleep and other times I have to return to her room and soothe a bit more. This is one of those times. After about 10 minutes of this nonsense, I went back in to soothe her again.
Back into the glider we went, me rocking and sitting and patting her back and Dessa... throwing a conniption fit. Finally, after a few minutes, she began to quiet down, nestled her wee small head into the crook of my neck... and bit me. Hard.
"Ouch! You little vampire!"
I couldn't help it. It came out before I could stop myself. I sat her up, looked at her and... she grinned at me. She is diabolical. I had to laugh, because really - what else can you do when you're raising a child of the night?
Back again into the crib and... back again with the screaming. I don't get it at all. If someone was insisting that I lay down and go to sleep right now I wouldn't argue, you know? But that's just me. The wailing was definitely kicked up a notch this time and there were actual tears and God it just sucks when they cry like that!
This time Dave tried to calm her down (wisely he zipped up his pullover to protect his neck from Count Dessula). He rocked, he sang, he patted. He's good at this and even so, Dessa was amped - her crying went even more over the top than before.
So Vampire Baby is currently sitting on my office floor, happy as can be, checking out the view. No tears, no wails, no nothing. Content. Happy, even. Every time I look over at her, she grins her toothy little grin at me and laughs. She knows she won. She knows it.
Is there some special trick to getting vampires to sleep that I haven't heard about?
Replies: 1 Comment - Go read it!
on Wednesday, March 26th, Jeannie said
Kiki bites me on the chin. As if that wasn't enough, she usually has two fistfuls of my hair, just to keep me in place while she does it. And she does the lip smacking instead of saying Mama (though she'll say dadadada and bababa all day long), but the other day, I was comforting her after she bumped her head particularly hard, and she looked up at me and said, "mama" clear as day. So in light of that? Dessa OBVIOUSLY called you Mama. It was her First Official Word. I have spoken.
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Notes from a Yarn Hacker
