Light the fire and toss in the onsies! Shirts proclaiming, “Daddy’s Little Heartbreaker,” might be more applicable for our baby. Caitlyn has turned against her master yet again.
On Saturday, I let the wife have the night off so she could take a break and I could spend some alone time with the baby. The entire time Jessie was gone, Caitlyn cried almost non-stop. For over 2 hours, she didn’t want to feed or have anything to do with me. Not until Mommy came home and she was safe in her arms did Caitlyn finally calm down.
Her recent bizarre behavior has completely flummoxed me. One minute she likes me, the next minute, I’m a complete stranger. She’s got a love/hate relationship with me, and I don’t know what's bringing about this behavior. She sees me every day, I interact with her every day, so it seems odd that she would completely forget who I am at random, various times throughout the day.
It seems as if she's determining everything by how she’s feeling at that particular moment. If she’s in a happy and generous mood, she’ll let me hold her and feed her. If she’s in a cranky mood, forget about it. I should be happy and grateful with just that because Caitlyn won’t let other people hold her even when she's in a good mood.
I can see all her fans slowly fading away if she keeps this behavior up. After all, when people visit, they want to be able to hold and play with the baby. If Caitlyn's got a no-look, no-touch policy in place, what's the point of visiting? Thinking long term, this could spell trouble when we want to start dropping the baby off at the nanny’s or Grandma’s. No one is going to want to deal with a baby that cries nonstop or is wary of anyone besides Mommy.
I’ve tried to stop this behavior cold turkey by continuing to hold Caitlyn until she stops crying, but whenever the wife hears the baby’s persistent cries and screams, she always comes to her rescue. I personally think that’s just letting the baby know that crying will get her what she wants. But given how stubborn Caitlyn can be, I know she won’t stop and have to agree that letting her cry hours on end isn’t exactly the solution either.
Another complication that’s arisen is the fact that she doesn’t like sitting in her stroller any more. I don’t know what has brought this on either, but I’m guessing that it’s due to the fact that we’ve been using the baby carrier a lot more recently. She probably likes this better because it’s like being carried in our arms.
However, I don’t want her to get into this comfort zone where she expects to be held everywhere. We’re already holding her more than we should be at home. She needs to learn to sit in her stroller and be happy with that.
This past weekend, we take her to practice being out in public, and she starts a screaming fit in her stroller that gains her an audience from passersby, including several moms. The wife is obviously embarrassed as she picks up the baby and tries to shush her. Some people are just curious onlookers while others are giving her advice as to the cause of our baby’s tantrum and what the wife should do.
Don’t people know it’s rude to stare and that we don’t really want their advice at this particular moment in time? Mothers, especially, should know better than this. I’m sure every mother has experienced this kind of scenario before and probably wished they could just disappear.
Therefore, it would seem like common sense when they see another mother struggling with a crying baby that they turn a blind eye. But I guess common sense gets thrown out the window when there’s a great spectacle to be seen.
So yea, exactly when can we begin to actually enjoy our baby?
On Saturday, I let the wife have the night off so she could take a break and I could spend some alone time with the baby. The entire time Jessie was gone, Caitlyn cried almost non-stop. For over 2 hours, she didn’t want to feed or have anything to do with me. Not until Mommy came home and she was safe in her arms did Caitlyn finally calm down.
Her recent bizarre behavior has completely flummoxed me. One minute she likes me, the next minute, I’m a complete stranger. She’s got a love/hate relationship with me, and I don’t know what's bringing about this behavior. She sees me every day, I interact with her every day, so it seems odd that she would completely forget who I am at random, various times throughout the day.
It seems as if she's determining everything by how she’s feeling at that particular moment. If she’s in a happy and generous mood, she’ll let me hold her and feed her. If she’s in a cranky mood, forget about it. I should be happy and grateful with just that because Caitlyn won’t let other people hold her even when she's in a good mood.
I can see all her fans slowly fading away if she keeps this behavior up. After all, when people visit, they want to be able to hold and play with the baby. If Caitlyn's got a no-look, no-touch policy in place, what's the point of visiting? Thinking long term, this could spell trouble when we want to start dropping the baby off at the nanny’s or Grandma’s. No one is going to want to deal with a baby that cries nonstop or is wary of anyone besides Mommy.
I’ve tried to stop this behavior cold turkey by continuing to hold Caitlyn until she stops crying, but whenever the wife hears the baby’s persistent cries and screams, she always comes to her rescue. I personally think that’s just letting the baby know that crying will get her what she wants. But given how stubborn Caitlyn can be, I know she won’t stop and have to agree that letting her cry hours on end isn’t exactly the solution either.
Another complication that’s arisen is the fact that she doesn’t like sitting in her stroller any more. I don’t know what has brought this on either, but I’m guessing that it’s due to the fact that we’ve been using the baby carrier a lot more recently. She probably likes this better because it’s like being carried in our arms.
However, I don’t want her to get into this comfort zone where she expects to be held everywhere. We’re already holding her more than we should be at home. She needs to learn to sit in her stroller and be happy with that.
This past weekend, we take her to practice being out in public, and she starts a screaming fit in her stroller that gains her an audience from passersby, including several moms. The wife is obviously embarrassed as she picks up the baby and tries to shush her. Some people are just curious onlookers while others are giving her advice as to the cause of our baby’s tantrum and what the wife should do.
Don’t people know it’s rude to stare and that we don’t really want their advice at this particular moment in time? Mothers, especially, should know better than this. I’m sure every mother has experienced this kind of scenario before and probably wished they could just disappear.
Therefore, it would seem like common sense when they see another mother struggling with a crying baby that they turn a blind eye. But I guess common sense gets thrown out the window when there’s a great spectacle to be seen.
So yea, exactly when can we begin to actually enjoy our baby?
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