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[ellenmillion]

I got THREE naps yesterday, one of them particularly good, and last night we got Very Good sleep - one block of 3 and a half hours! No diaper leaks, one false alarm, only one round of nursing and it was back to sleep every time, right away.

I was reading one of my baby books yesterday, and there was a section on 'Difficult Babies.' The first type of 'difficult baby' was: the Active Baby. It was like a checklist of Elsa, starting with wiggling in the womb, through sleeping less than other babies and being bright and alert most of the time. The biggest danger of an active baby is that they hurt themselves accidentally. I never, ever would have classified Guppy as a 'difficult baby,' not even yesterday morning, nor would I want her any other way.



Active baby is active!

Sketching for Muse Fusion now! Come leave me prompts! http://torn-world.livejournal.com/108588.html

Comments

[haikujaguar.livejournal.com]

After reading a few baby books I... stopped reading them. And parenting magazines. Because of exactly what you note: they will frame something that seems within normal human variance as "difficult" or "problem." I really didn't want them giving me those impressions, you know? :P

[ellenmillion.livejournal.com]

I've taken them all with a grain of salt, but yes... about ready to put them all aside. What's the saying? Average is for populations. :P

[flutterbychild.livejournal.com]

What's so bad about an active baby? Seems like one would keep a new parent on their toes!

[ellenmillion.livejournal.com]

I see nothing wrong with having an active baby!

[jenny_evergreen]

Cute baby soothes enraged Jenny! Yay! (MY baby has been a lil monster today. Also cranky with Tom.) *gazes at Elsa till I calm down again*

Bad baby book, no biscuit!

[ellenmillion.livejournal.com]

Baby photos are wonderful therapy. :)

[xjenavivex.livejournal.com]

get down with the genie

[rix_scaedu]

She's resorting to sign language as no-one else is yet as fluent in baby as she is.

[ellenmillion.livejournal.com]

Heh! I'm hoping to teach her baby sign when she's a little older, actually - I suspect she is the type who will get frustrated when she can't communicate.

[mizkit.livejournal.com]

She's got the Travolta moves, I see. :)

[ellenmillion.livejournal.com]

I almost titled this one 'Staying Alive...'

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

[ellenmillion.livejournal.com]

Active = healthy in my book. Passive = boring. One of the things the book said that I agreed with is that they tend to be more interested AND more interesting. :)

[pixiewildflower.livejournal.com]

Aw, sweet little one!

[ellenmillion.livejournal.com]

:)

[jenny heidewald (from livejournal.com)]

Active Baby is Adorable. :) Glad you got some more rest!

[polarbee.livejournal.com]

I found a wonderful book called "Raising Your Spirited Child" that has some great information and doesn't treat active kids like a problem that needs fixing.

[ellenmillion.livejournal.com]

I will look it up, thank you! That sounds perfect.

[polarbee.livejournal.com]

One other thought I just had was this great article about the different ways babies "cry themselves to sleep."
http://www.askmoxie.org/2011/01/tension-increasers.html

My oldest and my youngest are both what this lady calls "tension increasers" and which the book I mentioned also talks about as one possible aspect of spirited children.
My middle child was sleeping through the night by eight months and all I had to do was set him in his crib and walk away. He'd fuss for thirty seconds and be out. So he was a tension decreaser.
Okay, I'm rambling. I'll stop. Isn't it wonderfully awesome how much personality babies have from their very first moments? And as they grow and develop, you can even look back at how they behaved in utero and say "Ah ha!" :)

[ellenmillion.livejournal.com]

Ooooo - very useful article! I haven't let her Cry It Out for any length yet, and I'm guessing that she's a tension increaser and it won't work for her... certainly her distress racks up the more I let her cry (going to the bathroom, for example). BUT, usually I can put her down and she doesn't fuss... just plays with her hands, makes a few babble noises, sucks on a fist, and is out. I'm curious to see how it plays out as she gets older.

[ellenmillion.livejournal.com]

Heh! I told Jake about this article and he blinked and said, "She does both of those things - what does THAT mean?"

I answered: "We have a complicated baby."

[duck113.livejournal.com]

What a cutie!
My sister's 1rst baby slept through the night from the time she was brought home. But 2nd baby did not sleep more than 2 hours at a time until she was close to 3-

[ellenmillion.livejournal.com]

Oof! I definitely have one more like the second one! Though fortunately, I do get SOME longer blocks. I got a four hour sleep last night!