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Tuesday, June 29, 2010

2 steps forward, 1 step back

Odd that I just wrote the post about what Mia looked like a year ago, because if you would have peeked in her room tonight, you would have wondered if we had stepped back in time that far.

Something strange has been going on with Mia the last week and a half. She's had 4 episodes of major discontent & fussiness,  where her crying and screaming and arching are new to us and unlike anything we've really dealt with before.  I've been wondering if it's been gas or indigestion.  Let's face it, everybody poops and so does Mia, but lately I think her tummy's been hurting more than usual.  

This kind of stuff seems easier to deal with when you're an adult. You figure out the culprit--is something off in my diet? And you adjust it.  It's harder with a 14 month old.  She goes "mmhhm" when you put something down in front of her to eat, and will grab at several things, which is encouraging especially to a mom who was once worried she'd never eat more than pureed baby food.  But sometimes now I wish we could back in time to that stage, where all she had was perfect-for-her momma's milk & easy to digest baby food.

Now I just feel bad that she's having to suffer through this, and I desperately want to know how to make it better.

Which is why we've stepped back in time.  Every time she's freaked out on me like this, I've ended up swaddling her like a newborn and bouncing her back to sleep.  It's incredible, but the past 2 times it's happened, as soon as I finished swaddling her up, she already started calming down, and once I started bouncing her ever so lightly on the exercise ball, she's started to nod off.  Her body relaxes and you can see the tension fading.

Maybe it's just innate.  Maybe it's just still comforting, even though it's been 6-8 months since we regularly did the swaddle.  Maybe it's who knows what.  And while I don't want to reintroduce swaddling & bouncing full-time, if it eases this pain for the moment, then I will do it.  Plus, it gets her to sleep quickly than crying it out, even if she's sitting, or rather, trying to wriggle her way out of one of our laps.

Like anybody, we just hate to see her in pain.  It's no fun to deal with & sometimes takes up the better part of our evenings, or mornings, or middle of the nights.  Hopefully we'll find a happy place soon.  

For now, I'm gonna hit the sack, and perhaps dream up a solution.  It probably won't involve black beans is my guess.
I don't know...what do you think?

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Sounds as though something she is eating is causing gas. Running your thumb and fingers of one hand along the length of her spine [with the spine in between the thumb on one side and the fingers on the other] may help expel the gas bubbles. A baby chiropractic adjustment.

Megan said...

Ellen, that's a good suggestion. She does get adjusted by a chiropractor about 2x/month, but maybe Greg or I should try that more frequently to help release the bubbles!