Adoption Interview

Adoption Bloggers Interview Project 2012

Thursday, March 15, 2007

Crawling Machine


Hannah has finally figured out how to use crawling as a mode of transportation and has turned into a crawling machine! Nothing is off limits now, or so she thinks! She's been getting into absolutely everything: pulling books off shelves, tipping over baskets, pulling herself up to her knees on anything she can grab, opening and closing the doors to the dog crates, and getting inside the dog beds!

With this new found independence she has ushered herself into a new (and unpleasant for us) stage that requires much patience from us. TANTRUMS, TANTRUMS, and more TANTRUMS. She throws tantrums dozens of times a day for any reason she can think of and sometimes for no reason at all! If she doesn't want to be burped she throws a tantrum. If I put her down she throws a tantrum. If I pick her up she throws a tantrum. If I put her in her car seat she throws a tantrum. If I change her diaper she throws a tantrum. Do you get the idea? If it's not her choice then she throws a tantrum and these aren't just little things either that we can distract her from easily. She literally throws herself back onto the floor and kicks her legs and flails her arms and screams at the top of her lungs. If you try to touch her she goes stiff and cries louder and harder! I must say that I'm at a loss for what to do. I wasn't expecting tantrums like this for at least a few more months, maybe for a year! I don't know if I should try to distract, voice my displeasure, or ignore her. Obviously there are some things that she has to deal with like being put in a car seat or getting her diaper changed or some things that she just can't do like put her fingers in an electrical outlet, but there are other times when I wonder if I need to do something to snap her out of the tantrum. It's just so hard to tell since she's really too little to reason with and I'm not really sure that she understands what being good and bad means just yet.

Hannah's diarrhea is officially gone and her bottom is healing up nicely. It's still more red than I would like, but at least the sores are no longer open or oozing. Now they are just a darker shade of red than the rest of her bottom. She's back on her normal feeding schedule and eating like a horse. She had her first baby food dinner the other day and it didn't phase her a bit. It was vegetable beef dinner. I tasted it and it didn't taste bad at all.

Hannah has decided sleeping for any reason is evil unless she is in mommy or daddy's arms. We are back to the Ferberizing and hopefully we can get things back on track. I think she is actually moving towards only two naps a day now :( which means that I will now only have 1 hour total to myself to do anything. 3 half hour naps made it hard to get stuff done, but 2 half hour naps will be close to impossible, especially now that she's mobile and I can't let her leave my sight for a second!

2 comments:

Matt & Lori said...

I finally got a chance to catch up on some Hannah news. I can't believe how sick she was. That had to be so scarry for you. I'm glad to hear she is doing better now. I'm not so thrilled to hear about the tantrums. I usually love reading Hannah updates to see what we have to look forward to with Sarah but I'm not looking forward to those. If you find a solution let me know!

Cindy said...

Natalie-I absolutely LOVE this bottom photo of Hannah...she's so cute!! I feel for you as she is learning her independence...it sure it hard on the mommies & daddies. I went through all that when Benjamin started crawling. I'd also be careful if you have a doggie door...I was on the phone one day and looked up to see Benjamin sitting outside on the patio looking at me like "how'd I get out here!" He tried to crawl through the doggie door for as long as he could fit through it!
As far as the tantrums...my advice is to ignore them. Unless she is doing something dangerous of course. Sometimes children just have overwhelming emotions and it's the only way they know how to deal with them. You don't want to encourage them though by interacting with them. I would just let Benjamin scream and kick on the floor. I told him that I would talk to him when he calmed down. He would occasionally look up from the tantrum to see if I was still looking at him and then start in again! Ugh...just wait until Hannah is closer to 2...the tantrums only get worse and louder!
I'm glad you've enjoyed reading my blog....I try to keep it interesting and funny (because Benjamin IS so funny!) I enjoy catching up on yours too! You are more than welcome to list our blog on yours!

~Cindy Huff~(& Benjamin!)