by: Emma Aguirre
Ever tried to change the sheets on a king sized bed with a five month old in a BabyBjorn? Impossible.
I love being a mom. I really love it. My daughter is the apple of my eye and everyday she makes me laugh. I love waking up in the morning and seeing her face light up when she sees me. I love her laugh. I love how she yells and talks really loud and I love how she smiles at everyone. The most fun game right now is when she catches herself in the mirror and giggles to the point of giving herself the hiccups, another thing I just adore.
However.
I’m beginning to notice a separation issue. Actually, my husband pointed it out when he came home from being out of town last week. She was napping when he arrived and when she woke up he went to pick her up. She wasn’t as excited as I thought she would be. He had been gone for four days, and she just stared at him offering no reaction. I came into the room a few minutes later and she gave me a goofy grin. I was secretly thrilled, but I was also kind of sad for my husband. He later pointed it out as she was sitting on his lap and constantly looking for me, turning every which way. When she caught my eye, she would grin from ear to ear.
It’s cute for a while. Really cute. And I finally feel like she is realizing how much I love her and she feels the same. Today things got a bit difficult around the house though, due to this separation issue. I’m used to leaving her playing on the floor when I have chores to do, and I sing or talk to her loudly and she talks back. I’ll check in every couple of minutes, but I’ve been able to do laundry and vacuum and really get on with things. Our home is very open plan so I feel comfortable doing it and have since she was a newborn. Instead of playing and chatting with me, my daughter began to scream bloody murder the second she lost sight of me today, and my voice didn’t seem to calm her. At one point, I actually had to be touching her for her to stop whining. I tested it several times! She’s been unusually clingy and generally just needing my full attention. She seemed to be bored easily and needing to be entertained. Every time I laid her down or just inched out of view, she squealed until she could see me again. A few times, I let her squeal it out hoping she would realize I wasn’t going to play her game, but it didn’t work and I gave in. Once I realized that I wasn’t going to get as much done as I had hoped, I started to get pretty creative, even putting bunny ears on at one point (she wasn’t as amused as our dogs were!) She also napped very little. She may just have had an off day and I read it could be an age thing. The silver lining is I might never have to do another load of laundry in my life!
She may not be feeling 100% either. This weekend we had her first episode of constipation (I hope her only episode. We’re down a couple of outfits!). Working my way through the fruits and vegetables, we hit peas last week and I don’t think they sat too well with her. We gave her some prunes after I noticed she hadn’t had a bowel movement in almost 24 hours. By Saturday morning, still nothing, so I called our pediatrician. The nurse recommended Karo syrup in her bottle, cutting all veggies and offering her just fruit, some watered down prune juice or apple juice and no cereal until things returned to normal. Well, within the hour of giving her the Karo syrup…we had the first explosion. And then several more followed. Regularity seems to have returned, but to be safe I’ll continue with the fruits all week and hope that the abnormal clinginess is just a phase. An adorable phase, but I’m not sure how to handle having a five month old strapped to me 24/7.
P.S. Check out Motherhood Center at the Houston Children’s Festival this weekend downtown! It’s the largest in the nation!
