CLICK HERE FOR THOUSANDS OF FREE BLOGGER TEMPLATES »

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Taming the beast

Not sure if I've mentioned it before, but Graham is quite temperamental. In face, he can be down right grumpy most of the time. When he was in the NICU, the nurses kept telling me that he had quite a temper but I thought they were being wimpy about him crying sometimes, and since I only saw him about an hour each day, I happened to think his little baby cry was the most adorable sound I had ever heard (oh my short lived naivety). If he is not sleeping or eating, it is a fairly good guess that he is crying. I try bouncing him in my arms, putting him in the swing (this one leads to lots more crying. He in no way appreciates the soothing effect of the swing that every other baby in America seems to absolutely love), using the baby bjorn, taking him for a walk, singing to him, the list is endless and none of it works for very long. Until I found this gem of a baby toy:



I borrowed it from Megan one day to see if it worked and low and behold it does!! He is mezmorized by the flashing star that plays the music and will lay there staring at it for up to 20 minutes at a time. People, do you know what you can do in 20 minutes if you have both hands free and you no longer have to attend to your ears that were previously bleeding from the high decibel screaming?
Oddly enough, since the discovery of this babysitter, Graham has started really mellowing out. I'm not sure if the flashing lights have put him into a permanent trance or what, but I would say for the last week he has been quite calm. I have been able to lay him on the couch and play with him and he has started cooing at me and smiling back sometimes! He is so much fun. Not to say he doesn't still freak out sometimes for what appears to be no reason, but what baby doesn't? (if you were going to say your baby doesn't, don't bother, I have no desire to hear about it).
That being said, he does still ABSOLUTELY hate his car seat and acts like he is being stabbed everytime I try to put him into it. That is a blog for another time though. I have a baby crying in the other room.

4 comments:

Alyson said...

Tyson pulled out the baby einstein videos. i thought ya right, she is not going to sit and watch tv. but what do you know. i now get to eat dinner with every one else. we prop her up in front of her show and she is good for 20 minutes.!!

ollie said...

Dude... your kid sounds EXACTLY like how Kelly used to be! yikes...... I'm glad you finally found something that gives you a few minutes.

btw... i don't know if this will work, but it worked for Kelly and Isabelle (both absolutely HATED their carseats). Anyway, we found these incredibly lame CD's called "Little people sing-a-longs" and lo and behold.... the crying stopped. Basically, what we found was that if it was crappy and cheap kids music at wal-mart, our kids loved it. Of course, we had to blast it because it was never loud enough. So yeah, maybe something like that would work.

Good luck with the long road trip! blech.....

Heather said...

Tracy!!!! I am also glad you found something that gives you a few minutes! I love all your posts..you are much better than me at writing...keep it coming!

christa said...

wow it does totally work- his little smile and cooing is adorable, much better than screaming I'm guessing.
keep trying stuff- do you ever bring that baby einstien cd in the car? you know he already likes that music.