Light, Water, and Other Fetishes

For the past couple of weeks, things have been rough in our household come about 8pm every night. Little Bird may be the very model of a quiet, happy, and content baby but every evening, that quiet, happy, content little baby has been replaced by a screaming, crying, discontent bundle of tears. We've blamed it on long active days, too many naps spent in car seats or laps, gas, hunger, boredom, and loneliness.

We've learned a few things since then. For starters, we've learned that Little Bird doesn't like the dark. I don't say she's afraid of the dark, because I'm not quite sure what she'd be afraid of this young in life--but then again, who knows. Why are any of us afraid of the dark, really? Anyway, this realization came around 1am Saturday morning (i.e., Friday night) after three hours of rocking, singing, burping, gas-drop-giving, pacifiering, and nursing. At 1am, Craig had just laid her back down after another round of rocking, crawled into bed, and shut off the light when she started screaming again. We looked at each other in tears and said, "I just don't know what to do any more."

Well, it was my turn to take her, so I pushed the covers off and got out of bed. I started rocking and singing to her, which quieted her down. Then before I put her back in her Moses basket, Craig said, "Is there light in the room when she naps during the day?" Well, yes. Even with the lights off and the curtains drawn, there's more light in the room during the day than at night. So I turned on the light in the entryway to our master bedroom, rocked her a bit more, laid her down, got into bed, snapped off our bedside lamp, and....nothing! Sweet, absolute nothing until 7am. Hallelujah! Since then, we've used a crib toy her Nana bought for her as well as a "Twilight Turtle" that glows blue and shines star constellations on the ceiling.

We've also learned that our Bird much prefers the sound of rushing water to whale songs, static, and heart beats. The other day when she was crying (and the nightlight was on), I headed in to try the pacifier but decided to switch her recording from whales to water and rub her belly a bit. The moment the whales stopped and the water came on, she quieted down and shut her eyes. Guess she's a water baby like her mama.

With these few key pieces of information firmly known, our Little Bird is now able to completely relax and sleep.