For weeks now Eleanor has been making these little mouth movements (looking like a monkey, for the most part) and acting like she was trying to talk, but then finally on Tuesday night – two nights ago – she got something out! She laid there while John and I played with her and cooed! She did it on and off for about five minutes, then got hungry and fussy. : ) Later on that evening, I had her propped up in front of me getting ready to feed her (yet again!) She was fussing a bit, then at the end of a string of little cries she made this perfect coo sound. I looked up really fast and she had this look like “did I do that?” I said “yeah?” to her really brightly, and her whole face lit up into this huge, gorgeous grin!! It was the best smile I have ever seen from her! Then she went immediately back to crying for food, haha! Mercurial child… Ever since then, she coos a few times pretty much every time she’s awake. It’s like as soon as she figured out how to do it, it’s easy and she does it all the time.
In other developments, I cut out all dairy in hopes of helping her colic, and it might be working. It also could be complete coincidence! Some friends are coming over on Friday and we’re having fondue, so I’ll find out if she is indeed sensitive to dairy. I really hope she isn’t: I’m not a huge meat eater, so dairy is one of my best sources of protein. Plus I just really miss cheese!
We’re also trying acidophilus pills for me and baby probiotics for her to help her colic and reflux. There’s some research showing that they help. There’s plenty of research showing that they’re safe, so it’s worth a shot.
With all this fussiness, I’ve noticed that if I read to her as she’s nursing she stays calmer and eats better. So instead of reading ten baby books to her every nursing session, I just started reading Harry Potter, haha! She seems to like it, I think… At any rate it’s much more interesting to me, and I think John enjoys listening in, too. : )
