What is all the noise about??????

So, as I have mentioned numerous times in my blog-I have always felt that Bella Baby was the easiest baby to read in the world.  She was never fussy, it was never really a guessing game with her and I have been proud of the fact that things have for the most part been pretty simple.  As simple as they can be when you have a new child that you are responsible for.  Then, something changed these past few weeks.  Besides the fact that she is now way more vocal which can be funny and frustrating at the same time-I find myself in a new zone with my little one.  This week she turns 5 months.  Five months when you think about it is not a long time.  In fact in the grand scheme of things, five months is a brief amount of time-but for your new child-the amount of changes that happen are amazing.

Her newest thing is flexing her vocal chords.  So you find yourself wondering-is she pitching a fit?  Or is she enjoying that she can reach new octaves with her sounds.  The most hilarious thing is the duct tape thing.  I know you are probably wondering what that is-so let me explain.  She puckers in her bottom lip and does baby babble so it sounds like she is trying to talk with duct tape covering her mouth.  She puckers her lips like she is blowing kisses and is intrigued by clicking her tongue to make a noise and blowing out sounds-almost like she is trying to do a “B” sound with a “buh”.  So now along top of all of that she has started screaming.  High pitched like she is throwing a temper tantrum and I find myself looking at her wondering “what happened?”  My mellow little one is now showing signs of being tempermental.   Without really having anything to go off of, it sounds to me like temper tantrums and I find myself wondering “What is all the noise about?”

Now, I realize that she really has no way of communicating right now.  There are some things that she does that let me know that what I am doing is what she is wanting.  I used to understand that this cry meant this, and this cry meant something else.  Not anymore.  So what is a mother to do?  It is like a game that you are playing that you don’t know the name of, don’t know the rules or what the outcome is supposed to be.  A light in the puzzle is when I guess she wants a bottle and as I am walking towards her with it, her eyes light up-she smiles and stretches out her arms to grab it.  I think to myself “okay this is what she wanted” but the rest of the time I really don’t know.  

Sleeping was something that we have never really had to deal with.  Up until last week, we put her down for bed and that was it-she grabbed her little lamb to hold it, rubbed her eyes and was out.  NOW however trying to put her down for bed has become an ordeal and I can’t help but wonder-“Is she already spoiled?”  I found myself wondering, everyone talks about the “terrible 2’s” but is there a “terrible month 5?”  

I know some of it is that she is teething.  She also gets really frustrated when she can’t do something that she wants.  In her playgym there are hanging butterflies and she loves to grab those now since she can reach them, but gets upset that she can’t pull them down to her.  For those that don’t know-between 4 and 6 months a motorskill that they start to develop is to reach for an object, grab it and then pull it to them.  She is able to do this with other toys, but her connected butterflies prove to be an obstacle that she doesn’t understand.  Poor thing doesn’t realize that they are attached and are not supposed to be pulled down to her.  The teething thing is a trip.  She tries to stick everything in her mouth and watch out if she can’t because she will start screaming.  One of the things that I never wanted was to be a play toy to her.  So she has always played on her own and had self discovery.  I do play with her and do things with her, but she spends a healthy amount of time on her own as well.  She has started screaming if she wants out of her bounce-a-bout, if she wants off the floor, if she wants a nap, if she is hungry, if she is bored and even if she doesn’t think that we are paying enough attention to her.  Literally we went from simple happy baby to complicated high maintenance.  Believe me, I am not trying to get off of any “Mommy Responsibilities” but trying to figure things out with her has become exhausting at times.  So what happened to mellow baby??????

The truth is that Baby Bella will be constantly evolving as a child and I will be constantly evolving as a Mother.  I know that we will get through this as I get a better understanding of her and what her needs are.  Maybe it is time for the drill instructor to come out in me already-who knows?  I have no idea what this next month will bring.  Here’s to hoping I get the puzzle of figuring out my daughter for this next month and it becomes a little more understandable and that I can learn to be even more patient than I thought I had already become.  This all while remembering that as much as this is new to  me, it is new to her too.