shades of grey

It’s true that things are changing now that the six-week deadline has passed, but sadly, as many of you predicted, it is not the black-and-white metamorphosis I had hoped for. On the other hand, grey is not bad, either. The smiley periods are getting longer, the bouts of crying shorter, and we’ve been sleeping fairly well through the night with only a couple feedings.
But the poor girl is still plagued by belly troubles, despite what I predict will be a very positive outlook on things. Last night, for example, she was sooo tired, and kept falling asleep only to wake 10 minutes later wailing and wiggling in what I can only assume is discomfort. As frustrating as it was for me, it had to have been twice as frustrating for her.
This morning was a similar funk, and it made me renew my pledge to hold off dairy products for a week and see how that works. There has been quite a lot of ice cream and yogurt consumed lately, and it wouldn’t hurt me any to stay off the former for a bit.
I did have a glorious morning yesterday, though. Matt and his sister along with Liam went shopping for a stroller and left Thea and I to our own devices. After nursing her to the brim, I stuffed her in the Snuggli, which hasn’t been well received lately. But it never hurts to try again and again with babies since you never know what color the sky is in their world today. And sure enough, she went for it, fell asleep, and I took an hour-long walk on the beach, stopped for a frozen chai along the way, and thoroughly enjoyed myself. Then, after a little awake time, she conked out again and I got to take a long nap with her that just about made up for the ½ hour period at 2 a.m. the night before when Thea thought it was time to party.
She is getting so much stronger these days and loves standing up, just like her brother did. I think she’s a bit behind him with strength and she still looks down a lot, but it is changing daily and I bet by the end of this week she will be able to hold her head up when she wants to. She’s also grabbing things more these days, but again, I’m sure Liam was reaching for toys earlier than this. I distinctly remember at about six weeks putting him on one of those activity mats for the first time and he reached out immediately and started grabbing things. I felt so guilty because I hadn’t done it earlier, and he must have been somewhat bored. Oh well. Thea, however, seems much more interested in face time than any silly toy.
We’ve got 10 days left in paradise now, and I’m determined to take advantage of them as best I can. I went for a walk this morning, and I’ve got six little bags of breast-milk freedom in the fridge, so that should be good for something.