As the last three months have gone by, I have realized that although exclusive nursing has had many many perks, it's downfall is the inability for anyone else to spend a lot of quality Ivey-time. This has created, well, a bit of a monster. A cute monster, but a monster never-the-less. Ivey is a funny little creature whom I have gotten to know very well. But, as time passes it occurs to me that I may actually want to be away from her for more than two hours at some point in the first year of her life. So far, she tends to accept new people fairly poorly. I take that back, she accepts them fine, as long as they don't actually mess with her! Most of the time, unless she is well rested and has a full tummy, she bursts in to tears if anyone other than her immediate family looks into those beautiful blue eyes. We shall work on this... But, until we are successfully independent from Mommy (aka the milk machine), I will provide you with a run down of what I have learned about this funny little girl.
Ivey loves mornings. We are very blessed to wake up on a regular basis to wide grins and kicking legs. She adores mornings, which makes me able to tolerate mornings a little better myself. She loves to be held, but only if she can see over your shoulder. Sure, it's nice to be toted from place to place, but isn't life a journey rather than a destination? A car without windows is no fun... she'd rather hang out the window like a golden retriever with its tongue flapping in the wind (or licking your shirt as the case may be). She enjoys lots of personal attention, but really likes it if she is laying down, in the crook of your leg, in her bouncy seat, or in a swing. I really think she likes her independence. I swear this girl is just dying to sit, crawl, stand, etc all on her own. She makes a very impressive attempt at sitting up from a reclined position, like she's working on her abs of steel.
She stays perfectly happy watching her mobile (the best mobile on Earth... the boys adored it also) long enough for me to bathe, put on make-up, fix my hair... the whole 9 yards. If she's not watching her mobile while I bathe, she's n the bathroom sitting in her bouncy seat with some toys... and I swear she gets cracked up when bathtime is over and she sees a big tall person stand up out of a very tiny tub. She smiles every time.
During the day she loves her swing, where she has taken more than a few naps in her day. Recently, she sat for over an hour and watched me dismantle our ice maker and replace the motor... which must have been fairly entertaining but never actually resulted in ice. When I do dishes, she sits in the swing or her bouncy seat and plays with various toys, or watches her brothers act like crazed monkeys all around her.
Ivey is utterly smitten with me (or should I say "udderly"), but she also has a particular fondness for and tolerance of Asa and Addison. I guess we are the three people who spend all day long with her. She will watch them both and follow them around the room with her eyes. Either she is highly entertained by them, or she already knows that she'd better keep a close eye on them.
Sleepiness is pretty easy to read, with its tell-tale eye rubbing and fussiness, but hunger is a little tougher. She sucks on her hands constantly, far preferring them to her pacifier. I've never had a thumb-sucker, but I think we just may this time. When she's going to sleep, she usually spits out the paci and comforts herself with her hands. At least she can't lose them. (I've found that she'd more likely to take the paci if you hold it back and show it to her first, putting it to her mouth slowly... who knows, maybe this way she thinks the whole thing was her idea!) If she's tired, she'll usually fight sleep for a little while before giving in. But, you can tell if the cry is a winding-down-losing-the-fight cry or a totally-furious-for-being-in-this-bed angry cry. That last cry isn't gonna lead to anything but ringing ears and a soaked mattress from when she gets herself so upset she pukes. The other cry will usually fade pretty quickly. Lately, she has stopped fighting it so much and actually has seemed relieved when she is put down. I hope that becomes a trend! When she eats, she has started to make it play-time, with lots of poking her head around my shirt and grinning. This totally cracks Asa and Addison up, which I'm sure eggs her on. I also can't help but smile back when I see that cute little grin and that very-proud-of-herself look on her face.
At the moment, Ivey's favorite toys include:
-musical flowers with crinkly petals that she loves to touch and make noises with
- a little yellow duck that is supposed to hang from her carseat but she prefers grabbing and pulling its little beak into her mouth, leading to the often repeated joke, "Look, we're having chicken for dinner but Ivey's having duck!"
-Her "wubanub", which is actually a paci which is sewn to a purple stuffed frog
-What I call the "atomic duck", which is a common yellow duckie with colored rubber hose things coming out of it and looping back into it... it looks like some kind of model atom... very bizarre, but fun to chew on. Addison called the thing "gross".
When Ivey's upset, you cannot look at her in the face. It will only escalate things to a whole new level of loud. My suggestion, either put her in a swing with some music or put her high on your shoulder and walk around to rooms with impressive light fixtures or fans if you got 'em. Walking outside may help. Honestly, when she totally spirals, I am able to magically reboot her system with a nursing session... no help to anyone else. Oh, and if you are holding her, don't try to yell to someone across the room. She startles pretty easy and then you have to convince her that something isn't seriously threatening her life. Believe me, it's happened more than once. I don't remember if the boys did this, but she gets very scared at times.
She usually gets a kick out of lying on the bed with me standing over her, waving my hair back and forth lower and lower until it touches her face. She anticipates it and gets so excited. Biiig thrills. If I don't do it she unlocks her gaze with my eyes and stares right at my head. Ivey's just gotten to the point where she laughs at peek-a-boo. Not when I cover her eyes, but when I hide behind my hands and pop out. She can anticipate it now and, when she's in the right mood, she finds it pretty hilarious. Another thing that is sure to get smiles... a loud, exaggerated kissy noise. She loves stripping down for a diaper change, kicking around with no diaper on, and she absolutely adores baths. She isn't a long napper, but she is completely exhausted by 9:30 at night and will sleep soundly all night long. Once she's out for the night, she's out until at least 6:00. Her belly may wake her up at 6 or 7am, but we both lay down, she nurses, and we both fall right back to sleep. I get up and leave her there... and she usually is fast asleep until 8:30 or 9:00. That's my girl.
Now, this description might paint a pretty clear picture of Miss Ivey, but in actual practice, to give her to another human is pretty likely to result in an explosion of quivery mouths and a very loud, chipmunk like cry. We'll start small, with Daddy keeping the three kids for a few hours on Sunday while I go to a photo shoot. Hopefully, we can convince our little darling to chill out before the grandparents, and all others who can't wait to get their hands on her, lose their rose-colored confidence in keeping her... so we might be able to make it out for a few hours!
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