Smart Cookie

Smart Cookie
Originally uploaded by vczdavis

Day 29 Friday 8/15

This morning Holly had her session with Katie, and she was teething, so she was very oral, and would not do any of her stretches, or work without being able to chew on something and have something in her mouth. She did a lot of reaching, passing from left to right hand, and when eating her shoulders were back and relaxed so she was in a good position. She also did quite a bit of altered tummy time, with great back strengthening positions holding herself up and not getting too aggravated. She was rather sleepy today. We went to swim class which she enjoyed but she was not as animated as she usually is.

When we got home from swimming Holly had a wonderful turn taking session with mommy, where she would chatter I would respond and then she would continue, presumably telling me all about what she thought of swim class. She has done this in a limited bases before, but this particular time we went back and forth about 15 times over twenty minutes, it was the longest conversation she has had yet.

In the evening we had some stories and then she got very upset. Mommy was taking a break from watching Holly trying to catch up on her notations, emails, journal, and also talking with Josephine. Holly spent almost all her time with mommy over the last two weeks and weekend, and she was missing mommy because I took a break, she would cry when Daddy held her, and was not really cheering up. I think it was because she was teething, but she was working herself up, into what may have been something of a panic attack. Joel had not seen this before and he was very distressed, wondering if the medicine had caused it, and if she has ever done thing before the medicine. She did it the time I was stuck in San Francisco which was a few days after she started the medication, but I also think she has done it before. She starts to get frantic and she freaks out crying so much she starts to choke on her breaths and she basically threw up her entire meal. I was on the phone ordering Chinese food when it was happening, not realizing she was in a frenzy yet, and thought it was regular crying, which I was trying to ignore, and allow Joel to sooth, since I am trying to get her used to me not being there since we are starting daycare in 2 weeks. But her entire outfit was soaked in food, as well as it was on her hair face neck hands. I grabbed her from Joel when I realized how back she was, she almost started to calm right away, I then stripped her and myself down and went into the shower. The warm water holding her tight and cleaning her off, shampooing her hair, and then wrapping her into a blanket.

This happened around 7:00, she had eaten around 6:30 She fell asleep in the towels, and I put her into the swing. She stayed asleep until I moved her into bed at 3:00 AM, at which time she drank 130 cc of breast milk. I gave her the 25 dose of Minocycline at around 11:30 with 4ml of Apple Juice and a pinch of Sugar. We think she was fussy not only because she was teething, but she had been trying to poopie all day, and had not gone for 2 days, and wasn't going. She ended up with a poopie at 8am Saturday Morning. I have talked about this behavior in my mother's group, and they have told me I should let Joel sooth and calm her, but also that there babies do have these frantic crying spells that make them spit up there food, but it is hard for me to believe, and perhaps I do not describe it as drastic as it is. I can;t tell however if it is a panic attack.

My sister has had panic/anxiety attacks, and they are similar, I chatted with her about this episode. My Sister indicated that breathing, rocking, and swaddling helps her overcome them and the attacks are far worse then whatever may have set them off. I am not sure if this is normal baby behavior, or a female fragile X "tantrum" anxiety attack. Holly seems to have a very High tolerance and rarely gets overstimulated anymore, this was not the same, it was more like she was uncomfortable, and mommy wasn't fixing it (I obviously can't if its teething) and she just gets more and more fussy, until something just pushes her over the edge and she explodes. I am going to ask the pediatrician next week if I should have given her Tylenol, in case it was teething, its hard for me to tell if that is indeed whats wrong, or some type of numbing gel, but she didn't seem very bitey, so I don't know.