My New Baby

Over the past couple of weeks, Mango has undergone a complete transformation. The old Mango was definitely the fussiest of our babies, but also so sweet and fun and active and crazy and silly. She'd give you huge smiles one second, and then scream for 20 minutes straight the next. When she got tired, she'd cry and cry and cry and I'd rock her and bounce her and walk with her and I just couldn't figure out what was wrong or what to do. And she hated being at church! She would start screaming about 5 minutes after Sacrament meeting started and wouldn't stop for at least 15 to 20 minutes, until she had cried herself to sleep. It was so frustrating because she was such a fun, sweet baby, but she would get so mad and I didn't know what to do.

Well, two weeks ago, I had a breakthrough. For one thing, we changed her formula to the expensive one with partially broken down proteins. That seemed to help her tummy feel a little better. But around the same time, I realized that she just didn't want to be held when she was sleepy. When I would just lay her down on my bed out of frustration, she would immediately stop crying and go to sleep. So she had been crying because she was tired and all my attempts to calm her down were just keeping her awake. Isn't that funny? It was just so different from my other babies who would only go to sleep while I held them and then pop back awake as soon as I laid them down. So she had been crying so much because she was tired. (Also because of the formula, of course).

And also a little more than two weeks ago, she figured out how to suck her thumb. It took us forever to get her to take a pacifier in the first place, but then she realized how much more awesome her thumb was and wouldn't take a paci at all anymore. Frustrating, but then also also a huge positive because she can calm herself completely so easily. She'll wake up in the middle of the night, talk a little bit, then stick her thumb back in her mouth and go to sleep.

I call this a deployment miracle. Just in time for Luke to leave, she became the perfect baby. So sweet and happy; her smiles are just the thing to make me feel better when I get sad. And she only cries now when she is hungry or sleepy and both those are taken care of immediately. The only difficulty now is that she got very good at rolling over and so she'll flip over onto her tummy and can't remember how to get back and will start yelling for help. It's pretty darn cute. She can get around pretty well. She hasn't started rolling across the room yet, but with rolling and twisting and kicking, she can get into things.

She discovered her toes in the past couple of weeks as well. It is the funniest thing when she gets her diaper changed, because as soon as it's off, she rolls herself up and grabs her feet so she can put her toes in her mouth. Then as soon as she gets it there, she kicks and arches her back and practically throws herself off the changing table. It is really hard to get a diaper on this little girl. She's been wiggly like that since she was born, but now she's a lot more coordinated with her antics. She's so much fun.

Right now she also loves to scratch things and play with toys and laugh at her sisters. Unfortunately, she still hates church. That hasn't changed at all. Sigh. I am this close to going inactive while Luke is gone. Maybe I should just get to church 30 minutes early so that she can get her screaming out and go to sleep before any meetings start.

Anyway, she's a great baby and we love her. She's sucking her thumb and smiling at me right now. I love this little girl!

I did want to mention (after this way long post) that Luke emailed me and I figured out what he was in the middle of saying. He got a phone! He found a prepaid phone that will work throughout most of Afghanistan. So when he is away from the main camp, he will still be able to call me and let me know what's up. It was so funny because I got this text from a ridiculously long phone number that said "I love you, this is my number" and I thought it must be a misdial. But it was my sweetie, texting me from the other side of the world. It was funny.