Sniffles

Samaya has her first cold the poor thing. As the first born, she already expects and demands more attention than her parents have to give and the past couple days have been multiplied by five. Her life is not in danger by any means but she is one of those individuals who does not at all deal well with discomfort. Or waiting. Or anything less than constant stimulation. Novel stimulation. I have never been a strict adherent of the birth order philosophy, but so far she is not disappointing. And understandably- she spends most of her time with adults who cater to her every whim and, as of yet, there is little competition. Have I mentioned before that when she is in anyone's arms, she leans in the direction she wants them to go? And that if one does not agree to being her personal chauffeur the leaning gets more and more dramatic until she basically leaps out of your arms in an attempt to get there her own darn self? She is specific in her needs.

Back to the cold. Don't get me wrong-I have sympathy for the child. Her nose and mouth form a steady stream down her face and she has trouble nursing and breathing at the same time. She has, to her credit, tried so hard the past couple of nights to sleep. She sings in her high pitched 9th octave, VOLUNTARILY laying her head down on the bed in an attempt to self soothe. For those of you who are unaware, the only time any part of Samaya's body is not pumping, kicking, grabbing, wiggling, reaching, craning, arching, pulling, pushing, etc, etc, etc, is when she is sleeping. And that is an oh so temporary quarter step away from wide awake and up on all fours. We have been working since birth on her self-soothing skills though and now she often gets herself back to sleep (PRAISE THE LORD). But these delicate new skills cannot withstand obstructed nostrils and so the last two nights have been sleepless. And by that I mean more so than usual.

I must say, however, that there is something about your little one being sick that makes you love them a thousand times more. She's not even the cuddly sort and it still has that effect on me. You just wish you could take away those sniffles and look into those big glassy eyes and tell her you're going to make her feel all better.

But then she whines for the millionth time that hour and you call Grandma to PLEASE COME DEAL WITH HER GRANDCHILD FOR THE LOVE OF GOD.