squawkbottom

Luciya has found her voice. A lot of the time it is a sweet, sweet voice - mama, gaga, pssthpp..... But I have to admit that lately - well, she has been a pill. There, I said it. She squawks, she squeals, she fusses, demands, and - this is a new one - she arches her back like she's possessed and howwwwwls.

She's up for about an hour in the middle of the night, usually around the 3:00 hour. She wails and flails and reaches mind-numbing decibels, while standing in her crib, frustrated and... I don't know what else. Wet? Hot? Cold? Hungry? Uncomfortable? Sick? As a parent it's amazing how mush time you spend trying to decipher the different cries.

One possibility I didn't mention, and that I'm scared to jinx by mentioning it (but am going to mention it here, anyway) is teething. I mean, we have literally been thinking this child is teething since she was five months old, but at her 9-month checkup last week (18 pounds! 28 inches!), Doctor Angie felt no evidence of budding little gum-bones. The kind doctor assured us Luciya will have teeth by the time she's 18 months old. So. She's probably not teething.

But why, all of a sudden, is she demanding we change her name to Screech at 3 am for four out of the past five nights? And why is she mashing her little gums together? And drooling? And generally just pissed off most of the time?

If this isn't teething, so help us when it does happen. Sometime in the next nine months.

*Update: That was cruel. Shes not "generally pissed off most of the time." She is generally a sweet, darling baby most of the time. Sorry, Luciya.