Houston, we have a (crying) problem!

On July 27th, exactly one week later, Makena cut her 2nd tooth. These last several days have been our least fun ever. She has two teeth, and constant bad case of the grumps. So not cool. She cries about pretty much everything. People are beginning to comment "Wow, she used to be so happy." And it makes me want to cry. :(

I'm finding myself getting super frustrated and annoyed. She wakes up happy, and gets about an hour of giggles and smiles, then it's downhill. She really enjoys playing on the floor, but she gets mad when she can't reach something, and she falls over all the time and screams, and she wants to move around but can't!

She's been waking up a lot in the middle of the night, ready to play. Pam and I are realizing now, at 6 months, what sleep deprivation is. Most babies outgrow this by 6 weeks of age. Makena sailed right through her first 6 weeks, misleading us to believe that we were just lucky, only for it to bite us in the butt months later. The non-sleeping, the crying... this is what people mean when they say having kids is hard. I went to sleep at 8pm last night without eating because I couldn't handle waiting for dinner.

It's one thing to have a crying baby. But it's another to have a whiney fussy baby who is half smiling as she cries out. I'm SO upset that I'm having so hard of a time. Makena is amazing- she is so fun, has a great giggle, loves cuddles, yadda yadda... she's wonderful, there's no denying that! But we really feel like this is an impostor baby..where did our sweet, content to sit and play by herself, easy-going darling go?! And more importantly, is she coming back???? WHEN?!

So now, a list of everything that Makena doesn't love-

Getting her clothes/diaper changed.

You might remember that just a short while ago this was on the "Makena Loves" list. Well apparently she's reached the age where everything around her is so exciting that stopping to get changed is the end of the world. She's started to wiggle and fight it. Getting her arms through the arm holes is like an Olympic event.

Being on her tummy.

Makena has never enjoyed tummy time. She will lay on her back happily for a long time, but cries pretty soon after rolling onto her tummy. She can roll to her back, but she would rather lay there and cry until we sit her up. She wants to sit 24/7, but she also tries to reach for things and ends up slumped over on her side then rolling onto her belly. And she hates it. Here she is just moments away from flopping onto her belly.

Loud noises and strangers in her face.

The vacuum, blender, leaf blower, power drill...all these noises make her scrunch up her face and SCREAM. When people she doesn't know well get up close and talk to her she sticks out her pouty lip and lets out a loud cry that says "GET AWAY FROM ME!" She displayed this beautifully to a waitress who was trying to be nice. The waitress asked which of us was Makena's mom, and I said "Both, she has two moms." and she replied with "Well isn't that special! Not every baby is lucky enough to have TWO moms!!" Cue the screaming lucky baby...

Falling.

Ok well this one is to be expected, I mean, nobody likes falling. Especially when she falls face first. I'm glad we have carpet! Sometimes she unfortunately falls onto a toy, and I'm sure that hurts and warrants a good cry. But Makena screams each and every time as if she has cracked her skull. It takes a lot of holding and distracting to make her forget about it. Then again, she could be crying just because she tried to grab something but ended up falling, and she's not mad that she fell, just mad that she couldn't reach. Oy. She is SO close to crawling, she sits so well and then reeeeeaches and ends up falling. Look at the photo, she's trying to grab something that isn't even in the frame. It's obviously out of her reach!

Things that get taken away.

If this is the beginning stage of a toddler who will throw temper tantrums...oh lord please help me. Obviously the most exciting toys in our house are- our cell phones, the remote, anything made from paper, and plastic bags. All of which she isn't allowed to have, yet somehow keeps getting her chubby little hands on. (Side note: Who knew we have so many plastic bags in our lives? Get out of here!!) If she grabs something and we take it away she screams as if we just dropped her on the floor head first. It's ridiculous and drives me crazy. I try my best to keep these items out of her sight (Plastic bags?! Are you kidding me?? EVERYTHING is packaged in plastic all of a sudden!) once she sets her mind on it, she has to have the forbidden item. Because she knows it's a forbidden item. I know how this all works!

Eating more than a couple bites.

Makena gets so excited at meal times. She loves to sit in her highchair (which I exchanged for a new fabric pattern!) and opens her mouth in anticipation for that first spoonful. She'll take the next few bites with no problem, but after about the 4th spoonful she purses her lips closed. And whines. And bangs her fists. So I try to squeeze the spoon in or make her laugh and get the food in her mouth, and she eats it happily until she closes her mouth and acts all mad again. I think she just hates being fed and wants to do it herself. And I'm okay with that! But she can't feed herself purees with a spoon. Maybe I'll start doing meals in the tub so I can let her go crazy and spray her down afterwards...

Swallowing pool water.

Again, I'm pretty sure nobody likes that. Pam has been doing swim classes with Makena this past week, and on the first class she swallowed a big mouthful of water. The rest of the 30 minute class she was a big ol' grumpster. In fact, she hasn't seemed to enjoy her swim class at all, which makes us sad. She loves the water, but the class is at 5:30 and that's a crappy time of day.

Sleeping alone.

She's still only napping if I nurse her to sleep or I'm not around and Pam gets her to fall asleep while holding her. And she wakes up with any sound or movement, so we can't transfer her into her bed. I came home from Target to this view as I opened the door-

And her newest thing is...drum roll please...

Crying when I walk away or leave the room.

If she's starting to fuss and whine she get's clingy and needy, and I if dare leave her sight she flips out. Or, Pam will be with her and if I walk by she flips out. We're starting to do that whole "no eye contact" thing in hopes that she won't have a meltdown when we lock eyes but I don't hold her. She's reaching out for me sometimes, and while very cute and heartwarming... it's also super frustrating (for both Pam and I!) because she'll be in Pam's arms and crying to get into mine.

I know her teeth and mouth must be hurting. The other night she was crying so much that I gave her some of the Hylands Teething Tablets and she literally fell asleep within seconds. She grabs at her mouth a lot and drools all the time. She loves sucking on cold things, so I give her frozen cubes of pureed fruit in her mesh feeder thingy and she is happy for a while. And she does still smile, in fact she's still WAY more smiley and happy than some other serious babies! We laugh a lot and she's adorable! But her grump is always right under the surface, and you never know if it's going to come out! This is what she looks like a lot of the time now-

She pulls her lower lip in and has this intent look of...annoyance? Boredom? Whatever it is, it makes me sad. But not as sad as this face-

P.S. In other news, she pooped in the toilet today. She woke up abruptly from a nap after only sleeping for 20 minutes. She woke up crying and when I sat her up she was super gassy and started straining to poop but clearly it wasn't going to well. And she was wearing a nice new cloth diaper that I didn't want to get ruined with poop (I know...it's a diaper!) so I took off the diaper to give her more room. But then I thought "now what?!" So I sat her on the toilet and she totally pooped. 4 times. It was a LOT of poop! I was so excited that she didn't make a huge poopy mess that definitely would have leaked out of the diaper! All I had to do was flush it away! (Well, after saving it to show Pam...lol!) It was exciting, in a way that you would only understand if you have a baby.