Laughing and crying

We have had an up-and-down kind of week. There have been some very bad days of sleep (last Sunday night Maren woke me up nine times in ten hours), and some fairly good days of sleep. Maren has been fussier than usual, and a couple of days this week she has forcefully declared (by crying and rubbing her eyes) that it was bedtime, much earlier than we normally would put her to bed. Two days ago she wanted to go to bed around 6 PM. Tonight she has been crying lots, and I suspect that it is because her naps today have been extremely short. She is fine right now, and Jeff has her so that I can do a quick post!

As much as there has been more crying this week, there has also been quite a lot of silliness and fun. On Monday, after what was probably the worst night of sleep since she was born, she finally laughed for me for the first time. She had laughed for Jeff once before, but I was in the bath and missed it. But Jeff was able to capture some of the laughing:

Since then, she has laughed for me several times. It is very rewarding to hear that laughter.

Nursing has been a bit difficult. Sometimes she is fine, but often she is upset at being offered the breast, even when she is hungry. It is challenging to deal with this, as nursing is supposed to be the thing that offers comfort, and it seems like often it is just the opposite of comforting. I have tried lots of things, and so far have not found the source of the problem. More likely than not, it is not one single issue. It could be so many things, and one experienced breast-feeding support person suggested that it might just be her asserting her personality – she wants what she wants and she doesn't want what she doesn't want. I hope that we are able to come to a resolution, even if it is just to accept that sometimes it will upset her when I suggest that she may want to nurse. Today was actually a great day for this, with no crying and no struggles around nursing all day, and then around 5 PM things took a turn for the worse. Oh well. Maybe the best explanation is just that she is a baby :-)