Irritations, night guilt,, and funny faces

How hard is it to keep track of a child's clothing at daycare? All of Noelle's clothing are labeled with her name (as requested by her daycare) yet she is still missing at least 2 onesies (one of which is one of my favorites. Of course they aren't going to lose something I'm not crazy about. Grrr.). I know it sounds petty as it's just 2 onesies (at least that I'm aware of) but still. How hard is it to stuff said child's soiled clothes into her bag? I'm guessing they gave it to the one other baby girl by mistake but I'm annoyed that her mom hasn't sent it back in yet. I've received the wrong clothes twice but I always promptly returned it to the daycare the next day and explained that it must be the other baby's. Grrrr.

I'm going to have to start being quiet in the evenings when Noelle is asleep. Twice this week she heard me talking (not any louder than I've talked before though) and she woke up crying to be held. She has a truly heart piercing wail at times. The indignant shriek she belts out when she's angry about not being held is bad enough (and sorta funny) but the lower toned, sad, "woe is me" wail is much worse about making me feel bad.

We fed her apple baby food for the first time this weekend and her reaction was unexpected. I had held off on giving her fruits for the past 2 months as everyone told me that introducing it too early would make her reject the not-as-sweet baby foods. So I dutifully gave her only peas and green beans at first and then reluctantly the carrots and sweet potatoes. She eats all of these relatively well. Her reaction to apples? Bleah. I forgot that in addition to sweet, apples are often a bit tart. Noelle is getting better at accepting apples but still flinches a bit from the tartness every now and then. Heh.

Argh!!!!

I'm still torn between feeding Noelle solids first and then bottle an hour later or vice versa. Feeding her solids first will get her more used to eating solids but on the other hand, she should take in as much milk as possible since milk is richer in calories and better at meeting her nutritional needs. Gah! Why isn't there one solution????? For someone like me, having a constant barrage of scenarios where there are a million possible solutions is driving me nuts!

Good and bad at the same time

Noelle has started crying/whimpering whenever I leave her, even if she is being held by someone else. Before, she would stare at me as I left but generally be okay as long as someone, ANYONE, was holding her. Now, she's actually protesting my leaving. This makes me feel good and bad...while it's heartwarming and makes me feel "awwww!" that she prefers me so much, this also makes me feel guilty since I do have to leave her some of the time. She's reallllllly good at making one feel guilty. She's perfected the "woe is me" expression.

By the way, Noelle has mastered rolling between her stomach and back in either direction. She actually uses it to purposefully get closer to things she wants. Last week, she also sat by herself (no cushions or anything supporting her!) while propping her hands in front of her for the first time! Whoohoo!

Noelle has also now tried both peas and sweet potatoes baby food. She seems to like variety...whenever we gave her something new for the first time (i.e. rice cereal, oatmeal cereal, peas, sweet potatoes), she gobbled it up. The next few times...not so much. Hmmm...the little queen apparently gets bored easily. This does not bode well...

Cause and effect

Noelle has a new bloodcurdling shriek now. When you hear it, you swear that something must be wrong but she stops as soon as you pick her up. She's taken to using it when we put her to bed at night. For the past few nights, she screamed like that for about an hour before she fell asleep while we tried to calm her with shushing noises/music. Last night, we decided to try just letting her be and leaving the room. I felt horrible about letting her cry like that but hey, what we were doing wasn't working. The irony? She stopped within 5 minutes and slept with only a few sniffles now and then. That kid learned to shriek like that to get us to pick her up. Little stinker.

Thoughts of a crazy, OCD mom...

When Noelle starts her jars of baby food (which she started with today), should I be feeding her a bottle of milk then, too, or wait an hour? Should I give her the same amounts of milk as before for a feeding or less since she's eating solids?

Should I only keep her in onesies at daycare so her tummy won't get cold when she inevitably drags up her shirt ("Yoohoo, world! Check out my belly button and nipples!")?

Why did she develop this disturbing habit of either repeatedly bapping herself in the head or scratching the hell out of her ear during bottle feeds? If we stop her, she stops drinking. Rhythmic self-injurious behaviors is NOT making mommy happy...

Should I bother putting sunscreen on her? She's in the shade most of the time anyways but all those books keep saying baby skin is sensitive...

If I worry enough, will it count?

Did I mention that the peas baby food she ate today looked almost exactly like the contents of her diaper? Ewwwwwww...