Baby Bug has had a serious case of the Don’t-Put-Me-Downs lately. Or maybe this is just what two months old do. The second I start to drop my arms toward her crib or the changing pad or her blanket on the floor, she crinkles up her face and starts making the most awful crying face ever. This face is purely silent but the emotion on her face speaks volumes. She tweaks her face muscles like she’s going to let out the mother of all screams but by the time any sound actually comes out it’s more of a light grunting sound. It’s actually very anti-climatic but still very effective for her mom who is paying attention to every little eyebrow wrinkle. It’s so sad. I hate to see her get so upset. So of course I pick her up and then the cry face immediately disappears and turns back into happy baby coos.

She’s got me trained.

Yesterday it got so bad she’d start her “I’m-so-upset” face the second I walked into her room. So we walked around the living room until I thought I’d wear a path in the carpet. I turned on the stereo and we danced a little. She didn’t seem that enthralled with the dancing but anything was better than being put down. At least it kept me from going insane. There are only so many things you can do while holding a baby to your chest until your arms feel like they are going to fall off and then some more after that.

The sling is wonderful but it is murder on my back after a while. I put up with it though because the rewards of having two arms free far outweigh a little compression of the spine. I try and not put her in it too much though because it is the instant-sleep-machine and I feel bad when she spends the whole day asleep. I always worry that she’ll spend the whole night awake if she sleeps all day. So far my worries have been for nothing, thankfully. She magically falls asleep at seven-oh-one no matter what her day has been like.

Of course when Toby is around, it’s heaven for me. I get to stand around and take pictures and hover in case the crying commences. Toby has already started all kinds of games with Baby Bug. Her current favorite is “grabby hands”. She gets so excited when she can coordinate her fingers to grasp onto Toby’s hand and then she can squeeze with such surprising strength that Toby will make all kinds of funny Daddy faces at her. It’s great. These moments do my heart good and my tired arms even more good.

As you can see, we think up all kinds of ways to entertain Baby Bug. They all work for about a minute. Then it’s back to holding holding holding. Baby Bug loves to be held, especially over the shoulder like a sack of potatoes. I am going to be one strong supermom. I could probably beat you in an arm wrestling match.

I thought I’d introduce Baby Bug to the wonder of Teletubbies. Anything to give my arms a rest. Then I thought it would be super fun to take a picture of Baby Bug on my laptop as if she’s “checking my blog for comments” or something. But she’s still new at the tummy-time-holding-her-head-up business and she fell and hit her lip on the edge of my laptop. Oh the crying! Her cry of pain is so distinctively different from any of her other cries that it immediately rips my heart out and stomps on it for being such a bad mother. How could I let her get hurt like that?!! I felt so bad. And then Toby had to go and make me feel worse by accusing me of treating our daughter like a circus animal. What are you bored all day or something? he asks. Well, yeah. You kinda go insane after awhile when you have a baby with a bad case of the Don’t-Put-Me-Downs.

In other news: Today my friend Susan is driving in from Bakersfield and we are going to do all sorts of fun things! I’m so excited. She’s mentioned a pedicure and she has a car that she can drive me around town in. I have so many errands to run, my mind whirls at all the possibilities. She’s even offered to help me retrain Baby Bug to take a bottle! Fantastic! Especially since nothing else is working. She also said something about baby sitting and kicking Toby and I out of the house so we can go out to dinner. Ha! Fat Chance of pulling that off. She can try but I don’t think that’s going to happen. Not because Baby Bug won’t be okay with a sitter but more because I have a workaholic husband who’s allergic to eating out.

We’ll see what happens.