placebo effect enhanced by being free
I got an amber teething necklace for free from another mom from a Facebook group I'm in. We've only tried it about 24 hours. The jury is still deliberating. She's drooling substantially less. Basically she's only drooling when she's nomming on her hand or a teether, whereas in the days previous she had been drooling all the time. I've gone back to being able to have her not wear a bib and occasionally wipe her mouth with a cloth.
Sleep was better at night than it had been the previous nights, but naps today weren't really any better.
The Husband has fallen in love with how the necklace looks though lol. Especially when she's just wearing the necklace and a diaper. With her roly-poly limbs and tummy, bald head, and the beads, she looks like a laughing Buddha. It's super cute.
The source of the necklace is a Facebook group for free clothing swaps and so far I've made a few other hits on there as well. I got a bunch of 6-12 month socks for Mary-Alice (who has small feet compared to the rest of her--she still fits into newborn socks, but will probably be more comfortable now in 6-12s). They all look brand new and five of them are the kind which look like Mary Janes. I have a severe weakness for baby girls in Mary Jane socks. Especially when they have tiny ribbons on them. SO CUTE.
I think there's an extra thrill for getting things in these kinds of swaps, because it's almost like getting a gift. You're not really sure what it's going to look like etc. The surprise factor.
That "gift" factor reminds me that I have to jot down at some point some thoughts I have about how love language theory may explain part of why people gravitate to different ages and stages of children. (If you're not a parent, you've probably still heard people say stuff like "I love the newborn stage" or "I can't stand the newborn stage" etc.) If your love languages are physical touch centric, you will probably love the newborn stage, because that is how newborns and little babies best express and receive love. But you might have difficulty with an on-the-go toddler stage that doesn't have as much time for hugs and cuddles. On the other hand, if you need words of affirmation, you probably connect better to a verbal stage, and might be exhausted with the non-verbal baby. Etc.
My biggest love language is probably quality time, in particular, I like to do activities WITH someone, like play games, watch a movie, etc. I think one of the ways I most exasperate myself is when I try to do some kind of quality time thing with Pippa and she does it "wrong" because I've picked an activity beyond her age range, or, and this is hard not to take personally, when her newly independent "I do it" mentality takes over and she basically kicks me out of the activity I wanted to do with her! For example, I say "Let's read a book" and she says "No, I want to read it!" and takes the book and sits by herself with it; or I start singing Twinkle Twinkle and she says she wants to do it alone.
I kind of suspect that once she gets to like four or five we are going to have a blast. I could sit down with a four year old and color all day, or play Candyland, or whatever. I love that stuff.