Maja's Misadventures: We're Learning to Whisper...

So after five and a half weeks, I have finally admitted to myself that I really have no idea what I'm doing and the fact that Maja has managed to stay alive and content (most of the time) this long is nothing short of a miracle! :)

Near the end of last week, Maja was napping in half hour chunks of time which meant that I wasn't able to get anything done around the house or even sneak in a nap with her. My days had become a series of holding up toys in front of Maja trying to keep her entertained only to aggrevate her and myself. It went something like this...

Mom: How about the doggy? Do you like the doggy? Look his legs honk like a horn and he has crinkly ears...
Maja: Waaaaaaa!
Mom: No? Ok then... how about the checkerboard? Do you like the checkerboard? There are sixty-four squares on a checkboard... isn't that exciting?
Maja: Waaaaaaa!
Mom: No? Ok then... how about the swing? Do you like the swing? Does it soothe you to be rocking back and forth (oh please don't vomit up all the milk I worked so hard to produce and feed you a couple of minutes ago)?
Maja: Waaaaaaa!
Mom: No? Ok then... how about me pulling out my hair? Do you like mommy bald?

It was then that I remembered the book that my friend Sara bought me as a shower gift, "The Secrets of The Baby Whisper". A friend of mine who I used to work with stopped by last week (Hi Diana, Hi Libby!) and said that book is the bible at her house. So I figured I should start reading it... it couldn't hurt, right?

I have to say that although I haven't finished reading it yet, and I have just started to implement some of the strategies within the past two days, I have already noticed a bit of a change in Maja and me being about to "read" her cries. My life seems a bit more manageable because Maja is now (knock on wood everyone) starting to sleep more during the day and she seems happier during her "awake time". And to top it all off, last night we went to our friend's house for a house-warming party and although Maja was passed around from person to person to person and hadn't fed for over five hours by the time we left, she did really well. She also gave Marvin and I our longest stretch of sleep last night... four and a quarter hours (so sad that such a short amount of sleep seems so long to me, isn't it?)! Yippee! Just to proove how happy Maja is these days, here are some pictures from this afternoon.

Strina Linda (formerly Teta Linda until we discovered she's actually a Strina because she's the paternal aunt, not the maternal aunt - will I ever learn Croatian?) stopped by for some story telling (here Maja is whispering secrets in Linda's ear - and yes she can whisper with the soother in)...