When Trey was first born, Drew and I could not get over how good he was! Seriously, he seemed like the perfect baby. He never cried, slept all the time, and was as cute as could be. I hate to admit it now, but I remember thinking at one point that, "this having two kids thing is going to be easy!" I remember the day I changed my mind on that. We were in Henleyfield packing to move to Marion. Drew had been working all day at the church and I was home alone with both kids trying to pack boxes. Trey screamed ALL day. He screamed in his bed, so I moved him to his bouncie. He screamed in his bouncie, so I moved him to the swing. He screamed in his swing, so I moved him back to his bed. Repeat. Fifty times. I remember Drew coming home and looking at me with this, "what'd you do all day look" and me snapping back at him. He was still functioning under the whole "Trey is a perfect baby who never causes any trouble mentality." He quickly learned his lesson.
Trey was jaundiced when he first came home and apparently jaundiced babies like to sleep a lot. So, this explained the easy baby thing. Still cute as could be, Trey's attitude definitely changed along with his color. Even so, there are things about Trey that we appreciated, such as the fact that he is able to put himself to sleep at night all on his own. Evangeline slept in the swing or my bed for the first six months of her life, but Trey has always slept in a bassinet right by my bed (and occasionally in my bed once he wakes up to nurse).
Tending to two babies became a lot easier once I wasn't either packing, unpacking, or recovering from knee surgery. (Throw in planning a children's camp, directing a children's choir program, and hosting friends from Montana and I had a VERY busy July!). Trey really doesn't cause me too much trouble any more except for two areas of concern:
Area of concern #1: Moving Trey to his own room. I said above that Trey is able to fall asleep on his own in either his bassinet or bed. This is wonderful. Not so wonderful is that when he wakes up an hour or so later, he looks around for me. I have gotten in the habit of patting him and putting a pacifier quickly back in his mouth and he drifts back to sleep for another hour or so. Doesn't really cause me too much hassle. Unless he is in another room. I am much less enthusiastic about a quick pat and a paci-replug from down the hall. Trey's been in his "own room" for about two weeks now and has only made it to 4:00 one time. Most nights he's back in our room by midnight. Last night it was 11:22. So, what do I do? I think he's too young to cry it out. I don't even rock him or anything. I seriously think he just knows if I'm close by or not. Which leads to area of concern #2...
Area of concern #2: Trey throws hysterical fits when away from me for any length of time. So far, he has done okay in the church, Bible study, and MOPS nurseries. There have been a few times at church (like this past Sunday) where he started a screaming fit and I had to go get him. We used to just figure that he was hungry, but now that he is bigger, it's not so much that he's hungry, it's just that he wants me. Last Friday night Drew kept Trey while my dad, Evangeline, and I went to the Meridian High game. We were there a grand total of five minutes before Drew insisted we come home. My mom kept Trey a few weeks ago while I went to the Sweet Pea Swap. I ended up having to stay WAY longer than planned and Trey spent a solid two hours screaming. This led my mom to do some online research and determine that Trey is a "high needs baby."
Now, I don't know about the "high needs" thing. In some ways, Trey definitely fits the description. He is very aware of his surroundings, wants mama only, can be very happy or very angry, etc. But, in a lot of other ways Evangeline fit the description better. I don't think Trey is high needs. But, that's easy for me to say because all I have to do to get him to stop crying is pick him up! The best I can conclude is that he is just a mama's boy. And a sweet one at that!
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