Hi mommies!
Let's see...my name is Shelly (24), dh is Lowell (24), and our beautiful dd Hannah is 13 mos. Dh and I were h.s. sweethearts, in love since we were 16, married at 20, and got pg w/ Hannah after missing one little pill. I worked as an elem. teacher in a private school through the end of the sch. yr. when I was pg w/ Hannah (through 7 mos pg), and now am a sahm.
My pregnancy went very well, gained a ton, and was sick for the first 7 months, but Hannah was healthy. My mom had both of us (bro and I) a few weeks early, and dr. felt I'd be a little early, so I'd kinda mentally moved up my due date. It was July 6, but dr. GUARANTEED there was no way I'd go past July 31st. Ha!!! Hannah was born Fri., Aug 13, a week late by my due date, but several wks late by due date in my mind. I had a safe (but very painful) labor & delivery; had an epidural, but it didn't take. Hannah made it out in 3 pushes (boy was I glad to push!) and was the most beautiful newborn I'd ever seen.
Even in the hospital, her h/n personality was very apparent. She roomed in w/ us, and only seemd happy if I was holding and nursing her. We went home the next day, and for a good part of the 45 min trip, dd cried in the carseat! Too bad I didn't already have the nursing in the carseat thing figured out, lol.
Anyway, we tried having her sleep in the bassinet for about a week before I gave up and brought her to bed w/ us. Ahhh...finally we all got some sleep. I'm so glad we were able to nurse lying down. To sum up those first few months, I held and nursed Hannah all day long and basically did nothing else.
It was when dd was about 4 mos that I found the Fussy Baby book. I couldn't read enough of it. Everything Dr.Sears said was Hannah! I was just so elated to find an expert who knew where I was coming from!
As others said, Hannah was also so frustated being a baby. No mommy substitues would work for her and she wanted nothing to do w/ baby things. Each time as she's been able to do more (sit up, crawl, walk, etc), things have gotten a little easier, but still no comparison to low needs babies. Hannah finally naps on her own (no longer have to hold her), and now naps for usually an hour a day-- sooo much better than when it was only 15-30 mins max if at all!
There's so much more that I could go in to detail with, but you already know what a day in the life of a h/n baby is like!
As difficult as it has been at times, I'm glad my daughter is who she is. Having a high needs baby has taught me so much. I'm also glad that she demanded to be attachment parented. We would've missed out on so much if it weren't for that. I love my dd so much and am so glad to be able to come here and talk/vent to other moms who know where we're coming from!
Shelly & Hannah 8-13-99