Hi Newmom -
I can completely understand where you're coming from - when my DD was born, I had no idea what was "normal" except what I read in parenting books. Both the books and our family doctor attributed her constant screaming/fussiness to colic, and we attempted to ride out the (very rocky) storm. I think I averaged 3-4 hours of sleep each night of her first six months! However, we started to notice that she seemed better with stimulation - dancing with her, speaking directly to her in animated tones - and we had to carry her upright EVERYWHERE (no placing her in a prone position in her carrier while shopping or going for a walk!). People would stare at us in the grocery store because by 5 months we'd have her sitting upright on her own in the cart - just to get through the shopping trip without any screaming!
Related to this was the fact that she got REALLY mad, starting almost from birth, if we'd lay her down. She would try to roll over and scream mercilessly when she couldn't. Her attitude improved at a little over 2 months when she mastered it, but went downhill again as she began trying to pull up. Until that point, I didn't know a baby that young could show frustration, but it was written all over her. My friends all thought I was crazy when I was relieved that she "finally" started walking at 8 months! The tantrums improved significantly at that point, and we managed to get some relief. However, she's always been high-strung - even to the point where I started doing research to find out if something was wrong with her (DH has one occurrence of mental illness on his side of the family, and we were terrified it had cropped up in our kid) - but everything I typed in eventually led back to giftedness in some way. To be honest, this had never even occurred to me - both my DH and I are bright people, but I don't consider either of us GIFTED.
Anyway, long story short, after 4 years of her quirks and craziness, we finally had her tested to find out where she's at. She was well above the 99th percentile, which only verified what we'd suspected all along.
My point here is that (a), you're not alone in this wild ride and (b), kudos to you for recognizing giftedness when you see it. My life would have been much less stressful during DD's first two years of life if I had been able to attribute the things we were seeing to giftedness (rather than something potentially "wrong" with her). So I think you're ahead of the game!
A couple of things we just learned through trial and error: the frustration she experienced before she could walk was alleviated somewhat by the greatest invention for exhausted moms EVER - the doorway bouncer. That thing allowed me to actually have 30 minutes of uninterrupted time to fold the laundry, check email, or start supper. Your DD may be too old for this already (we started using it at 4 months and she enjoyed it until she could cruise well around the furniture), but it was a lifesaver for an exhausted mom!
The other thing that worked really well for us was going on long walks. Being outside really soothed her, but the catch was that we couldn't put her in the stroller because she needed more stimulation than that. I would carry her facing outward and point out everything, talking the whole time, so she could see what I saw. I was always envious of those moms who would meet at the park and talk while their babies contentedly played with a rattle or slept in their carriers - I was never able to do that because DD would always start screaming the minute she wasn't getting any stimulation! It was especially hard because my friends would insinuate that I was spoiling her by always carrying her around, but I did what I had to do in order to survive - especially that first year. :-)
Anyway, I could go on and on - just try to enjoy these early months, because tomorrow you'll turn around and she'll be starting kindergarten (a whole other issue in itself!).
Best of luck!
