Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Pre-school help please - out of ideas/resources for my baby

I have a 4 and half month old baby girl and I just don't know what to do for her anymore. Since I took her home from the hospital, she has had an amazing attention span, and has never slept much. At three and a half months she said her first words, which were I love you, though she can't pronounce the "L" very well, everything else is perfect.

She watches baby Einstein baby McDonald, and baby Mozart but that's about it. She hates anything that is babyish or toys/dvds that say they are for 0-6 months. She will only watch things that are 9 months and up. She learned to laugh by watching other babies on dvd laugh. She has created faces to let me know what she wants. She has an amazing attention span and will baby talk with us for up to an hour. She watches her baby Einstein over and over for 45 minutes, she also, get's very angry if I try and cook in the kitchen without her. I have never seen a baby get angry. I don't know where she learned it. She has never seen anyone get angry. If I can make her laugh, she get's bored with it easily and won't laugh anymore. She loves books, but I can only read so many books to her. Anyway, all this to say, I don't know what to get her to challenge her anymore. She has every learning toy above her age, she thinks they're great but she getting bored with them. She doesn't like baby stuff. She likes "doing" things, active, she get's frustrated because she can't move around yet. Tummy time is difficult because she wants to get up on her own. She can't crawl or walk yet and that frustrates her. When little kids are running around in the park she tries to wiggle out of my arms to get down. She refuses to drink water out of a bottle, and will only drink out of a glass like I do. I am out of resources, and out of ideas of how to challenge her. I want to keep up with her own pace, but there is only so much I can do for her since she's only 4 and half months old and can't even sit up on her own. She doesn't seem to be happy with anything unless it's challenging for 9+ months at least.

Any ideas, help, advice, or even encouragement? Thank you.

LOL - this won't last for ever!
Try the toy brand LEAPFROG
You are going to have to let her watch TV, try the Science Channel.
Make sure she gets Tummy Time.
Getting Angry is natural, you don't have to learn it from someone - LOL, how would YOU feel trapped in the body of a 4 month old.
You are still the Mom, though.
Treat her by her 'behavioral age' not her 'chronilogical age' for the most part.

Keep venting here - it's a rough ride!
Grinity

Really no advice here but wanted to post encouragement. She will be sitting up before you know it and that will ease some of the issues and by what you described I would be shocked if she isn't crawling/walking soon after that. She is a baby of determination and that determination will get her far. My suggestion would be to continue doing what you are doing: reading to her. I know a lot of people say you should keep with the same book but my DD would get bored with that approach so I read a lot of different books which helped build her vocabulary. Also keep up with the talking to her. I was not the best at that but my Mom and Grandmother are/were experts with it. They would hold her in their arms and talk to her forever. Having conversations if you will with DD. She would coo and baby talk and they would accept that as some answer to a question they had and proceed on with the conversation. It was magical to watch the interaction and IMO is one of the reasons she spoke as early as she did. We also did a lot of nursery rhymes with her but not just sang them rather made it a whole body experience for her. Itsy Bitsy Spider used her whole body and when the sun came out we would hold her hand over her head and wave it ... she now sings that song to use using all of the body movements. Head, shoulder, knees and toes is a great one to use to help establish body parts for her. That song and approach made it clear early on that DD understood her major body parts really early. She was able to point out body parts when asked and it was nothing to then add parts that were of the details: eyes, cheeks, chin etc. We also had finger puppets that were farm animals and I would sing Old McDonald and use the puppets for the song and she quickly learned animals and sounds they make. There is a lot of things you can do while she is still immobile. I hope that helps...

Thanks to both of you...what is really hard is that she refuses to lay down. Diaper changes are a horrible experience every time because she won't lay there and she will do crunches. She has to stand or sit up constantly which means she is being held (upright) or is in her baby jump bouncer! Her curiosity is difficult to keep up with, but I guess I was a handful for my mom because I was deemed gifted too in school. Yikes, what goes around comes around.

LOL ... I have so been there and you really are bringing up a lot of old memories. My DD never wanted to be held like a baby always doing the stomach crunches to sit up and be held sitting up. Just remember that those stomach crunches are strengthening her abilities to sit independently. And Grinity is correct ... tummy time is important so one suggestion I can give since my kiddo never liked tummy time was to place a pillow on your lap and lay her on her tummy patting her bottom. You can do this in short increments and build up on it.

And the changing diapers issue if I remember correctly I explained to her what I was doing it and why she needed to lay down until I was done... sounds crazy I know but it seemed to eliminate the crunch issue during diaper changing time. But it just proved how locked she was in her body.

I'm dying with laughter at the image of your baby doing crunches!

Yes it is exhausting and K-mom is right, she will be mobile soon which will alleviate her *anger* issues, LOL!

Just be careful what you wish for, you'll be in for a whole nuther set of problems at that point!

Take her as many places as you can, talk lots, and enjoy.

Welcome to the Baby Who Will NOT Be Denied Club, LOL!!!

Neato

First of all- you have come to the right place for support.

DS wanted to be held upright all the time to know what's going on in the family. The best thing I found was a Bumbo seat, which allowed him to sit without having the trunk support to do it. As long as a baby can hold their head up, the bumbo will do the rest. He was more content in the seat than on his tummy (although it's important to encourage tummy time also).

As far as toys, we did better with outings than anything else. At 6 months old DDs favorite places were zoos and natural history museums (still are). I would get toys for older children and they would hold interest better than at age toys. Also, books that were easier to hold, were an instant hit with both kids.

HTH

Jen

thanks, ya, its pretty funny to se her do crunches, but frustrating too! She wants it her way or else!

I'm just worried she's not enjoying being a baby herself!

I've tried the bumbo seat, she HATES I mean really really hates being retrained (as in a car seat, bumbo seat) trips and outing are horrible. She's hated car seats since I brought her home from the hospital. I find it only works if I sit back with her and read her a book. She wants to do things, learn! I don't know how to challenge her more.

At four and 1/2 months old, I'm not sure that there is much more you can be doing! DD9 was colicky and screamed all the time til about 6 months. Coincidentally, that's when she started to really be able to crawl around well.

I'll never know whether or not she was super fussy or totally unhappy, but I was doing a good job as a mom, as are you.

I can tell you today she is a very wonderful happy healthy girl. She doesn't even remember being a permanently pissed off baby. She does laugh at the stories, though and loves to hear what a stubborn little thing she was!!

It gets better!!!

Glad to hear it gets better... She's a happy baby when she does what she wants to do. No colic thank goodness! Just a big challenge. Thanks everyone for the encouragement.