What’s Up with You, Elise?

Over the past week, I’ve noticed Elise undergoing some changes. Right after nursing, she gets very fussy and starts to cry. As soon as I sit her up in front of me, she’s cool. It’s like she gets irritated or bored. I wonder if it’s an independence streak emerging, and it makes me fear that she’ll start to refuse nursing. I’ve read it’s rare for a baby under one year old to “really” self-wean, so what gives?

Then, the past three nights, she’s had issues falling asleep at night, which is totally out of the ordinary. She’ll fuss, moan and even cry and scream. I’m not a big fan of crying it out, especially since crying to sleep is so rare for them that I feel like something must be wrong when it happens. I’ve ended up nursing her to sleep in the end. She has to take both sides in order to get drowsy enough to konk out once she’s done eating.

She’s been very vocal lately, babbling a lot (finally! I was afraid the girls would never babble and instead start spewing Foucault or Faulkner. Or both, which would pose a whole different set of problems). In particular, she has started to look at an object and announce one single, strong syllable: “BAH.” or “GAH,” as though she’s naming it. I’m trying to help her along, asking her “Que es el BAH?” (“What is the BAH?”) “Esto no es un BAH, es un JUGUETE.” (“This isn’t a BAH, it’s a TOY.”)

She looks at me and goes, “Screw you, Ama, I’m calling it a BAH.” My smart little girl.

Growth spurt? Milestones? Weird food? Help please?