Different Cries

Before Sadie was born I had read about parents learning to decipher their baby's various cries.  Through June and most of July we listened to a tiny little squawking wail that gradually got louder as summer faded into autumn.  That little wail started to turn into a real cry with actual tears by the start of September.  Now Sadie's different cries have become very distinct.  There are definitely different cries that can be read to determine exactly what's the matter.  Here are a few of them: 

Sadie's best cry is her "hungry cry."  It doesn't really sound like any baby cry that I've ever heard. She eats a lot, and because she's developed her own little schedule of snack, breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner, snack, bedtime, snack, snack, snack, wake up (that's life these days) I don't think she actually ever gets to the point where she's really hungry.  But she knows the schedule and she knows when she's going to get fed and so, when she starts to anticipate being fed, she immediately launches into her Hungry Cry.  The Hungry Cry is half frantic staccato crying and half little tiny coughs.  It's really hard to take her seriously when she does this cry and I think it may make feeding a little bit slower because I'm usually laughing.

Her newest cry is the "I'm Not Getting My Way Cry".  This cry sounds like the typical baby cry, with her mouth wide open (and possibly tears).  During this type of cry the baby turns bright red.  When Nani hears this cry in the other room she usually sprints over to see what's the matter, because it sounds like someone has been seriously injured.  However, it usually has to do with a toy that is out of reach.  Sometimes it occurs when she's frustrated because she's not as mobile as she would like to be and she hasn't been able to scoot across the room to grab the cat or play with her favorite rattle, Bug.  If someone is especially slow during the Hungry Cry things can deteriorate in about two minutes into the I'm Not Getting My Way Cry.  

Then there's the "Sleepy Cry."  When Sadie's sleepy she doesn't really cry.  She does have a non-stop whine, that goes on and on and on until she finally actually drifts off to sleep.  This is the most annoying of the cries.  It happens when she's overtired from insisting that she's not tired and trying her best not to take her nap (because she doesn't want to miss anything and she's pretty sure that we have huge parties in the house the second that she closes her eyes).  With a little bit of food the sleepy cry should always end in a nap.

Now it's off to bed.  It's almost nine o'clock and if we're going to have three feedings and  be up by 6:45 it's just about time to go to sleep.