Chaos before Progress

The nurse that runs my Moms group on Wednesdays is named Ann and she's this super calm, grandmotherly type. This week I mentioned at the group that Edie has started this new, odd habit of flailing around while breastfeeding. She even does it with the bottle now too. It's only been for the last week or so, but while she's eating, she's thrashing around and making noises. She's also been wide awake more often during the day and a little more unpredictable during the evening hours before bed. A few other Mothers with kids the same age as Edie said they've actually been having the same issues, one of them has also been struggling with suddenly unpredictable sleep patterns. Ann reminded us that before babies reach a developmental milestone, there is often chaos in the home. She called it the "chaos before progress theory". She said the week before a baby will roll over or learn to crawl, their sleep schedules, eating, and general fussiness levels can go haywire. Then the following week, they'll do something amazing like roll over for the first time and things will return to normal.

Well, Edie gave us her first "social smile" yesterday! They say babies usually give you their first real smile around week 6, and we're just about there, so this makes sense. Previously we were just getting accidental and gas smiles. But this smile was in response to me smiling big at her and saying her name over and over. She watched me smile and clearly imitated it right back at me. Her smile made me smile big and laugh out loud, which made her smile again. We did this three or four times in a row before it dawned on me to try and get a video. Of course by then she was over it.

Now if only the chaos could fade.