I think Marina thinks her name is Bebe. We always call her that and she responds to it more than Marina.
Anyway...
We always wondered why things were never getting easier for us, like everyone keeps saying will happen. She still gets up about 5 times a night, can't fall asleep without us bouncing her, and gets bored or overstimulated really easily. Then my Aunt did some research and discovered she is a high needs baby. I thought this article about 12 Features of a High Needs Baby on Dr Sears' website was very informative.
She has every one of those traits. It can be difficult to get through the day when she always wants to be held and walked around, when she gets upset and it takes a loooong time to calm her down, or she goes from smiling into frowning and crying in an instant. Still, she has good moments too, when she'll lay on her play mat for half an hour and I can actually get something done or when we're doing something right and she smiles and smiles.
Getting through the day is much easier now. Instead of thinking
about this crying, fussing baby, I always try to look at the world through her eyes to find out what she
needs. We've always done that, but now that I don't have this expectation that maybe next month she'll be a normal baby, I can address her needs a little better. It's easier to deal with knowing that some day things not only will get better, but we'll have this amazing, insightful, energetic kid.
And then there are moments like this where I just can't stop laughing:
