Friday, January 22, 2010

When does comforting segue into coddling?

I can't decide how long I should comfort and baby S. She is definitely feeling better today though I'm sure she's not up to herself just yet.

She refuses to shut her mouth, or move it all to speak. She admits it's because she's afraid. So, she is almost totally incomprehensible when she speaks.

She refuses to eat/drink anything in any real quantities that I give her. Last night, J made her a smoothie while I was taking the older two kids to girl scouts/basketball. She drank 4-5 cups of it. Crazy! So, apparently, he'll have to do all feeding because he's much better at it than me.

She doesn't want to see anyone or go anywhere sometimes, but other times wants to see cousins. I can appreciate her reluctance. Unfortunately, I have had something scheduled for a while this morning. I'm taking her to a beloved babysitter. She says she doesn't want to go, but I think she'll be ok with it once she gets there.

Yesterday, we went to see some cousins. Bless their hearts, the older two had missing teeth, and the three of them compared missing teeth, and S acted totally fine with showing off her war wounds and seeing their missing teeth. She did NOT want to leave when I told her it was time.

My BIL came in the middle of that, and she hid because she didn't want him to see her that way.

So she's very back and forth on who sees her, what her mood is, and what she'll do.

I'm trying very hard to be patient with her because I know it's a devastating event for her. I worry that if I coddle her too much that it'll make things more difficult in the long run. Finding a good balance is difficult for me.

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