Another baby blog. Thelma is just so absolutely adorable.

I'll use this blog to say a few words in rebuttal to some stuff I read in a bunch of baby books when I was pregnant. A lot of them say something along the lines of, "Don't resent your baby's cries, since after all, that's your baby's only means of communication, so she's just doing the best she can until she learns to talk." That's bull. My baby, at least, has plenty of means of communication at her disposal, and she makes use of them. As much as I'd like to think that my baby is unusually brilliant (and of course she is) I can't imagine she's such an extreme outlier on the communication skills bell curve.

Take hunger for an example. When Thelma's hungry, she puts her hand to her mouth in a gesture that very clearly says "Feed me." If a non-English-speaking tourist came up to you and made that gesture, you would know to point him to your favorite local restaurant, or steal his wallet because he's obviously a tourist, depending on who's reading this.

Once I see that Thelma is hungry, as I prepare to feed her, she opens her mouth and waggles her head very fast in what is clearly a gesture of excitement. It's not the most practical gesture, as it makes her mouth a moving target, but it is clear.

If there's a delay in my feeding her, usually caused by my inability to hit a moving target, she communicates her displeasure by punching me, and occasionally punching her own head. This does tend to further delay delivery of milk, as I now have both a wagging head and swinging fists to contend with, but I never said she was the most logical person, just that she was a fine communicator. For night feedings, these punches are often my first clue that she's hungry, since I can't see her gentler gestures when I'm asleep.

She's done all this communicating without crying at all, just perhaps the occasional grumble or giggle.

On very rare occasions,she makes more noise. If, for example, I'm in the shower, and don't see her gestures, she then starts saying "Eh" in a kvetchy tone, which clearly means, "What do I have to do to get some service around here?" She'll say this at increasing volume and frequency, until I finally stop whatever unnecessary thing I'm doing and pay attention to her. If even the "Eh"s don't work, then she'll pull out the heavy artillery and start using actual "Wah!"s. Even these will start fairly quiet and sparse. I've never heard her doing a full-blown crying fit since the day she was born, since I generally get out of the shower in time.

So when I read these "Your baby cries to tell you she's hungry" sorts of books, I have to wonder how unobservant the authors are, that crying is the first stimulus that they notice. My baby cries when she's exhausted all other means of telling me she's hungry, and probably when she's gotten annoyed at my poor communication skills.