Manipulation

At not quite 8 weeks old Elizabeth has figured out how to get us to do her bidding.  She does not want to sleep in the pack n' play at my parents' house.  She does NOT!  Last night she did one 3ish hour shift in there and then wouldn't stay for more than 20 minutes at a time.  She would fuss and cry and refuse the pacifier.  Finally I would pick her up and she would laugh and smile.  This was cute, but also felt a little bit like taunting.  It was as though she was saying, "Ha, I won!"So I got back into bed holding her, letting her sleep in my arms.  She snuggled in contentedly for a minute and started to drift off before realizing that she could do better.  She started whimpering and wiggling until she got herself into the position my dad holds her in (pictured below).

From 2013 December

Once she had her face wedged into the opening in the corner of my arm, she stopped whimpering immediately.  Victory!  But I wouldn't let her stay there.  I know her face is in an air hole, but I didn't feel safe falling asleep with her like that.  What if I moved in my sleep and closed up the air hole?  So I rolled her back over.  And she did it again.  I did eventually win.  Or, I guess won a partial victory.  She got to sleep in my arms snuggled up but I kept her face up so I felt confident she could breathe.

We then repeated the process after her next feeding, although this time she had Daddy for her test subject.

I am not particularly eager to go home and re-enter the real world, but we need to get home before she cements this belief that she is allowed to sleep in our arms all night.