Last week held an interesting event for our little man that I didn't end up finding out about until Friday afternoon. It was Wednesday afternoon and I had a dentist appointment I had to go to around 5. As that time is nearing our son's bedtime, he isn't always in the best of moods, especially if you bring him out somewhere. So instead of attempting to bring him to the dentist's office with me, I asked my mom to come up and watch him for a little while so I could get my teeth cleaned in peace. With our son being her first grandson, she obviously had no problem whatsoever. When she got up to our house, little man was just starting to stir from one of his daily naps. So soon after my mom got there, I went and got him, changed his diaper, and got him ready to be fed. No issues to speak of before I left. However, that all changed after I left the house. My mom had just started feeding him when I was walking out the door to go the dentist and he seemed perfectly fine, happy and hungry. About five minutes after I left, so the story goes, he started looking around for me. My mother said that he started looking towards the kitchen where he had seen me last, trying to find where I was. It didn't take him long to realize that I wasn't there and he started freaking out and screaming at the top of his lungs. My mom had to stop feeding him and walk him around for 5-10 minutes till he calmed down and was able to eat again. After he calmed down and started eating again, there were no more issues. It was simply the fact that I had left, he couldn't find me, and wanted to know where I was.
Obviously most of this is speculation as to why he freaked out, but if you look at the series of events, his actions and reactions, it seems pretty obvious that it was my leaving the house that set off this traumatic event. My mother was astonished because she thought that this type of reaction didn't happen till much later. Other more experienced parents have said the same thing, this isn't supposed to happen at six months old. Yet, nevertheless, it happened. My wife even looked it up in the "What to Expect" book and the only mention of it is in the 12th month, and even there, it receives only minor attention. So what does this mean? I don't know. Obviously I would like to think that our son is super smart, but he is only 6 months and my thoughts are probably just a projection of what I would like him to become. Realistically, it is more probable that he is merely making mental connections sooner than expected. At his age, it is supposed to be "out of sight, out of mind", but perhaps he has gotten to the point of "out of sight, let me freak out". It might have had something to do with the fact that I had watched him all day and after his nap, he saw me briefly and then he didn't. To us, it is all theorizing. We have no way of knowing what is going on in that little brain of his and at this point, he doesn't have the verbal acuity to tell us. It is fascinating how the brain works and it would be wonderful to understand a babies brain even more, what is going on in there, the connections that are being made, and what he is thinking about.
Regardless, it was fascinating to hear about this little development in our little man. He doesn't have an issue when I drop him off at day care, probably because he has been going there for almost three months now so he is used to that routine and the people he sees there. It seems that he has gotten used to being dropped off in the morning knowing that he will be picked up later in the day. The afternoon, however, is a different issue as last Wednesday was an anomaly. In a way, I am almost glad that he is getting this out of the way early. I can only hope that since he is reacting the way he is now to me leaving we will have fewer issues to deal with when dropping him off at school or anything else later on. I know I am probably getting my hopes up and this may be something that comes back to haunt us at a later date and time, but you never know. In any case, this week my mother has off from work and will be watching our son today, Thursday and Friday. I am sure that he will have no problems, especially since she will be coming over in the morning to watch him and not in the afternoon when he is more emotionally vulnerable and unstable. We shall see how the rest of this week goes, but as usual, we will take it one day at a time and I am sure that he will do what he does best, surprise us with something new at every turn.
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