Saturday, October 15, 2011

Theories (or rather hypotheses) of Elevation

The girls are asleep and Patrick is out of town so really I should be working/studying, but instead of such productive activities I find myself contemplating a new theory (well really a hypothesis).  This hypothesis is not a great unifier of the world nor a fabulous contributor to science as we know it, but make no mistake, it is critical to me.  About a month ago elevation became very important to Izzy.  Now I am not talking about the sort of elevation she achieved in a trip to the cabin or a jaunt to Brazil.  This elevation comes from the simple fact of a parental figure standing up.  Patrick and I have found that Isadora greatly prefers her lot in life (when she is upset) when it occurs at oh at least five feet above the ground.  In other words, when she is fussy we must be standing up.  When I discuss this with others they offer me all sorts of opinions to the origins of said phenomenon: "you must rock her more when your standing" "you hold her more securely when your upright" or the converse "you must be giving her more freedom when you're standing."  All of these alternative (and somewhat contradictory) theories have caused me, as has happened in the past, to borrow from my other job (in this case that of the student who is taking a methods in research class) to try to ascertain an answer.  So... like any good scientist... over the past few days I have conducted a series of experiments.  The first involved holding Izzy more tightly to my chest, like I might when standing, when she was fussy.  That having no noticeable effect, I tried holding her more loosely, and in both cases she howled until I stood up.  The problems with small (albeit random) samples aside, there seemed to be no correlation between the tenacity of my hold on her, because by god did she continue to scream. I then tried rocking her (in a rocking chair nonetheless) like I would standing and .... nope still screaming.  I will continue to search for alternative hypotheses because, as of this evening, Izzy has decided that not only does she prefer I stand when she is fussy (aka tired) she also would like a vertical mom when she is breastfeeding, and while I might be able to accommodate this request now, I most certainly will not be able to do so when she is 20 some odd pounds!

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