Generalizations

All babies fall asleep in the car. All babies love their swings. All babies love vibration. The problem is, we don't have all babies, we have ours - and we love her and her quirky preferences. Cecelia's a big fan of the real deal. She does not enjoy spending time in her carseat. She's getting better, but for the most part being strapped down in a safe manner to ride in a moving vehicle is not on her top ten list. If she's already asleep, then she'll generally stay asleep. Same goes for the swing, or swing frame to be more accurate. Up until very recently, Cecelia's car cry was enough to ALWAYS get me to pull over (safely and in a safe location) go to the backseat, unstrap her and hold her and make it all better. I've gotten better (or worse depending on your perspective) about coping with her car cry and calming her without having to fully un-restrain her. One of the 5 S's from Dr. Karp was shushing. Very loud shushing, directly into baby's ear reminds them of the same sound they heard when they were in the womb. This seems to work pretty well to calm Cecelia. Please note that I have no illusions that this will work on ALL babies. What works for us may not work for you, and I won't pretend that it will. Back to the main stream of consciousness. So, shushing is pretty good, but you still have to stop the vehicle and sit next to her to accomplish this, or at least to do so effectively. Or, if there are two people in the car, one can sit in the back. Her pacifier is sometimes helpful in calming her down, but not always. Recently a mom referred to the "car cheat." When I asked her what exactly she meant (I had an inkling, but wanted to hear it for myself), she explained that in order to get her child to sleep, she straps them in their carseat and drive around for a while. I explained that this would NOT work with our little darling. Others assume that swinging will help to calm her and on that note, I'm glad that we didn't purchase a full sized swing. We got a swing frame that the carseat (remember she doesn't love it) fits into. It has a vibrating function. These items are also not in Cecelia's top ten. If she's already asleep in her carseat, she may be put in her swing frame to help lengthen her nap. And the stroller...no thank you. Again, if she's already asleep, we can continue on our way like this. As in all things, Cecelia is growing up (tear) and humoring us and tolerating these things for a short while. Above I stated that Cecelia likes the real deal. All of these devices, useful as they may seem, are designed to help imitate being held and rocked, and jiggled, and moved. And Cecelia knows the difference. And that's the way I like it.