Friday, January 18, 2013

Arianna can sign (a little)

We have been doing basic signs with Arianna for the last few months, things like: "please", "thank you", "food", "drink", "more", and "all done". She raises her arms when she wants to be held and that has also turned into her "all done." She also just started to sign "more," but it wasn't until last night that I really felt like she was communicating with me.
Ari has been running a  low fever since Sunday. She seems to do this when she is about to get a tooth in and I haven't been too worried. Although, it has made nights difficult. She has trouble sleeping and wakes up frequently crying. Last night, before going to bed, she had no fever but would not eat. I had hoped for a little more sleep, but she woke up around midnight crying. Ben took care of her, tried to get her to take a bottle, but she wouldn't. She ended up crying herself to sleep (she wouldn't accept any comfort).
She woke up again at 4am, hysterical, no fever, but I thought she must be in pain. I gave her some medicine and then made her a bottle. She calmed down and took an ounce or 2, then pushed the bottle away. I was going to try to put her back to bed when she started signing "more". I tried to give her more bottle, but she pushed it away. Then I realized that she was asking for food!
I fed her some yogurt and then she signed "all done." I cleaned her up and she signed "more" again, so I fed her applesauce until she signed "all done". Then I put her back to bed and she went down without crying.
It was amazing. I had a conversation with my daughter! I was able to understand and meet her needs. She then woke up this morning signing "more". So I guess I can tell when she is hungry. All I need now is for this to happen at some time other than 4am :)

I took this video the first day we noticed her signing. Ari's sign for more is to take her right thumb and put it in the palm of her left hand. 

3 comments:

  1. that's so awesome! i have to say, i teared up a tiny bit when you wrote "i had a conversation with my daughter!"...fun :) i think baby signing is so cool, i watched pierce really be able to communicate a lot with lissa and it was great! i only heard of it from one mom when joseph was little, and she was not exactly the kind of parent i wanted to be like, so i never paid it any attention ;) now i wish i would have!! go, ari!!!!!!!!!!

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  2. Go Ari! At least now when she does wake up at 4 am, you can get to bed quicker because she can tell you what she wants/needs :)

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  3. oh, so cute!!! Do you have the signing time dvds? We love them. Can't wait to see you all again.

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