Hear that? We’ve got a baby on our hands!

During the first three months of Chloe’s life, she cried maybe twice. She was just a chill baby. She slept well, ate well, and merrily blinked out at the world in between all the sleeping and eating.

I take no credit for those calm days. She may be my second child, but even if I have a better clue as to what I’m doing with her, I have a lot less time to devote to her thanks to Caden (who just turned 2, I’m happy to say!).

Having a calm, quiet baby is a blessing … it’s bliss … and it makes you feel REALLY bad when you hang out with other new moms who have shriekers.

That happened to me a few weeks ago. I spent the weekend visiting with long-time family friends. My friend had a baby just a week before Chloe was born. Her baby is gorgeous. Big, healthy, and quite the little screamer.

Fortunately, many grandmothers and great-grandmothers were at this family get-together, so little Baby Screamer got passed around frequently, without making any one person too anxious.

Still, it was hard on my friend. Nobody likes to hand her screaming child over to someone and then walk away to the sound of escalating woe. It was hard on me, too (though I certainly don’t deserve sympathy for this), because Chloe spent the entire weekend in her standard chill-mode. Never screamed. Never cried. Made me feel really guilty for my friend.

Then … we hit the twelve-week mark. I think it was about that time that Chloe decided I wasn’t paying enough attention to her … which was probably true. She started with pretty little cries, and over the last two weeks has learned how to ramp up her bellows to shrieking status.

It works. She gets our attention, regardless of what Caden needs or wants at the time. And fortunately, she calms down easily … so far.

I feel a little badly for essentially driving her to become a crier. Maybe it would have happened anyway. At any rate, I can now look my fellow-mommy-friend in the eye without feeling terribly guilty. I guess that’s the upside to all this.