Sit the kid down, and he promptly starts to bawl. Pick the kid up, he quiets down and starts examining everything around him. Put him down again, he cries. Pick him up, and he stops.
This I understand. Attention and contact are soothing–there’s nothing hard to understand about that. But here’s what I will never figure out: You’re standing up and holding a baby, and he’s fine. You sit down, shifting his position not one bit, and he starts to howl. Stand up, and he’s fine; sit, even in a rocker or on a tall stool, and he knows.
HOW DOES HE KNOW, I ask you? He’s still on your shoulder. Your upper body is still upright, as is he. Yet somehow, he’ll only stay quiet when you, Mom or Dad, are on your feet. And it happens most often around two in the morning, when you, Mom or Dad, would really rather not be standing up.
Apparently it’s all about mimicking the motion he felt in the womb, says Dr. Barry Sears, and I guess I believe that. Maybe I should’ve encouraged my wife to spend more of her pregnancy reclining on the sofa.