Kira wants her Mommy!

Kira appears to be going through a phase; if she's not in the best of moods, she doesn't want anyone to hold her except me.  In the evenings, she won't even stand to have Trevor hold her while I take a shower.  She will cry for 20 minutes straight...let me correct myself, she will scream, kick, throw her head around, and arch her back for 20 minutes straight!  And, the few times we've left her with my mom, she cries the whole time I'm away.  Keep in mind that my mom has visited me and Kira twice a week since the day she was born!  This is all very annoying for me and everyone else who has to take care of Kira.  It's annoying for me because I can get tired of holding her.  Especially because she will fuss until everything is just right.  She needs to be bounced, swayed, and walked at the same time.  If I do it, she will eventually stop fussing, but if anyone else tries to do the same exact think she will cry incessantly.

Some think that Kira knows when I'm not around and cries until I return.  My mom says, she's so smart, she knows her Mommy.  I started looking up some articles about separation anxiety in young children to try and figure out what's really going on.  Turns out, most children exhibit separation anxiety at 8-18 months of age.  At this age, children have the cognitive capability to imagine that their mother is gone, possibly not coming back, and to dispair the prospect of never seeing Mommy.  So, how does that explain what Kira is doing?  I dug a little deeper and found a few doctors/researchers who believe that babies as young as 3 months will cry until held by their mothers, not because of despair, but because of the unfamiliarity of someone else holding them.  Basically, Kira only likes the way I carry her; she doesn't like how Trevor carries her, and she doesn't like how my mom carries her.

Part of me believes this explanation, and part of me doesn't.  Kira cries less with certain people than with others.  She rarely cries when Trevor's brother Marc holds her.  And she usually calms down quickly when my mother-in-law holds her.  So, maybe the way Marc and my MIL do it is similar to the way I do it.  But what's hard to believe is that she will throw such a huge tantrum just because the person holding her feels unfamiliar.  Can't she just deal with it?  At least temporarily?  You would think that after 10 minutes of uncomfortable/unfamiliar holding, she would give up and just make do.

I guess I will never really know what's going on in Kira's infant mind.  It's similar to how I feel about what my dog is thinking; I'll never really know.  I would be cool if I had a machine or something that could tell me what's going on.