Read the following extract from an observation and discuss fully, drawing upon your experience of infant observation, your seminars and your understanding of theoretical concepts.
Poppy 6 months 5 days old
On this day I arrived to find Miss L drinking coffee with Poppy on her hip and a big smile on her face. She was on the phone with a friend and after letting me in she put Poppy down in the jumperoo in the middle of the kitchen/living room and signalled “just a moment” to me. I just smiled in acknowledgement and sat down on the sofa next to the baby.
She was bouncing away happily and sent me a large toothless grin before leaning forward to chew on a rattle attached to the jumperoo. She continued to look at me while cheering on the rattle and held her arms out by her sides bringing them slowly up above her head. When they reached the top of her head she grabbed hold of her own hair without pulling, yet go of the rattle and let out a happy “aaaiii”. The sound was not like her usual shrieks of joy, but more vocal as if she was more in control of the sound she was making. She let her arms fall down by her side again where she waved them around rhythmically while bouncing up and down. She stretched her arms out towards me and closed fists hard around her thumbs and grinned more broadly. Then she bent her head to the left and rested it on the shoulder and upper arm, squeezed her eyes tightly shut and started blowing raspberries. She opened her eyes but kept her head resting on her shoulder smiling at me while fidgeting with her fingers and I smiled back at her.
Miss L had finished her conversation and came over to where we sat. Poppy lifted her head and looked up at her. She stretched arms up towards her mum and started bouncing up and down against smiling. Miss L lifted her out of the jumperoo and said “I was just about to take her into the girls’ room when my phone rang, do you mind?”. I said no and followed her into the small bedroom where Leah was playing with LEGO and toy cars. Leah smiled at me when I came in and showed me a fire engine from her collection of cars before putting it down in front of me. Miss L put the baby down on the carpeted floor where she pushed herself up on her hands and knees as usual and started walking back and forth smiling with her mouth open and looking at all the toys, again making sounds of enjoyment. She noticed the bright red fire engine and stopped rocking. To my amazement she pulled her right knee forward under her stomach and clumsily shifted her weight to that leg to move herself forward. She moved her arms and attempted to take another “step” with her left leg, but it buckled under her weight and she fell onto her left side. The surprise at her mobility must have been apparent on my face because Miss L said, “oh yeah, she’s crawling now”. I thought that it might be a little optimistic to call it crawling, but she was certainly making an effort.
Poppy rolled back onto her stomach and dragged herself forward until she reached the fire engine. She put it in her mouth and started chewing on it while observing Leah and Miss L stacking LEGO’s together. She then took it out of her mouth and started waving it in front of her looking expectantly at her mother while noisy blowing a raspberry. Failing to get a response she let the fire engine fall to the floor and pushed herself up on her hands and knees. This time she managed to crawl two full steps before swaying and rolling over on her side. She did not seem to be discouraged by the fall but got back up on her hands and knees and rocked back and forth a few times and tried another step. Unfortunately her knee caught the hem of her dress and she fell forward. Miss L had seen this and quickly picked her up as she let out a few unhappy groans. She kissed Poppy’s forehead and cooed a few soothing words, and Poppy stuck the index and middle fingers of her right hand into her mouth and rested her head on her mother’s shoulder.
“How about we go and have a snack?” Miss L said to Leah who got up and ran into the kitchen. Miss L followed and put Poppy down on the living room floor where she looked around and spotted the new kitten bushing around a toy with a bell inside. She watched passively for a while and then dragged herself towards the cat occasionally stretching a hand out to reach for it despite being two or three feet from it. She got up and attempted to crawl to it, but instead of pushing her forward her knees slid away under her on the laminate floor. She gave it another try but failed again and lay back down on her stomach. The kitten ran away and started playing with another toy outside of Poppy’s field of vision and she looked around the room for something else to occupy her.
Miss L served Leah fruit and juice in front of the TV, and then sat down on the floor next to the baby who looked at her mother and let out another happy yell. I noted how much more vocal she had gotten in the course of just one week. Miss L presented her with a plastic bottle containing glitter filled water and Poppy studied the sparkling liquid curiously. When the water had settled and all the glitter had fallen to the bottom Poppy gave it a frustrated shake and the glitter swirled through the water once more. Poppy broke into a wide grin and to shook the bottle more rigorously, then excitedly stuck the end with the cap into her mouth. I wondered whether the continuous shaking was simply an excited reaction to the glitter reappearing, or if she somehow saw a connection between the two events.
Poppy continued to shake the bottle and stare at it mesmerised for 2-3 minutes, but then let it go so it rolled away from her. She rubbed her eyes and moaned a little, crossed her arms in front of her and rested her face down on them. Miss L was talking about the situation between herself and Mr. M and did not notice the baby lying on the floor looking defeated by tiredness. With her head resting on her arms Poppy laid completely still for a few seconds and then lifted her head back up with a wail. Miss L hardly looked at her but picked her up and put her to the breast where she latched on. She did not feed for long, but let go within five minutes. I felt myself feeling slightly judgemental of Miss L thinking that if she had paid more attention she would have seen that the baby was clearly tired, not hungry.
Miss L stretched and spread her legs on the floor and put the baby down between them in a similar position. Poppy leaned back on to her mother and lay there for while looking around but soon became impatient and started moaning again whilst rubbing her eyes. Miss L took her in her arms and stood up,” ok ok darling, it’s ok, we’ll put you to bed in a minute” she said. Rocking and cuddling the baby tightly she explained to me that the girls had spent the previous evening with Mr. M while she was teaching, and he had kept them both up much later than usual causing them to sleep late which in turn had resulted in Poppy missing her mid-morning nap. Miss L now wanted to keep her awake until her afternoon nap so her sleeping schedule would not be ruined for the rest of the day. I felt a little guilty for my earlier judgement, as Miss L obviously was aware that the baby was tired.
This is Infant Observation. The behaviour of the infant Poppy needs to be analysed using psychoanalytic concepts such as transference, counter-transference, splitting and projective identification, and containment.