MamaBlogga

I’m finally getting around to uploading all the videos I’ve taken recently. This one features a happy, laughing Rebecca (two and a half months) and a singing, laughing Hayden (two and a half+ years).

In the beginning, nearly everything about babies is wonderful. A few months in, of course, and the novelty has worn off. Give it another year, and suddenly you miss nearly everything about the baby stage.

So before I forget too many of them, here are some of my favorite things about babies.

• The sweet smell of baby! (And no, I don’t mean diapers!)
• Fuzzy, downy hair, especially right after it’s been washed and dried.
• Wide eyes taking in everything.
• Tiny fingers, toes, ears, nose, mouth—and clothes.
• Sweet, peaceful sleep (right up until I get a neck cramp)
• Unfettered, unabashed smiles, happy squeals and cheerful posturing—especially the sheer joy at just seeing Mommy or Daddy.
• The quiet moments.
• Baby babbling.
• The delight of discovering hands, then feet.

What are your favorite things about the baby stage?

Rebecca, unfortunately, seems to be pathologically incapable of sleeping on her back. No matter how many times I read the SIDS studies to her, it just doesn’t seem to sink in. So, to keep the family peace, we let her sleep on her tummy.

However, sometimes she’s not quite content to just peacefully slip into dreamland. Instead, she squirms into a bit of a frenzy—especially when, as has happened a lot more frequently lately, her squirming rolls her onto her side or, heaven forbid, onto her back.

This is her cue to scream bloody murder.

Finally I realized what the problem is. My sweet little girl rolls onto her back and gets upset because she can’t get back to her comfortable sleep position.

She is, in fact, a turtle.

Rebecca had a doctor’s appointment last week—she passed!

She’s grown quite a bit since her last appointment (she was two weeks old at her last appointment). We were impressed with her growth last time—she was born at 5#13, and got down to 5#8 when we left the hospital. At two weeks, she was at 6#10, and while that was only the 7th percentile, we were still amazed.

This time she weighed in at 10#1.5—in the 28th percentile for her age! While I shall decline to call her “Fatty F. McFatterson,” there’s no denying that she’s a growin’ girl!

I was really expecting to basically die after Rebecca was born. The transition from a nonmom to a mom was so difficult for me that I have likened it to dying—the old me-only self had to go away and I had to find a new kind of me-mom self. I had to find new ways to find fulfillment (e.g. this blog), new ways to interact with adults, new ways to interact with my husband and of course, everything about being a mom.

It was, honestly, by far, the hardest thing I’ve ever done.

At times during my pregnancy, I feared that I would have to go through the same transition with Rebecca. Other times, I feared it would be the same but worse—having to go through that while parenting a child in the terrible twos.

Thankfully, this has not been the case—but not actually because Rebecca is a more or less difficult baby than Hayden. In fact, I’m surprised at what has been the same—and what’s completely different.

For example, I think she sleeps slightly better than Hayden did (although she does continue to stay up until all hours, when she finally falls asleep, she usually only wakes up once or maybe twice a night).

On the other hand, Hayden was a champion nurser who learned a comfortable latch almost immediately. Rebecca often chokes and sputters, and her latch still hurts. And on the other hand (how many hands does one mom have?), she has spit up maybe five times. Ever. (Knock on wood!)

Hayden was a very quiet baby from the time he was born—the nurses couldn’t get him to cry in the delivery room. Rebecca doesn’t cry overly much (unless I miss her tired signs!), though more than Hayden did—but she’s a vocal girl. She coos and “talks” to us, and she’s finally starting to use her social smile (don’t tell Ryan, but she likes me best!). (Of course, I know that girls are supposed to talk more than boys, but to beat Hayden, she really would have to talk every waking minute.)

What interesting differences have you noticed among your kids—and what have you been surprised to find is the same?

Yesterday, Rebecca received her baby blessing, a custom for new additions in our church. Ryan gave her the blessing and it was beautiful!

I knit a lace shawl for her to use instead of a blanket (it is August, after all), and Rebecca wore the dress and bonnet that my mother made for me for my baby blessing (and my three sisters also wore it for their blessings):

What you can’t see in the picture: she’s also wearing booties that were my mother’s.

And while I was taking pictures of her in the dress, I was lucky enough to catch one of those rare sleep smiles: