Yesterday marked my new baby’s fourth week of existence. Come Friday he’ll be exactly one month old. And I really assumed that being the fourth time I’ve brought a baby home from the hospital I’d be really used to things. But you really do forget some of the rougher parts of having a baby. I think your mind purposefully forgets some things as a coping mechanism.
Now don’t get me wrong. Having a baby is awesome. I mean, I’ve not birthed one myself, but welcoming a new child into the family…words can’t describe.
But after one month or so of having him home here are some things I’ve [re]learned:
- People will tell you your baby is beautiful even if they only see a blurry picture from your phone on the internet. People think they must say it no matter what. But who can really tell? My friend Jeremy says they all look like aliens [but I didn’t know he’d seen an alien.]
- When a diaper is really messy, the pooh seems to find every crevice/wrinkle it can to seep into. You can use a lot of baby wipes in a single diaper change.
- A warm baby seems to think a room temperature babywipe is like a sloppy wet kiss from an arctic glacier breeze.
- Sometimes a baby would rather sit in your lap in a darkened living room at 3:31 a.m. than lie in his own bed under a really soft blanket.
- A wet belch can be the most beautiful and eagerly anticipated sound of the day.
- I don’t like close talkers in my space. And I don’t like close baby talkers in my kids space either. Especially when I’m holding him and they are in our space.
- Babies fool you the first few days. They let you think they’ll be awesome sleepers through the night. In reality, they’re awesome sleepers all around at first. Then they have no clue what time it is and don’t care what you think about sleep cycles either.
- Wet diapers have a weird smell.
- Your wife nursing your baby is lots different than mixing formula and cleaning bottles.
- Having older kids makes having a baby both easier and harder. Easier: they can help out in a number of ways. Harder: they still have needs for you to attend to, and sometimes you tend them with one arm while holding a [hopefully] sleeping baby in the other.
- I’m still not sure if you can or cannot spoil a baby by holding him too much. Looks like we’ll find out.
- I’m finally over being scared to break him. At first he seemed tiny. Changing a diaper or shirt was a big deal. Didn’t want to dislocate a hip or shoulder.
- What worked to calm him down five minutes ago might not work again for another five days. SMH.
Someone on facebook posted something similar the other day with "I know I'll miss these days later on". I commented that you'll appreciate those days, but things change and kids get older, more mature, helpful. She wrote, "I know, I know – you'll always miss these days". My reply: "I didn't say you'd miss them – you'll appreciate them, might look back fondly – but you'll NEVER miss them :)".
I can completely understand that. But there are certain aspects of baby-baby times that I\’ll not look back upon very fondly at all. I had a friend that said this was her favorite part of the whole having a kid. I think she\’s crazy.
Its fantastic haveing a new baby at home, i miss it very much, yeah it can be hard work but you get there in the end, and nô you CAN not spoil a baby to much by holding him, infact it makes a baby more secure and confident, like me im a adult i like to cuddle it makes me feel good, going back hundreds of years ago mothers or fathers family would be holding child all the time, and put down to sleep, its just our western culture that has said this is right this is wrong, folow your instincts and free your baby and yourself from a lot of heart ake!! Have a look at this book, its about a western woman who went to live with the amozon indiens for a few years, they live how we did in the stone age , this is a review of the book ” Basic things about humant nature that we forgot or ignore at our peril”. The book is ” The Continuum concept” now i think that says it all!! Read it it good, it gives you an idear how we have changed in socity over the years and how our socity changes us into being what socity wants us to be. ” The Continuum concept”.
Wow. Thanks, Tt. I\’ll check the book out. And thanks for stopping by.