Too much
Oh there's just too much to say and not enough time. If I had a nanny I could use this space to chronicle the changes my little boy has gone through the last two months. I'm lucky I have time to check email or a quick Facebook update.
It's been 2 months of amazing and 2 months of drudgery. 2 months of savoring and 2 months of enduring. What can one say? This is a fairly "easy" baby but all babies are hard. It's like a quote in the Anne Lamott book I just read. About "good" babies, she says: "It's like saying, he was a nice Nazi. But he's still a Nazi." But I'm well aware I've lucked out. He doesn't often cry for no reason. He's hungry, he needs a diaper, he wants to change position or he's winding down at night. All good, brief, reasons. How anyone handles a colicky baby who screams for hours I don't know.
I'm not someone who wants her baby to stay a baby. When he was about a month old I went to a friend's memorial service and forgot the diaper bag. I had to borrow a size 3 diaper from someone while he was still wearing the NB newborn size. The diaper seemed giant. I could pretty much wrap it around him twice. The lender told me his wife cries whenever their baby goes up a diaper size. I feel like each step up is to be celebrated! My growing boy.
All of a sudden, in one week, he outgrew his NB clothes. Suddenly we couldn't snap his newborn-size onesies up. He looked like Frankenstein's monster in his too-small jacket. He's a solid 0-3 month size now. I'll miss putting him in some of those outfits because they were super cute. But the bigger he gets, the less fragile he gets and I like that. You should see how strong he is with his nice straight kicking legs and his strong neck.
And at 5 weeks he started giving us dazzling smiles and giggles. Those are wonderful moments. Sometimes we just lock eyes and gaze at each other for a while. Whatever his mood I kiss his soft head and call him Wonderful Boy. Even when he's being a jerk.
He's very verbal. Talks and talks and talks. At Thanksgiving I'd walk into the room where someone was holding him and find them mid-conversations. Babble Babble...Really?...Babble...You don't say...Babble...She didn't! Then what happened?
When he nurses he does lovely things with his hands. He'll grip my hand under his cheek and squeeze and let go, squeeze a and let go. His other hand will grasp my shirt or nursing bra. Or he'll throw one arm dramatically over his face, covering his mouth and eyes, so you can't see what's going on under there. It's an effective nursing cover. Sometimes when he's done he arches his back dramatically and raise his eyebrows and tighten his mouth -- he looks like an old jazzman during a particularly moving riff. Sometimes when Brandon finishes a drink, he'll imitate it.
We imitate him all the time. I'll do impressions of his sounds. Pretty much I'm making fun of him right to his face. Good naturedly of course. I hope he understands the distinction, I just can't help it.
We went to a mother/baby movement class taught by a friend of my sister, from whom I've taken ballet. It was surprisingly fun. Movement exercises to nursery rhymes to work the babies limbs and mind-body connections. And movement for the mom to work your core and stretch your limbs. Some walking and waltzing, some sit-down exercises. He was a month younger than the youngest kid so he was the runt in a room of sitting up and crawling giants. He took it all very seriously and did all the exercises so well. He might be the only one who didn't cry. And I got to move parts of my body that haven't moved in 8 weeks.
He made up for it by being a fussy pill the rest of the day. He was tired and I think he's in a growth spurt. That means fussing and wanting to eat every 90 minutes. He might be moving into the 13lb group soon! I'm told that's when they need to eat less often--phew.
My growing boy.
It's been 2 months of amazing and 2 months of drudgery. 2 months of savoring and 2 months of enduring. What can one say? This is a fairly "easy" baby but all babies are hard. It's like a quote in the Anne Lamott book I just read. About "good" babies, she says: "It's like saying, he was a nice Nazi. But he's still a Nazi." But I'm well aware I've lucked out. He doesn't often cry for no reason. He's hungry, he needs a diaper, he wants to change position or he's winding down at night. All good, brief, reasons. How anyone handles a colicky baby who screams for hours I don't know.
I'm not someone who wants her baby to stay a baby. When he was about a month old I went to a friend's memorial service and forgot the diaper bag. I had to borrow a size 3 diaper from someone while he was still wearing the NB newborn size. The diaper seemed giant. I could pretty much wrap it around him twice. The lender told me his wife cries whenever their baby goes up a diaper size. I feel like each step up is to be celebrated! My growing boy.
All of a sudden, in one week, he outgrew his NB clothes. Suddenly we couldn't snap his newborn-size onesies up. He looked like Frankenstein's monster in his too-small jacket. He's a solid 0-3 month size now. I'll miss putting him in some of those outfits because they were super cute. But the bigger he gets, the less fragile he gets and I like that. You should see how strong he is with his nice straight kicking legs and his strong neck.
And at 5 weeks he started giving us dazzling smiles and giggles. Those are wonderful moments. Sometimes we just lock eyes and gaze at each other for a while. Whatever his mood I kiss his soft head and call him Wonderful Boy. Even when he's being a jerk.
He's very verbal. Talks and talks and talks. At Thanksgiving I'd walk into the room where someone was holding him and find them mid-conversations. Babble Babble...Really?...Babble...You don't say...Babble...She didn't! Then what happened?
When he nurses he does lovely things with his hands. He'll grip my hand under his cheek and squeeze and let go, squeeze a and let go. His other hand will grasp my shirt or nursing bra. Or he'll throw one arm dramatically over his face, covering his mouth and eyes, so you can't see what's going on under there. It's an effective nursing cover. Sometimes when he's done he arches his back dramatically and raise his eyebrows and tighten his mouth -- he looks like an old jazzman during a particularly moving riff. Sometimes when Brandon finishes a drink, he'll imitate it.
We imitate him all the time. I'll do impressions of his sounds. Pretty much I'm making fun of him right to his face. Good naturedly of course. I hope he understands the distinction, I just can't help it.
We went to a mother/baby movement class taught by a friend of my sister, from whom I've taken ballet. It was surprisingly fun. Movement exercises to nursery rhymes to work the babies limbs and mind-body connections. And movement for the mom to work your core and stretch your limbs. Some walking and waltzing, some sit-down exercises. He was a month younger than the youngest kid so he was the runt in a room of sitting up and crawling giants. He took it all very seriously and did all the exercises so well. He might be the only one who didn't cry. And I got to move parts of my body that haven't moved in 8 weeks.
He made up for it by being a fussy pill the rest of the day. He was tired and I think he's in a growth spurt. That means fussing and wanting to eat every 90 minutes. He might be moving into the 13lb group soon! I'm told that's when they need to eat less often--phew.
My growing boy.