Random thoughts on life with a newborn.
May. 25th, 2006 10:39 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
velvetpageI have an icon I want to make, as soon as we manage to capture a certain expression on Claire's face. The caption will be, "Meditate. Be at one with the diaper." I swear the legends are wrong when they say the Buddha was an old man. I think the expressions on the statues are modelled after a newborn contemplating a full belly or a full diaper - or perhaps attempting to fill a diaper, because that takes a lot of concentration, too.
I love putting an alert newborn on my lap and singing silly songs to her while moving her arms and legs in little dances. The funny part is not the music or the dances themselves; no, it's the completely deadpan, "What is this crazy lady doing to me?" expression on the newborn's face throughout the whole process. Our current favourite song for this activity is sung to the tune of "If You're Happy and You Know It," and it goes, "I'm alive, awake, alert, enthusiastic! I'm alive, awake, alert, enthusiastic! I'm alive, awake alert, I'm alert, awake, alive, I'm alive, awake, alert, enthusiastic!" Now try singing that after four or five days of pain meds and minimal sleep - everyone in the room will be giggling, and not at the baby.
I've been thinking of digging out those articles I wrote when Elizabeth was born, called The Newborn Collection, and adding to them. I want to rework a few items in them - beef them up a bit - but I also want to add new articles. I need one about Sibling Management, for example. The first two articles, for those who didn't read them or don't remember, were entitled "The Parent Hop" and - hmm - I can't remember. Definitely time to look them up, because I know there were two. (The Parent Hop is the game whereby newborns attempt to see all of their own needs met, while simultaneously depriving their parents of as many of their needs as possible. Techniques include Fast Food Feeding and Diaper Derby. It was composed in part at three a.m. of a night when Elizabeth was engaged in playing the Parent Hop with considerable skill.) Maybe I'll add an article about Infant Meditation techniques. Cute titles for same are appreciated, if anyone can think of one.
Vibrating baby chairs are the best invention since people figured out - um - other things to do with vibrating mechanisms. What little sleep Piet got last night is directly attributable to our vibrating baby chair. She loves it.
I'm hoping to start catching up on reading my friends list later today, but obviously, I'm unlikely to be able to catch up completely, so if I missed anything earth-shattering, please tell me in comments. Thank you, everyone, for all your best wishes - I'm not even going to try to answer each one individually, because there's about fifty of them. However, to answer a few questions that have been posed:
1) In spite of appearances in early photos, it looks like her hair is going to come in blond. This assessment is based on family history - her hair is nearly identical to Elizabeth's, mine, my brother's, and a few other family babies, all of whom turned out to be varying levels of blond as children. I'm already detecting blond roots on her. It's a very strange effect, but it's exactly the same pattern that Elizabeth had.
2) She was beautifully porcelain in her first pictures, but she is now just slightly jaundiced. Her colour is improving now, though, so she'll soon be that lovely shade of pink again.
3) All of you who congratulated us on having the world's most adorable newborn are to be congratulated in turn for your excellent observational skills. You're absolutely right. (Biased? Who? Me?)
I'm going to play with Claire and Elizabeth for a while before Second Breakfast. Babies are like hobbits in respect to their timing, if not their food selections. At the moment, selection is limited to Left or Right. She doesn't appear to mind.
I love putting an alert newborn on my lap and singing silly songs to her while moving her arms and legs in little dances. The funny part is not the music or the dances themselves; no, it's the completely deadpan, "What is this crazy lady doing to me?" expression on the newborn's face throughout the whole process. Our current favourite song for this activity is sung to the tune of "If You're Happy and You Know It," and it goes, "I'm alive, awake, alert, enthusiastic! I'm alive, awake, alert, enthusiastic! I'm alive, awake alert, I'm alert, awake, alive, I'm alive, awake, alert, enthusiastic!" Now try singing that after four or five days of pain meds and minimal sleep - everyone in the room will be giggling, and not at the baby.
I've been thinking of digging out those articles I wrote when Elizabeth was born, called The Newborn Collection, and adding to them. I want to rework a few items in them - beef them up a bit - but I also want to add new articles. I need one about Sibling Management, for example. The first two articles, for those who didn't read them or don't remember, were entitled "The Parent Hop" and - hmm - I can't remember. Definitely time to look them up, because I know there were two. (The Parent Hop is the game whereby newborns attempt to see all of their own needs met, while simultaneously depriving their parents of as many of their needs as possible. Techniques include Fast Food Feeding and Diaper Derby. It was composed in part at three a.m. of a night when Elizabeth was engaged in playing the Parent Hop with considerable skill.) Maybe I'll add an article about Infant Meditation techniques. Cute titles for same are appreciated, if anyone can think of one.
Vibrating baby chairs are the best invention since people figured out - um - other things to do with vibrating mechanisms. What little sleep Piet got last night is directly attributable to our vibrating baby chair. She loves it.
I'm hoping to start catching up on reading my friends list later today, but obviously, I'm unlikely to be able to catch up completely, so if I missed anything earth-shattering, please tell me in comments. Thank you, everyone, for all your best wishes - I'm not even going to try to answer each one individually, because there's about fifty of them. However, to answer a few questions that have been posed:
1) In spite of appearances in early photos, it looks like her hair is going to come in blond. This assessment is based on family history - her hair is nearly identical to Elizabeth's, mine, my brother's, and a few other family babies, all of whom turned out to be varying levels of blond as children. I'm already detecting blond roots on her. It's a very strange effect, but it's exactly the same pattern that Elizabeth had.
2) She was beautifully porcelain in her first pictures, but she is now just slightly jaundiced. Her colour is improving now, though, so she'll soon be that lovely shade of pink again.
3) All of you who congratulated us on having the world's most adorable newborn are to be congratulated in turn for your excellent observational skills. You're absolutely right. (Biased? Who? Me?)
I'm going to play with Claire and Elizabeth for a while before Second Breakfast. Babies are like hobbits in respect to their timing, if not their food selections. At the moment, selection is limited to Left or Right. She doesn't appear to mind.
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