Tag - Babies

Can you believe it has been 3 months since little Pipsqueak arrived? He is a joy, of course, but he sure is putting us through our paces. He is not quite so high needs as Boo was, but he is not as easy going as Pumpkin and Bip.

I remember those first few months with Boo. I had joined a new moms group that met at the mall once a week. We had a little class taught by a pediatric nurse, then social time. All the other babies played nicely on their blankets. Not Boo. During the whole class I stood and bounced and rocked and rocked and bounced. He just fussed. A friend from that group introduced me to Dr. Sears, and from there I discovered the whole concept of the high needs baby. Reading about “fussy” babies and how to help them changed our lives.

And here I am again, with another high needs little dude. Funny enough, their birthdays are 5 days apart, their birth weights were within 2 ounces of each other and they were both born in the Year of the Tiger. Hmmmmm…

But I am (much) older now, and hopefully wiser. I have more helping and eager hands. I’m also much busier, with schooling 3 other children. I am very aware that those eager helpers are watching and internalizing everything I do to mother this little needy person. Especially Pumpkin Girl. What will they take away from watching their mother care for their youngest sibling? Good things, I hope.

Pipsqueak has turned our lives upside down. But look at him! He is so worth it.

I forgot just how much work babies are.

They are always wanting to nurse and be held. Fortunately, there are always lots of volunteers. For the holding, that is. For the nursing, I’m on my own.

I forgot just how much longer it takes to get out the door with a baby. We’ve had lots of appointments, with regular check-ups with our midwife, plus bilirubin follow-ups, and I think we’ve been on time for one of them.

I forgot just how sleep deprived one gets with a new baby. And how that affects everything else.

But it’s worth it.

Our Very Fat Baby has acheived crawling! He still can’t lift his great belly off the floor, but he has definitely mastered the alternating left-right arms and legs motion. He’s pretty darn pleased with himself. When properly motivated, he’s pretty fast, too. He had been scooting around on his belly and Philip walked into the room and sat down on the floor about 5 feet away from him. Bip saw him, stuck his arms and legs straight out (“Like Superman,” my mom said), gave a big “eeeeeeee,” and began low-crawling to his daddy. Very cute. Now that Bip has finally acheived this milestone, maybe his sleep issues will resolve, too. I brought him up on the Sonlight Forums and I was encouraged by the number of people who said that their own children had also had sleep issues around 10-11 months of age. One recurring suggestion was that maybe he’s just dropping one of his naps. I think I’ll try moving his nap later and later until he’s napping in the early afternoon, at the same time that the Big ‘Uns have quiet time. That’ll give me back my much needed break and also lessen the time between Bip’s nap and bedtime. Hopefully we’ll see some more progress in this area, too.

We’ve made a lot of progress on the clutter front, too. We took part in the community yardsale a couple of weekends ago. We made a lot of money, but oddly enough, didn’t sell a large amount of things. We ended up bringing 12 boxes of stuff back into the house. Philip left for Hawaii the very next day so the boxes had to stay where they were. But we’ve been working on them over the weekend. We gave 5 boxes of books to the base library and there are 3 more boxes in the car for the thrift store. The rest of the boxes are filled with things I’m not willing to just give away. Baby slings from my now-closed internet store and a LOT of crafting/scrapbooking items. Ebay has gotten kind of crazy over the last couple of years, I’m not sure I want to go that route. In any case, that’s 8 boxes that are already OUT and only 4 more to go.