Kidding
SuperBoy and SweetPea have a wonderful relationship–so long as you don’t force SuperBoy to sit for a photo with his baby sister. We had to take these photos sideways. They’re adjusting to life together. SuperBoy occasionally shouts “No!” and then “No, thank you!” (once corrected) in her direction. But overall, he pets her head, asks her for kisses when he’s injured, and helps me awaken her to nurse by saying “Wakey wakey, eggs & bakey!” Note the sequence: she begins & ends her photo shoot alone.
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Close family is critical when you have your own little family for the support, love, and time they give to assist in the development and growth of your little people. I’m very blessed with a wonderfully close and supportive family. SuperBoy has lucked out in the fact that my second eldest sister is particularly attuned to children and attentive to him. And she’ll be SweetPea’s Godmother on Mother’s Day, so both of my children will be specially bonded to this sister. Here’s a typical example of SuperBoy’s relationship with his “Tia KKake” as he calls her. Recently she took him to the community center down the street which also has a little library. Just a little nephew-tia-time. Not only did they run the bases at the baseball field together, but also checked out a number of books including one hilarious number called “Sheep in a Jeep” whose title alone makes him erupt into laughter. He came home talking of all the books he’d seen, the sports’ fields, and the other little boy who’d been there. What a great little outing for him! And what a lovely little break for SweetPea and I to just focus on each other. She has converted much of her apartment to SuperBoy-friendly living space wherein they roll magnets, learn about the Periodic Table, water color, look at a collection of saints’ holy cards, read Tintin, and dance to all kinds of music. She has taught him American Sigh Language. He spelled out YES the other…
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The past two weeks have been a whirlwind of nursing, playing, activity, sleep, and no sleep. People always told me going from no children to one child was the greatest leap, but second to that is the jaunt from one child to two. And it is quite a trip. As noted, AA was fortunate enough to have a week off work (Paternity Leave!) wherein he could help me with all my postpartum healing needs (draw me baths, fetch me water, assure me my eyes won’t have these enormous circles under them forever), snuggle with our darling girl, and keep SuperBoy entertained and from going mad with being cooped up indoors. He’s back at work this week and I’m discovering the many joys and challenges to having two children. 1) Challenge: you cannot hold your second child skin-to-skin constantly like you did your first. It seems that as soon as I settle into a chair with SweetPea, skin-to-skin, SuperBoy would like help getting his Army guys out of his cupboard, or he suddenly needs me to go and look for Squirrel Nutkin out the back door, or the doorbell rings and it’s the delivery man. Skin-to-skin is very crucial for a number of reasons, to be discussed in a post later this week, but mostly she is getting her quality skin-to-skin either when she nurses or at night when SuperBoy is passed out in his crib. 2) Joy: your firstborn wants your secondborn to also kiss his boo-boos. Pretty precious when…
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We share a birthday! And she was the best birthday present ever. I’m writing up her birth story and will post it Monday for the Birth & Parenting Series. She came at 9:17pm and was 7 pounds, 6 ounces, 20 inches long. We birthed in the water at St. Joes with our wonderful midwife, fabulous doula, and caring nursing staff. AA was a stellar labor coach and it was amazing to finally meet our little girl, SweetPea. She’s living and sleeping with us in our room, but her nursery is ready for her! We put the finishing touches on the nursery this past weekend. The toy chest & dresser were acquired back in the 70’s for my eldest sister, the rocker from that era as well, the crib a hand-me-down from my sweet aunt, the mobile was mine from back in the day, most of the little girl clothing from my sister!, and the quilt one I made for her in the past few months. Whew! Fun!
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Or so I think. Our hospital bag is packed (especially in light of last week’s “false” labor event), the nursery is done in girlish hues, the baby girl clothing has been generously handed down or acquired (sister & consignment sale), my doula team is on standby (I’m the luckiest girl ever–get a great doula. It will make your life so much easier.), and SuperBoy is excited about his little sister “whooshing” out of mama’s belly (his term of choice). You know you are ready to have a baby when two fears are overridden by the physical exhaustion of building and carrying another human being. Those two fears being: a) labor & delivery pain and b) no longer having sweet long sleeps at night. Bring on the unmedicated labor! Bring on the birth tub! Bring on the sore everything! I’m over it. We went on a lovely double-birthday date the other night. AA’s and my birthday are exactly seven days apart, and I’m hoping our daughter comes sometime between our birthdays. She isn’t due until the 15th, but hey, come anytime, little lady! I had contractions through most of dinner and then was physically ill (no details) when we got home. But it was so nice to go out! And not do the dishes! I didn’t care that it was riddled with labor-related issues. Amusingly, the waitress kept saying things like “we have non-alcoholic mixed drinks as well” and “the sheep’s cheese is raw milk” and “can I get you anything…
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So some children never use a pacifier, and some parents are vehemently opposed to its use, but some of us have a middle ground approach to it. SuperBoy has used one off and on since he was probably 2 months old. At this stage, 21 months, he only is allowed to use it for naps. There was a day when he forgot about and I rejoiced! But then he remembered it the next day when he saw one on the counter. Why didn’t I have the good sense to have eliminated all of them? When is too old to use one (subjective question, probably) and if you want to cease its use, how do you go about doing that? 1) Age limit for pacifiers? My reading & polling of fellow parents provide a myriad of answers to the question for age limit for pacifier use. Mostly everyone seems to agree that around 12 months, both for medical and psychological reasons, pacifier use should be limited or eliminated. Hm. We’ve blown past that, but maybe our limited use doesn’t make us totally terrible parents. See Baby Center’s article here, Mayo Clinic’s assessment on pacifiers in general here, Mamapedia has this to say about pacifier use here, and one of my favorite resources, Berkeley Parents Network says this on babies here and toddlers here. 2) Weaning it away. Dr. Sears answers parents’ questions on how to wean from a pacifier at 17 months here and at 3 years old here. He’s not a…
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