My sister sent me the link to this blog this morning. I've tried to read it all day, but can not get through it without getting completely weepy. This girl had a daughter who passed away a few months ago. Her sweet baby girl was JW's age. There is something so special about the bond between a mother and her child that is just impossible to express in words. I felt it early on in my pregnancy and it grew exponentially as I could feel JW kicking and rolling as I got a sense of his personality. I remember being so scared about losing him after learning about my abnormal umbilical cord situation. I have never been such a mess as I was for those few days, and that was before I had met him.
JW's presence has completely changed my life. I admit, motherhood didn't come naturally to me. His first several weeks of life were really hard. I think life outside the womb was a bit of shocker for him too. All he wanted was to be swaddled and rocked and warm and to be awake at night and sleep all day. JW had his own agenda and I wasn't following along. He just wanted to eat, but struggled so desperately to latch on. That darn tongue tie messed up everything. Of course he couldn't tell me he wanted or needed all of these things and I spent every minute of my day (and night, it seemed) trying to figure him out. I don't know how many times the two of us just cried together because he wanted something and I didn't know what.
Here we are four months later in full swing. Just as soon as I think I've learned his tricks, he grows up a little more and has moved on to the next item on his agenda. He has reached so many milestones in his short life. He is a serious kid, but there is no shortage of laughs and giggles. He laughs at his own jokes. He laughs while changing his clothes. Itsy Bitsy Spider is downright hilarious.
JW rolled over for the first time on Sunday. Twice. After the first roll I thought it might just be a freak incident, so I put him back on his tummy and sure enough, he did it again! He didn't seem terribly startled by it, just irritated that he had to have tummy time. He has never been much of a fan of tummy time.
Getting a full night sleep was only a memory in his first weeks of life. It wasn't until literally a few days before I went back to work did he start sleeping longer than a three hour stretch. Suddenly one night he slept five hours, then the next night seven, then nine. Now he begs to go to bed by 8:30 PM and this week he has actually slept all night (11 hours!) without needing to be swaddled. I thought he would never grow out of that!
He loves a long ride in his stroller, hanging out in the Bumbo or the exersaucer and being the center of attention. He is the center of my attention. I love this kid and life without him would be so empty.
4 comments:
I agree wholeheartedly with your post, having kids and being a mom changes you forever. I am waiting for the sleeping more than 3 hour thing, but I do think we finally have the day/night confusion figured out.
He's such a cute little rebel in his skull hat! I know the girl who's blog you mentioned. Her situation is so heart-wrenching. Makes you want to take advantage of the time you have with your kids.
My mother in law is an Adoula and while I'm not completely sure what that is, she tells me she is a helper of communicating to the unborn child to help them enter the world, as well as creating a relationship with baby and mother. She's not a member of the church. I think that the mother/child relationship is made as soon as a woman finds out she's pregnant, and grows as baby grows inside of her. Maybe I'm just weird, and I'm not sure why I'm expressing this to you, but reading your post reminded me of the fact that a mother/child relationship doesn't need any outside help. It's happening quite nicely on it's own.
JW is lucky to have such a good mom! Happy Mother's Day, Beck!!
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