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Sam's Story: Week 9 March 28, 2004
We're Baby People.
This isn't the same as being parents, just like owning a dog isn't the same as being "dog people." Our friends Spencer and Nancy came to visit this weekend, and the presence of their 7-month old baby Carson proved to us that we had definitely crossed some kind of line into the land of Baby People. Membership in this tribe means incessantly talking about our baby when given the invitation and being hard pressed to find any other topic to talk about. Jesus could be fighting off an alien invasion on our front lawn and we'd still just want to talk about Samantha's bowel movements.
It was nice to have another baby a few months older come to visit. Besides being cute and precocious, Carson and his fellow Baby People parents gave us a golden opportunity to talk about what to expect and how to prepare for it. Apparently the best thing we can do right now is just accept that everything within a baby's reach will go into his mouth if it's smaller than his head. And if it's bigger, then some portion or corner of it will suffice. Within a few minutes of Carson's arrival, various things in our house were covered in baby spit, including the coffee table. And we didn't care, because we're Baby People. Bring on the spit! Here, this is still dry. Give it to him!
Baby People also share things that you might not think of. Offering to let fellow tribal members use your diapers, changing table, or bouncy seat is about as casual and normal as offering them something to drink or inviting them to sit down on your couch. You barely even think about it.
Sam's not spreading the spittle yet, but she's coming along quite nicely. She's really getting into smiling and making noises, which we encourage her to do to the point of obsessiveness. She's still sleeping through the night --8 hours or more at a stretch!-- so we're feeling pretty good. Not pre-baby good, but better than the first month by far. Here's this week's pictures:
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As you can see, Samantha has begun to master many more facial expressions. Ger and I have begun to pick up on the subtle differences in her cries and expressions to tell what's wrong. Just looking at the subtly different looks on her faces below can tell us volumes:
 "I'm hungry" |
 "I'm tired |
"I'm dirty" |
"I'm gassy" |
"I'm bored" |
"I'm cold" |
"p > .05" |
"I'm hot" |
"I miss the uterus" |
"I'm scared" |
"I'm hung over" |
"I want attention" |
Finally, the featured baby product of the week is the Baby Einstein DVD collection. Folks in the know like Todd and Frank raved about these, and we received two of them (Baby Bach and Baby Neptune) as baby shower gifts early on. I thought that Sam was still too young to watch them, but Frank insisted that she was old enough. I decided to take his advice yesterday and popped the Baby Bach one in. I sat Sam on her bouncer in front of the TV and she was instantly mezmerized.
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The DVDs feature music (by Bach, in this case) and colorful, animated images --usually closeups of toys, puppets, other babies, and animals. The music plays and the puppets frolic and the toys spin and the Samantha stared. I mean stared at the video like it was the most important thing she had ever seen. I was amazed, but took the chance to do some work around the house. I had worried about using the television as a big cerebral pacifier, but these videos are all right. They're not hawking cereal or erectile disfunction pills. In fact, they're educational and give you the perfect excuse to sit and talk to your kid about what's happening on screen. Though my conversations usually went like this:
Me: Look, it's a duck! He's walking on the beach. He looks happy.
Sam: [Stares at duck]
Me: Now here comes an octopus. He has eight legs!
Sam: [Stares at ocotopus]
Me: The octopus is wearing a little blue sailor suit. He's trying to hug the duck. I think the octopus is gay and he's coming on to the duck.
Sam: [Turns head to me and furrows brow]
Me: Yep, definitely a gay octopus. I guess this skit is about tolerance.
Good thing Geralyn was at the store. She's gonna kill me when she reads this, though.
Comments (4) |
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Samantha
Comments
Posted by Christine on March 30, 2004 5:57 AM:
Welcome to the Baby People tribe! It's a great place to be!
Sam is looking so cute - much more alert and expressive. And I still can't believe she's sleeping through the night already! Ana didn't do that until she was seven months old.
Oh, and I don't think there's anything wrong with a little TV-pacifying if, as you say, the TV is educational. If it weren't for Ana's exersaucer and the Teletubbies, I would never have gotten a shower when she was a baby!
Posted by Hellchick on March 31, 2004 10:57 AM:
My friend Alaya also is a new mom who SWEARS by those Baby Einstein products. In her case, I saw a Baby Einstein CD work wonders for her baby Lainey. Lainey HATES riding in the car, she screams bloody murder. But then mom put in one of the Baby Einstein CDs that featured Bach on the harpsichord, and within seconds Lainey was quiet, and within 15 minutes she was asleep. Utterly amazing.
I have to admit, Bach on the harpsichord was pretty soothing to me as well. I know I stopped feeling fussy while I was listening to it.
Posted by Jamie on March 31, 2004 11:25 AM:
That's odd, most babies love riding in the car. Sam usually zonks out right away. I've even heard of insanely expensive cribs that simulate the motions and sounds of riding in a car.
Posted by Christine on April 6, 2004 6:56 AM:
I have a friend who took his kid for a ride every night at bedtime - he could only go to sleep in the car!