Saturday, August 20, 2005

Baby Thoughts

We've had the baby now for almost three weeks and I must confess that she dominates my thoughts and efforts. Soon enough I'll have time to devote to other matters but right now I am relishing fatherhood. A few thoughts that I've had over the past couple of weeks.

  • Life really hasn't changed as much as many people said it would. The only real alterations are an adjustment to my sleeping patterns, less tv, and a more conscience effort to maintain patience. At this stage we are basically just feeding, holding, and changing her. The real changes and challenges, I feel, will come in a few years when we will see how well she responds on her own to our teaching. That is a couple of years away and in the meantime I will enjoy the sweet and simple joy that comes with holding your baby girl.
  • Bowel movements. There have been a couple of times when I have just completed a changing and within 30 seconds of picking her up I feel an explosion between her legs. Man, kid's today have no scruples. I'm starting to wonder if there is away to get more mileage out of diapers. All in all I don't mind changing diapers, right now they smell almost like a bakery. Things will probably change once they start eating chicken nuggets.
  • We have been in public enough to receive advice and tips from a variety of different sources. This started at early pregnancy and evidently carries over through the growth of the baby. One thing I've learned is that there is more then one way to successfully care for a baby. I've probably heard 15 different opinions on when you should feed a baby and I bet that 13 of them would probably work.
  • Alexandra is a sharp and alert girl. When she is awake, which is happening more and more, she loves to make eye contact and look around. She loves to wiggle and can already flip over. She also has the most powerful little mouth. I have a new found respect for breast feeding.
  • More thoughts to come...

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Nice Jens. I’m right there with you. Man if she is even in the room I’m done. I can’t take my eyes off her. When she’s happy I might as well throw in the towel.

Isn’t it weird how we look for the littlest things to ascribe above average intelligence or strength to them? “She can hold her head up so well, she is so strong.” “She must be the smartest kid around, she heard my voice from across the room and looked over at me.”

The dipper dilemma is a catch 22. If you change them less frequently trying to get more mileage out of them, they get the dipper rash. Change them too soon; they soil them before you’ve even snapped them up. We think that Kenedy has something up with her digestive track because she has gas and is fussy. She isn’t going through as many dippers so she might be constipated.

Dude