Five Months

Little Bebe is five months old. I can't believe it. Crazy how fast it happened. Did it go this fast the last time, I wonder?

We bounced around so much then, and Johann and I weren't even always on the same continent together. He was finishing up his degree and many times, I was effectively a single parent. Goober was a big chubby ("healthy!") and quietly observant baby, comfortable being passed around between strangers or riding on long flights or roadtrips. He adored his carseat. I thought we couldn't have had a more easygoing child. And yet he did practically need a straightjacket swaddle to calm down sometimes. And the carseat he loved so much? I remember swinging it violently to get him to sleep till my arms ached and my back was lurching to one side and I swore I'd be a hunchback by his first birthday. Or stringing it up in the kitchen in Saal and rocking him, soothing him, rhythmically knocking him out. And nights, ah, nights... It was difficult to give our nights up to the baby and learn to live as zombies. Oh, and he'd lay these explosive diaper bombs which would soil everything within a 9-foot radius. We did a lot of laundry because of that boy.

What a completely different child this one has turned out to be!

Since about the first month, Bebe has pretty much slept through the night. In bed with me, we snuggle up for a feed and she falls asleep in the nest between breast and armpit. Feeling cosy, warm, and safe, she splays out like a chalk figure on pavement. Early on she was smiling, giggling, chirping, chortling, singing, and squealing with delight. Interacting happily and vocalizing. Having read Dr. Harvey Karp, we thought ourselves such pros at soothing a fussy baby. We were well practiced at the shushing, swinging, swaddling, etc. But it really just never came up. The girl didn't fuss. I mean, she expressed some unhappiness at times, but it was easily corrected with a breast, a smile, a diaper change, or a change of scenery. Babies get bored. She couldn't have cared less about a swaddle, preferring instead to have free feet and hand-to-mouth access. And shushing makes her more cranky rather than less. She's straightforward. A bright and lovely little child, with lucky parents. Would that they were all this even-tempered and down-to-earth!

I know it's complete crazytalk; I'm surely inferring a false trend based on a limited two data points... or maybe it's the hormones... But, I'm thinking I might actually be okay with having the 5+ kids that Johann was once so set on.