For those of you who don't know, I gave birth to an incredible little girl named Daphne this past May. It was love at first sight, she was absolutely perfect in every sense of the word. We made our way to our private room at BC Women's Hospital and began calling friends and family. My friend Julia, upon hearing how elated I was, seemed a little skeptical that I could be this happy after being in labour for 44 hours. Well, I don't know if it was her skepticism, or Daphne's innate sense of timing, but when we got off the phone Daphne started crying. And 4 months later, she stopped...well, sort of.
Daphne was one of those newborns. The kind that defy the definition of newborn. The kind that doesn't sleep 20 hours a day, but rather stays up 20 hours a day. The kind that can only be held one way. The kind that requires a specific type of rocking movement at just the right speed or look out. The kind that can only sleep in your arms or in a car seat. She was, in essence, a diva. It was all her way or the highway. Oh, who am I kidding, it still is.
I'll never forget our first and only night at the hospital. At 3 in the morning I had Dave call the nurse's station for help. 'Our baby is crying' Dave exclaimed when the nurse asked how she could help. 'Well no guff, she's a baby and that's what babies do' was the gist of what she and everyone else told us from that point forward. But seriously, this baby cried and she cried a lot. Looking back, it was probably colic, but when you're pregnant for the first time, you come up with all these expectations for yourself and how you're going to be as a mother. Some of them are uncontrollable, like 'I'm not going to have a colicky baby, colic is just a blanket statement they give babies whose mothers can't calm them down.' Well let me tell you, we tried everything, and yeah, some things did work better than others, but Daphne nonetheless was still one of those babies. And I wouldn't have it any other way. She's perfect!
So great to read this and know that I'm not alone!! I also have one of those babies - a diva in a sense!! But you said it, she's perfect and I love her for it!!
ReplyDeleteSide note, a great topic I would be interested in is sleeping/napping. Anna needs to be swung/danced/rocked to sleep for every nap which sometimes takes up to 30 minutes and then will only nap in our arms, on our chest, or her swing... but heaven forbid you put her in her swing BEFORE she is sound asleep!! To say the least, this = exhausting!!! She sleeps great in her crib at night though, so I figure I don't have too much to complain about!
Great Blog!
Lisa
Thanks, Lisa! Daphne and Anna sound like kindred spirits. Daphne's the exact same way with napping and night sleeping although the older she gets the better she gets (i.e it takes less than 2 minutes to rock her to sleep for her naps now.) I'll definitely write a blog post about sleeping/napping in the new year. I hope we get lots of comments 'cause I'd love to hear what other people have done/tried in that department.
ReplyDeleteLess than 2 minutes!! I look forward to that! I agree Daphne and Anna must be kindred spirits! When you wrote about everything having to be an exact way - it's totally the same with Anna. When trying to put her down, I HAVE to stand, forget rocking in the chair, she needs to be over the right shoulder, not the left, and I need to sway a specific way, with just the right amount of bounce, and so on... And if I read one more time "you need to put them down when they show their first signs of being tired, when the are awake" I will scream! I dare them to come to my house and try that with my child! Looking forward to your next post!
ReplyDeleteLisa