About the baby:
- by 2 weeks, the baby can tell the difference between mom (source of all goodness and *food*), and dad (food? not so much). This knowledge is visible in body language and behavior when baby goes from dad (holding her off till mom is ready) to mom (who is now ready). Pretty subtle, but very noticeable.
- by 4 weeks, the above noted body language becomes the difference between stiff-bodied crying and a calm face with an open mouth ready for feeding.
- sometimes dad has the advantage -- baby doesn't expect food, and so is more likely to calm down in the presence of gassy tummy rather than rooting around for more milk to put on top of the gas
- between 1 and 2 months, the start of a smile will show up, and when that first real smile shows up, it can really melt you and cause you to do silly things like repeat "how's my little girl?" in that doofus goofy voice with a big grin over and over trying to get her to repeat the smile.
- babies often have their happy place -- for ours, it is on the changing table -- most crying melts away and happy alert baby comes out to play...even in the middle of the night when "happy alert baby" should be sleeping
You also learn things about yourself:
- most things you learned on the first kid transfer to the second (not quite riding a bicycle, but pretty close)
- a working parent might find themselves longing for a crying baby to hold.
Perhaps I should explain that last one. Daily routine goes something like this:
- get up shower and get dressed
- get preschooler up fed cleaned and dressed
- (maybe) hug wife and take preschooler to school (baby is sleeping)
- after a long day at work come home
- maybe hold the baby while mom eats, then give baby back to mom for feeding
- dad plays with preschooler, then gets him ready for bed (alternating nights of mom and dad at bedtime)
- mom and sleeping baby go to bed
- dad sulks because he only got 3-5 minutes of time to hold the baby all day
- baby is gassy after feeding late at night
- happy dad walks the floor with fussy crying baby, happy because he finally gets some real uninterrupted baby time
It isn't always like that, but it surprised me when I was that happy to wake up and walk the floors.
When I have time to get the pictures off the camera and cleaned up a little, I'll post a smiling baby photo. *sigh*
I think I hear floors that need walking -- gotta run...er walk-and-bounce-and-walk-and-bounce-and-sway-sway-sway...
rootie
