Define "Easy Baby"

I find myself wondering if Amelia is an "easy baby" or a "difficult baby". I'm not exactly sure what either of these are. And then I think, Oh, she must be a good baby, because she doesn't have episodes of inconsolable crying. Not really.

And then I continue thinking, Yes, but... Self, she WOULD cry if you stopped walking her around the block over and over and over again... She'd almost certainly cry if I ever tried to put her in a crib by herself... I mean, she cries if I'm six inches away during the night. She gets cuddles nearly 24/7! 

So there. Is Amelia "easy" or "difficult"? Hard question. It occurs to me then that a baby that one pair of parents might consider "easy" would be "supremely difficult" to another pair. Therefore, I shall abandon the aforementioned question--for now--and proclaim my child an Amelia baby. That, at least, I can say for sure.

Amelia basically sleeps through most nights, no problem. She sleeps for 3-  to 5-hour stretches at a time, eats, and then sleeps for another 3- to 5-hour stretch. She only does so at night when all the lights are off. If the lights are on while we're getting ready for bed, her eyes pop right open. And, in the morning when the sunshine streams in through the window, she's awake again. 

So, most nights, she is an "easy" baby. She sleeps next to me in bed all night.* I find that I am aware of her all night, and I wake easily. I can usually come quickly to her rescue with food before she actually wakes up... she squeaks and starts bobbing for nipples if she's hungry. I can also frequently check to make sure she's not too cold or too hot, and make sure she is still on her back. I love cuddling with her all night. And I guess she does too, because if I move away from her, she complains.

The daytime is sometimes a bit different. It's a little harder on a parent to be cuddling with the baby constantly during the day, because there's a lot more to do besides sleep. I might want to, say, write a blog post. That requires two hands. I might want to, say, eat a bowl of cereal. Or any number of things that requires two hands.

Well, Amelia does like to be held close. Enter the Moby wrap. Tada! That helps a lot. If we can somehow get her into a good, deep sleep (this often involves walking around the block several times) we can just wear her while doing any number of things. Like write a blog post. I am wearing my sleeping baby right now, as I type... although she notices that I've stopped walking every now and again, and then I get to go walk around the block yet one more time. Ohp, it's happening. Excuse me while I walk the kid a bit.

Okay, we're back. Did I mention that I'm tired of walking around the block? One of my legs is longer than the other, and so any amount of activity can send me into a world of pain (on just one half of my body!) without much warning. I keep hoping whatever is hurting will get stronger or something and get over it, but I think it's just getting weaker. While walking Amelia last night, one of my legs was too weak to hold up my own weight whilst walking in a straight line. I was moving like a drunken sailor. Needless to say, I made James finish the walking before bedtime.

So yeah. Amelia likes to lie still while her parents walk her or jiggle her... and you know what? Whereas James is a natural wiggler (can't sit still, CAN'T SIT STILL!), I am the opposite (can't not sit still, CAN'T NOT SIT STILL!). I am exhausted after jiggling the kid for a mere 30 seconds. Moving that much just seems so unnatural. I am working on the acquisition of a baby swing, in the hopes that this might spare me the agony of excess movement.

And I've mentioned before that Amelia has a profound need to suck on something, be it a nipple or a parental finger or thumb. Ah, you say, that is solved easily. Just get the squirt a pacifier!

Fools! The child knows you are trying to dupe her with fake nipples. She spits them out with rage and demands something far more personal, and far more dear to your heart. Like your nipple. Or your finger, which you were planning to use to do any number of productive things with. Amelia will suck and suck at the breast until she is overfilled, then projectile vomit, then demand more boob, then vomit, and so on and so forth. Sometimes she will accept the inferior finger (particularly if you don't smell like tasty mother's milk), and then suck it until it is pruny.

Yes, I tried several different kind of pacifiers. They all failed. Some failed less than others (she sucked on one for two minutes before never accepting it again!), but they did indeed all fail.** Which isn't so bad, seeing as I wasn't so keen on using a pacifier in the first place. And guess what? Amelia is starting to discover these new inventions called fingers and thumbs for herself. I think before long she'll suck on her own.

So yeah. I think I've finally come up with a good label for Amelia. She is a "easy, but high maintenance" baby. She's easy... just so long as you keep her on your person at all times, walk her often, and always have a finger or nipple available for sweet sucking.

There are those times, though, when she is in a calm, alert state. In those times, I'd say she is truly an easy baby. You can tell that the kid is really paying attention. She likes her board book "Black & White"... which is basically high contrast pictures. The pictures of the buttons and the bird are her favorite.

Amelia has a strong neck. She can hold her neck up while sitting up almost all the time, albeit a little shakily. And, as long as James or I are helping her balance, she'll sit up too. This weirds me out a little... I didn't think this was supposed to happen yet, but she just loves to sit up and look around. I don't know how far she can see, but I'm convinced she recognizes us from two or three feet away.

Amelia is ginormous. She is over 11 pounds now, and continues to gain 2-3 ounces daily. Ay caramba. She is also quite vocal and can make lots of funny sounds, and makes the most delightful funny faces. I think she's experimenting. She can smile socially now, but she only does it few times each day. It's odd, but I think she is intrigued by the reaction her smile elicits. I suspect she'll figure out soon what it means to us.

A social worker visits us every week. She's pointed out signs of a high intellect--first, she stops crying hungrily when she hears my bra unclip... that is, as long as she isn't crying too loudly to hear it. Second, she figured out immediately that darkness means sleeptime and daytime is playtime. And there's a few others... she seems to pick out associations quite well.

So yeah. She seems to be developing quickly. I wonder if all parents think their kid is more awesome than most. And I wonder if I should just keep my mouth shut. Am I bragging? I think I am. A little. I do like hearing other people tell me my baby is super smart. My dad told me that Amelia is perfect. I liked that. I think any parent would.

Well, love and board books,
Jenna and Amelia

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* As far as I (and our pediatrician) can tell, we are doing this safely. I know there is controversy regarding bedsharing with an infant, and I will freely admit that there are high-risk groups who should never bedshare... But as far as I can tell, all the evidence against bedsharing is no better than, say, evidence against crib-sleeping. There is so much bad science out there... lots of cultural bias. After all, when you hear that a baby died in a crib, you don't see the headline, "Yet Another Death Due to Crib Sleeping!" You do see details about what happened... SIDS? Suffocation by blanket? Sleeping prone? Etc. You don't see that if a baby dies while bedsharing. You don't hear that the parents were dumb and were drunk. Or that they were sleeping on a couch (always bad with a baby). Or that they had jillions of pillows in bed with them. Etc. Ugh. I could go on and ON.

** This is somewhat absurd, but both James and I have voiced the irrational fear that just as Amelia can recognize nipple imposters while unconscious, she might also recognize a swing as fake parental movement and fake parental cuddles. Doom!