Newborn Mom
That's me, I'm a newborn mom.
John's parents are in town for the month of Ramadan, lucky them, which means nothing is open till after dark, and all the drivers are especially cranky. Their presence also means babysitters! So John and I left Iola with them last week to go on a quick errand to test drive a car. We were thrilled to leave the house! We could talk to each other! Then suddenly we missed her so much we drove the car for 5 minutes (a Fit, called a Jazz here; we already knew we liked it) and rushed home. We tried the experiment again last night for longer and left just Martha at home with the baby. We went to a talk on the natural history of the UAE at the Cultural Foundation with grandpa John and even lingered afterward to chat with the desert ecologists. We only called home once and she was sleeping soundly. We pressed our luck chatting up the nature geeks and so when John's phone buzzed I knew it couldn't be good; I could hear desperate screaming in the background. We rushed home again.
But it was good. It made me realize how much we love her. It also made me realize I have to leave more milk than I thought when I go.
How does she feel about me? She thinks I'm like a big cup of hot chocolate -- when it's empty she gets mad, because she can smell how enticing it is but can't remember that she's the one who drank it all up. Her baby dementia, which is getting marginally less and less each day, allows her to never be tired of the things she enjoys. She thinks John is a big, cuddly bouncing machine, and gets upset when it runs out of bounces.
Other than that... motherhood is as hard as I thought it would be, but wonderful in ways I didn't imagine.
John's parents are in town for the month of Ramadan, lucky them, which means nothing is open till after dark, and all the drivers are especially cranky. Their presence also means babysitters! So John and I left Iola with them last week to go on a quick errand to test drive a car. We were thrilled to leave the house! We could talk to each other! Then suddenly we missed her so much we drove the car for 5 minutes (a Fit, called a Jazz here; we already knew we liked it) and rushed home. We tried the experiment again last night for longer and left just Martha at home with the baby. We went to a talk on the natural history of the UAE at the Cultural Foundation with grandpa John and even lingered afterward to chat with the desert ecologists. We only called home once and she was sleeping soundly. We pressed our luck chatting up the nature geeks and so when John's phone buzzed I knew it couldn't be good; I could hear desperate screaming in the background. We rushed home again.
But it was good. It made me realize how much we love her. It also made me realize I have to leave more milk than I thought when I go.
How does she feel about me? She thinks I'm like a big cup of hot chocolate -- when it's empty she gets mad, because she can smell how enticing it is but can't remember that she's the one who drank it all up. Her baby dementia, which is getting marginally less and less each day, allows her to never be tired of the things she enjoys. She thinks John is a big, cuddly bouncing machine, and gets upset when it runs out of bounces.
Other than that... motherhood is as hard as I thought it would be, but wonderful in ways I didn't imagine.
Ooooo that's exciting that you're a big mug of hot chocolate and miss her when you leave. (I love hot chocolate.)
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She is awfully cute. I like your writing alot- isn't being a mom interesting? I suddenly feel verrry apologetic for all the crap I gave my mom. Quinn is sleeping not so soundly in the other room- he rolled over onto his back from his belly for the first time today, and practices standing. at first he ate all of the time, but now he likes too look around so much that he can only concentrate on nursing when he is really hungry. I'm pretty clingy- I've only been away from him for about an hour at a time, and then i start fussing. The other day I held him and Bard while Bard's feet were done. Bard has graduated from being the baby, finally, now that he is 6 and weighs 1500 lbs. The horse shoer hesitantly held Quinn while I caught Blue. She confessed to being afraid of babies, but Quinn was nice to her.
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