Today was something of a first. Today, something happened to me that has never happened before in my 35 years on this planet. Today, another human being parked a leopard on me. And it was someone I'd never even met before. The very first time I meet them and they toss their cookies all down my shirt. And drink wasn't involved. Well, not strong drink.
And, do you know something..? It was okay.
I don't mean it was nice and I'll be actively seeking out individuals and try and get them to chank on me. I mean that it wasn't something to get upset about.
Let me go back a bit and give you a bit of context.
You may recall me mentioning my friends M___ and B____ in previous entries (here and here and in the last paragraph here). Today, we went and saw their daughter 'little M___' for the first time. We were supposed to have seen her a while ago. When she was first born, we thought that everyone would be trying to see the new baby and it would be better if we didn't add to the crush. Then M___ and B____ said they were going to have a party, so we thought we'd see her then and then the date of the party got moved and I said we'd still be coming but I hadn't made the connection with K___ having previously told her parents we'd be coming up and what a bloody palaver! Anyway, we'd arranged to see them today after we returned from Lincolnshire. We got home, got all of our stuff indoors and then had to try and find our present for 'little M___' and our present for M___ who was 30 on Sunday.
At least we found the baby's present...
When we arrived, M___ was getting changed having recently been the recipient of a bit of baby barf. We sat down with B____ and chatted about life with a newborn. Then M___ arrived carrying Mollie. Both he and B____ looked surprisingly well. I was imagining that they'd be crinkle-eyed and into the advanced stages of zombificiation but they were in good spirits and seemed entirely normal. This bodes well to me, but K___ says I've possibly imagined that the first month is a lot worse than it really is!
'Little M___' was a cute baby. She also seems to be on the 'remarkable' end of the scale for sleeping through the night (normally only one feed required apparently) and only feeds once every few hours. My niece H______, whom we'd just seen in Lincolnshire, required feeding every half hour. M___ did comment that he wasn't sure why she wouldn't settle in any one position. Eventually they concluded that she might be a bit hungry, even though she had eaten quite recently for her. B____ took over.
We carried on chatting about all sorts of things. I say 'all sorts of things': for you child-free people out there, we were your worst nightmare - the people who can only talk about babies! Ha ha! M___ and I did manage to agree the new Muse album is fantastic, but since 'little M___' had bought that for his birthday, even that was kid-related!
After the baby had eaten, she needed changing. I'm not sure if it was because she'd been sick or because of a poo/wee related issue because I wasn't in the room, but when M___ brought her back in a new outfit, I was asked if I wanted to hold her. Of course I did!
I'm still... not nervous... inexperienced with holding babies. I've held a few over the years, but I wouldn't pretend that I'm very used to it. K___'s done it with her nephew and niece and has lots of experience. I'm always wary of their heads lolling around - though M___ told me when he saw how the midwife held 'little M___' when she was newborn, he realised they're a lot less bothered about lolling than you'd imagine!
I held the baby in my arm, with her head in the crook of my elbow. She seemed comfortable enough. She was staring towards the window and not paying me a great deal of attention, but she wasn't bawling or trying to get away, so it was all right. I tried to see if she wanted to grasp a finger, but she wasn't bothered. Then her mouth started to open and close. I thought I must have done something to upset her and she was about to start crying. No such luck. A big blllluuuurpppp and white and watery sick flowed up onto her chest and my shirt.
The thing is, it's not really sick. It's just regurgitated milk. It's been down, but it's not really started to become anything else. It didn't smell or anything. I gave the baby back to its parents and headed for the bathroom. It all cleaned up very easily. M___ and B____ did apologise but it was fine. Things come out of babies and it's a game of pass the parcel. If you're holding it when stuff comes out, then that's just the nature of the game. I expect they've had far worse from her.
I was going to write ,"I'm going to have to get used to this" but I realised that might make it sound like I'd be seeking out newborns to chuck up on me in order to acclimatise, which isn't exactly what I meant to say. Once our baby arrives, this is going to be very much more common and if ever there was a time for stoicism, this is probably it.
And, do you know something..? It was okay.
I don't mean it was nice and I'll be actively seeking out individuals and try and get them to chank on me. I mean that it wasn't something to get upset about.
Let me go back a bit and give you a bit of context.
You may recall me mentioning my friends M___ and B____ in previous entries (here and here and in the last paragraph here). Today, we went and saw their daughter 'little M___' for the first time. We were supposed to have seen her a while ago. When she was first born, we thought that everyone would be trying to see the new baby and it would be better if we didn't add to the crush. Then M___ and B____ said they were going to have a party, so we thought we'd see her then and then the date of the party got moved and I said we'd still be coming but I hadn't made the connection with K___ having previously told her parents we'd be coming up and what a bloody palaver! Anyway, we'd arranged to see them today after we returned from Lincolnshire. We got home, got all of our stuff indoors and then had to try and find our present for 'little M___' and our present for M___ who was 30 on Sunday.
At least we found the baby's present...
When we arrived, M___ was getting changed having recently been the recipient of a bit of baby barf. We sat down with B____ and chatted about life with a newborn. Then M___ arrived carrying Mollie. Both he and B____ looked surprisingly well. I was imagining that they'd be crinkle-eyed and into the advanced stages of zombificiation but they were in good spirits and seemed entirely normal. This bodes well to me, but K___ says I've possibly imagined that the first month is a lot worse than it really is!
'Little M___' was a cute baby. She also seems to be on the 'remarkable' end of the scale for sleeping through the night (normally only one feed required apparently) and only feeds once every few hours. My niece H______, whom we'd just seen in Lincolnshire, required feeding every half hour. M___ did comment that he wasn't sure why she wouldn't settle in any one position. Eventually they concluded that she might be a bit hungry, even though she had eaten quite recently for her. B____ took over.
We carried on chatting about all sorts of things. I say 'all sorts of things': for you child-free people out there, we were your worst nightmare - the people who can only talk about babies! Ha ha! M___ and I did manage to agree the new Muse album is fantastic, but since 'little M___' had bought that for his birthday, even that was kid-related!
After the baby had eaten, she needed changing. I'm not sure if it was because she'd been sick or because of a poo/wee related issue because I wasn't in the room, but when M___ brought her back in a new outfit, I was asked if I wanted to hold her. Of course I did!
I'm still... not nervous... inexperienced with holding babies. I've held a few over the years, but I wouldn't pretend that I'm very used to it. K___'s done it with her nephew and niece and has lots of experience. I'm always wary of their heads lolling around - though M___ told me when he saw how the midwife held 'little M___' when she was newborn, he realised they're a lot less bothered about lolling than you'd imagine!
I held the baby in my arm, with her head in the crook of my elbow. She seemed comfortable enough. She was staring towards the window and not paying me a great deal of attention, but she wasn't bawling or trying to get away, so it was all right. I tried to see if she wanted to grasp a finger, but she wasn't bothered. Then her mouth started to open and close. I thought I must have done something to upset her and she was about to start crying. No such luck. A big blllluuuurpppp and white and watery sick flowed up onto her chest and my shirt.
The thing is, it's not really sick. It's just regurgitated milk. It's been down, but it's not really started to become anything else. It didn't smell or anything. I gave the baby back to its parents and headed for the bathroom. It all cleaned up very easily. M___ and B____ did apologise but it was fine. Things come out of babies and it's a game of pass the parcel. If you're holding it when stuff comes out, then that's just the nature of the game. I expect they've had far worse from her.
I was going to write ,"I'm going to have to get used to this" but I realised that might make it sound like I'd be seeking out newborns to chuck up on me in order to acclimatise, which isn't exactly what I meant to say. Once our baby arrives, this is going to be very much more common and if ever there was a time for stoicism, this is probably it.
No comments:
Post a Comment