Gone are the days…

This seems like something that I should be writing about when she starts driving, or when she moves to college…a post with this title when she’s only 4 months old requires some perspective.

My wife and I were talking a few nights ago when our daughter was asleep in her crib, and had been for nearly 2 hours. She was sleeping soundly, and has been for almost 2 and a half months.

I had a moment of clarity when I asked, “Do you remember the first few weeks we had her here?”

“It seems like a lifetime ago, but yes, I do remember,” she replied.

I continued, “she slept for maybe an hour at a time, two if we were lucky!”

At the time, we both thought that the days of late night feedings, breast-feeding difficulties, gassiness, fussiness, and all around sleep loss was our fate for eternity. We had resigned to this fate and learned to go on with 2, maybe 3 hours of sleep a night.

Now, I can’t tell you when it happened, but in a gradual fashion, she began to sleep more and more. She ate more at each feeding. She gained weight. And 2 and a half months later we are all getting 7 to 8 hours of sleep a night. We are spoiled at this point and if at any time she cries (if we have eliminated all other crying reasons…wet diaper, empty stomach, gas, etc), we have no clue what to do.

Call me crazy, but I know now that I miss the days when she weighed under ten pounds, so small and brand new.  I now know that I will never have those days back.  Sure, it is great that we get more sleep, but that means we get less time with our daughter.  I’ll miss the newness of her laughter and smiles, her reliance on mommy and daddy to hold her bottle when she eats, being her only means of transportation, and many more…

I guess I can fill those voids with the hope of things to come…her first words, the first time she crawls, walking, etc.  She has a whole life of firsts ahead and we plan on being a part of all of them.  Whether she likes it or not!!

Observation

The easiest way to make a baby spit up is to put them in a new, clean outfit   OR

Put on a new, clean outfit yourself and hold them…

It never fails that when we put our daughter in a brand new outfit, no matter how long it has been since she has eaten, that she immediately spits up on it.  It is a virtual certainty.

One Month

Leap day 2008 = The Riede three @ + 1 month.

What have I learned in the past calender month?:

• Babies don’t care how much sleep mommy and daddy get
• Sneezing and coughing are related to the contraction of the sphincter muscle in the butt
• Babies can’t tell you what hurts
• My wife is more patient than I expected her to be
• When a baby smiles everything else is secondary
• When a baby cries everything else is secondary
• Trimming an infants finger nails isn’t as easy as it sounds
• Naps can be quite valuable and should not be taken lightly
• Babies are stronger than you think
• The pacifier is my friend
• The quickest way to make a baby spit up is to put them in a clean outfit
• The easiest way to make a baby wake up is to lay down in bed

Obviously, that’s not all that I have learned, but it’s what I can remember. I don’t think I have ever been more tired in my life, yet determined and aware. My previous notions of everything have changed. I drive slower. I make choices based on the existence of my family. I am secondary, my family comes first always.