A Mother's Best Resource
If I were to create a game show, it would be similar to the Newlywed Game, but the contestants would be new mothers and their babies. I imagine three new mothers running around blindfolded in a room full of crying babies, the challenge being who can find their own little sweet pea the fastest. Or perhaps the mothers would view a slideshow of facial expressions their baby has made and compete on how many they could correctly interpret. My guess is that these kinds of challenges would not be too difficult for any new mom to master. It is amazing at how quickly we learn so much about another person who cannot even verbally communicate what it is they want or need from us.
From the moment they are born, it’s a mother’s natural instinct to keep her child as happy and as comfortable as humanly possible. In the beginning, the stress of hearing your baby make the slightest cry is enough to make your blood pressure skyrocket. The first couple of weeks feel like boot camp for getting to know your little one as quickly and thoroughly as possible. You try everything you can think of to stop their tears and make them happy.
I can remember sitting in the hospital bed just hours after giving birth. The nurse came in to give Caroline her first bath, which she seemed to like. Perhaps delivering her in the bathtub would give her a sense of comfort in the water, I thought. But then the bath was over and she burst into tears while the nurse dried her tiny body off. At the same moment, my mother and mother-in-law, as if it was the obvious thing to do, ran across the room to grab their cameras. The nurse combed Caroline’s hair up into a spiky do, which made the mothers’ chuckle even more as they snapped away for what seemed like an hour. I sat, gripping the side of the bed, struggling to take a full breath. All I wanted to do at that moment was take my baby into my arms and comfort her. I understand the humor in the situation now, but at the time, I was completely traumatized not being able to comfort my baby the first time she became upset.
Instincts like these, so powerful and so consuming, seem to live within us the moment we give birth. Using a little common sense, listening to that voice deep within us, and paying close attention to those signals our baby gives us is really all that’s needed to take care of them 99% of the time. I laugh as I look over at the pile of books about caring for a baby collected during the course of my pregnancy. Each one answers questions that I have already figured out on my own. I also have to remind myself each time my mother, sister-in-law, or anyone else who tells me what my baby needs or wants, though it is with the best of intentions, that no one knows her like I do.
From the moment they are born, it’s a mother’s natural instinct to keep her child as happy and as comfortable as humanly possible. In the beginning, the stress of hearing your baby make the slightest cry is enough to make your blood pressure skyrocket. The first couple of weeks feel like boot camp for getting to know your little one as quickly and thoroughly as possible. You try everything you can think of to stop their tears and make them happy.
I can remember sitting in the hospital bed just hours after giving birth. The nurse came in to give Caroline her first bath, which she seemed to like. Perhaps delivering her in the bathtub would give her a sense of comfort in the water, I thought. But then the bath was over and she burst into tears while the nurse dried her tiny body off. At the same moment, my mother and mother-in-law, as if it was the obvious thing to do, ran across the room to grab their cameras. The nurse combed Caroline’s hair up into a spiky do, which made the mothers’ chuckle even more as they snapped away for what seemed like an hour. I sat, gripping the side of the bed, struggling to take a full breath. All I wanted to do at that moment was take my baby into my arms and comfort her. I understand the humor in the situation now, but at the time, I was completely traumatized not being able to comfort my baby the first time she became upset.
Instincts like these, so powerful and so consuming, seem to live within us the moment we give birth. Using a little common sense, listening to that voice deep within us, and paying close attention to those signals our baby gives us is really all that’s needed to take care of them 99% of the time. I laugh as I look over at the pile of books about caring for a baby collected during the course of my pregnancy. Each one answers questions that I have already figured out on my own. I also have to remind myself each time my mother, sister-in-law, or anyone else who tells me what my baby needs or wants, though it is with the best of intentions, that no one knows her like I do.
posted by Alissa at 5:00 PM
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