Wednesday, October 12, 2005

Maternal things I still can't do

Swaddle--With D1, I gave up after a couple of weeks. With D2, I gave up in the hospital. Neither of them liked it much anyway, even if I told them that Baby Jesus liked it. I just toss a blanket over the top of them and hope for the best.

Wipe a face clean--There's always a little bit of mashed bean lurking somewhere just out of sight, where I will see it only after we are out in public with no washcloths nearby.

Fasten disposable diapers properly--I don't know if it's me, the diapers, or the children. But after a week of trying to use disposables to make life easier, I decided I'd rather do a load of diapers every morning than a load of sheets, towels, and clothes every morning. No matter what diaper I use, however, D2 can last only two hours in one. At two hours and five minutes, I also have to change everything in his vicinity. But at least with cloth I don't have to get any stains out.

7 comments:

Jaclyn said...

Hahaha... I can relate to the wiping a face clean. Samuel doesn't stay still long enough and I give up before a fight. The swaddle thing, though... I held a 2 week old baby on Saturday night and he was fussing and squirming. I wrapped him up good and tight. He was asleep in 2 minutes! I think each baby is different! Congrats again!

the Joneses said...

We very diligently tried to swaddle Addie, having read that babies liked it. Addie didn't. Addie vehemently protested every single time we tried it.

I guess you can't believe everything you read :)

--DJ

Queen of Carrots said...

My theory is that some children miss the security of the womb, while others are thrilled to get some space. This is probably reflected in their later personalities.

Now if I could just get a grant to enable me to study this. . .

Amey said...

Not one of my three children have appreciated the swaddling. :-)

Devona said...

Olivia let us swaddle her for three weeks tops.

Then it was all freedom from then on out.

Amy K said...

Interesting about the swaddling. Obviously, if the baby doesn't like it, don't do it. But, have you ever read (or, even better, seen the DVD) "Happiest Baby on the Block" by Dr. Harvey Karp? VERY interesting concepts. They actually worked really well with our baby. I was never good at swaddling with a blanket so we spent $10 and bought a "swaddle-me" blanket with velcro. It was the best $10 we ever spent on anything! :-P

Anonymous said...

Hah! I can vouch for the diaper problem, since I invariably had to change my babies entire outfits after Auntie Karen changed them!
:-)