Meeting Miss Grace

Being a new parent is hard. You know from the moment you find out you're pregnant that life will never be the same. And that this little person soon to be born will challenge you every day for the rest of your life. But no amount of reading or friendly parenting advice can prepare you for YOUR baby and their specific little character which ultimately depicts what they need and want from you as their Mum and Dad. Every single day is different from the day before, and for the first few weeks we weren't sure if we'd ever learn all Gracie's little commands and requests. But now she's nearly eight weeks old we're slowly getting the hang of this new life. 

Our first six weeks together

When we brought you home from the hospital we thought you'd never smile. Your cranky, dissatisfied little face always looking up at me in what I came to think was disapproval. "How can you be getting it so wrong, Mummy?" But as the weeks went on we started to learn a few things about each other that have made our lives together a lot calmer. 

You're incredibly adorable, with your beautiful eyes that look like marbles with their mixture of blue, green and brown. Those adorable little hands and feet that I just want to hold, kiss and nibble every time I catch a glimpse of them.  And the little birthmark on your belly that just happens to look exactly like your Mummy's melts my heart each time I see it. 

You have so many little facial expressions and it seems you learn a new one each day. Your smile is slightly crooked and your tongue pokes out the side and my heart skips a beat each time your face lights up. 

You're so strong already. You can hold your own head up while sitting on our laps or propped up in your bumbo seat. You can grab and squeeze our fingers and pull on our hair or jewelry. And those tiny little drumsticks you call legs can kick with enough force to boot the cat away when you don't want to share cuddle time with Mummy.  

I can't wrap my head around the fact that Daddy has taught you how to grab our fingers and pull yourself up into a standing position already. Granted,you don't have enough balance to do this on your own yet, and your cute little bandy legs wobble as your tooshy  sticks out too far behind you. But it won't take you long to get it. 

You're so clever. You've learned that you can summon us from any part of the house to your side within seconds with your noises. Whether it's the "uh uh uh" sound that tells me it's feeding time, the coughing sound we've dubbed "the fake out", which is essentially a five second warning that you're about to start screaming the house down, or the grunts that signal that it's poopy time. Our days now revolve around these noises in whatever combination you choose to apply them. Food, poop, cry, poop. Poop, cry, cry, food, food, food, poop, poop, poop... You're doing a pretty amazing job letting us know what you need. 

You are VERY particular!!

You prefer side-by-side feeding to upright feeding. Not such a bad thing for mummy either, as it gives me 20 minutes or so to close my eyes or read a book or write this blog.  

You are always awake at 2.30am. Whether it's because you've woken for a feed-poop-cry or we're winding down from an anti-nap marathon, it doesn't matter. When I see that magic time flash up on the clock in our bedroom I know it's nearly time for us all to close our eyes and sleep. 

You will only fall asleep wrapped around someone's belly. We've tried all manner of soothing but the one old faithful settling position remains the same; belly to belly, legs wrapped around as far as they'll go, head wedged in between boobies or nuzzled into an armpit. Nothing works better and hey, if it ain't broke don't fix it, right?!

You prefer showers with Mum or Dad to baths. You do love kicking about in a bubble bath, no doubt about it. But a warm shower can turn screaming Gracie into calm Gracie in about five seconds flat. So you'll cling onto us, looking like a drenched monkey, while we shampoo your hair and wash your bottom. And you'll cry the minute we wrap you in a fluffy towel because you're never quite ready for it all to be over.  

You enjoy a car ride under two circumstances: a) you're asleep OR b) we're speeding down the highway, there is no traffic, no stop signs, no traffic lights, no deceleration. 50km/hr seems to be the magic number. Anything slower than that invokes a very unhappy scream session. 

You dislike doing poos or having the farts with a passion. It would seem that even though both of these habits occur at least eight times a day for you dear girl, you're never quite prepared. The sheer act of cracking a fart offends you so much you have to let the whole neighborhood know about it. I would have thought that practice makes perfect, but apparently not when it comes to matters of the poopy kind. 

And most importantly our little Gracie-girl, you are loved! You are loved in the purest, most intense form of the act. Your Mummy and Daddy love you in a way that makes their lives richer.  In a way that brings a sense of peace to the heart. You are loved unconditionally, without judgement and without expectation.  You can be who you want to be and we'll stand behind you cheering you on every day of your life. 

 

We have all the time in the world to get to know each other, my sweet girl. And I can not wait, because these first weeks have already been so fulfilling.