The Observer's Log

Walking and Talking

There’s a whole host of milestones that parents go through. When children are young — such as newborns and infants — you sometimes have to look for the little things that mark growth and progress. (This is something, incidentally, that adults should sometimes do, too. We often get caught up in things that are too big and miss the small wins.)

Alex has a calendar full of these things, marking when Mi Niñita started eating solid foods, slept through the night, laughed, recognised herself in the mirror, and so forth. There’s lots of these. All of them contribute to the overall growth, but there are a couple that stand out as significant: Walking and talking.

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Solids and Teeth

About two weeks or so ago, I witnessed my first semi-solid poop.

Yes, believe it or not, as a parent this is big news. You talk about poop a lot. Too much, really, but it’s because it’s one of the best ways to identify the health of your child. And semi-solid poop (as opposed to the usual liquid variety) is a sign that things are moving on.

You want to upchuck the moment you smell it, but this is a definite improvement.

On a similar solid front, we’ve started moving to solid foods. Well, semi-solid foods. Rice cereal, to be exact. Friday night was the initial run, and although it was pretty much little more than breast milk with a smattering of powder, it was something to start. Last night was much thicker, and we still witnessed a lot of ingestion.

More importantly, we can feel teeth. I wasn’t looking for teeth, but had my finger in my wee one’s mouth, and discovered the ridges of a tooth. Surprisingly, we haven’t really had a massive amount of screaming, so hopefully the teething time will go easily.

(And on that note, I’ve now jinxed the situation.)

We’re approaching six months. Many milestones yet to go!

Sleepy

Slowly, I’m beginning to understand what Alex goes through in a given day. Yes, I am a father and I do try to take an active part of my child’s life. But reality is, I’m at work most of the wee one’s waking day. Two to three hours is the best I can hope for on average.

Tonight was not average. I’ve been up since sometime late in the hour of 3; Alex an hour earlier than that.  Sleep has not been our friend tonight.

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A full night’s sleep

Since our family expanded by one, I’ve yet to have a full night’s sleep. In the first few weeks, it was both of us up at various points to feed and/or change diapers. As the weeks became months (we’re at roughly 3.5 now), it was usually Alex being up during the week, but I never really slept that well (even subconsciously, I can still hear the baby).

But last night, no-one woke up.

I feel like the moon suddenly disappeared, and I’m not sure what to do.

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Six weeks with a baby

They say that the first six weeks are the toughest. If you can make it through the six weeks without bodily harm to anyone, and still able to smile, then you’ll be able to make it another couple of decades.

“They”, incidentally, are other parents who’ve suggested this six-week milestone to us.  I think they’ve all been beaten down, and the six week mark is where your will caves in and you just become a drone…

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