Making Pregnant Women Cry
On Friday afternoon, Sean and I were IMing back and forth. Suddenly, instead of text, he started sending images. He had gone to an old website of ours (when I use to handcode my sites each time I posted! Haha! Remember those days? The days before everyone just used Blogger and WordPress and Moveable Type?) and was sending me photos that were posted there.
The photos were all from Kieran's first year of life.
And, what do you think my reaction was?
Hysterical sobbing! Yes, the sentimental pregnant hormones came flowing out of me in snotty torrents!
Kieran rushed over to me to double check that I was OK, gave me lots of kisses and gently and sweetly told me that everything would be alright. What a sweetheart!
Wanna see what I was crying over? Over course you do!
Canada Day, July 1, 2003 - Kieran was 3 mths old.
Taken that same day, this image sorta illustrates the way Kieran looked in his first few months: he never smiled and look outta sorts all the time.
I love this image! Kieran had started babbling and laughing and getting really animated, so this compilation of images shows his emerging personality.
This was the first image Sean IMed to me and it sent me right over the edge. I can remember so vividly what it was like to watch Kieran learning to be a person. I can remember the pure joy of hanging out with him. Don't get me wrong, many times were very difficult for me, but on the whole, Kieran and I always got along really well. He made me soooooo happy, just as he does now. He is pure entertainment!
The thing that is so weird looking back at these photos is now that Kieran has an almost perfect command of the English language and can even make jokes, this baby seems almost like a different person.
Of course, it wasn't all giggles and daisies!
Luckily, by the time Kieran was three and four months old, the good times outweighed the bad.
And speaking of weight, look how skinny that kid is! I had problems with my milk supply. Kieran was healthy, growing and meeting all his milestones, but I never did put a lot of pudge on the poor kid. Hopefully, that will be different with this baby, but regardless of the breastfeeding challenges we faced, I persevered and I was really happy that we did.
We have always been very AP style parents. We co-sleep, we feed on demand, we carry. Here is the third carrier we tried, after Kieran grew out of the Snuggli and I couldn't really get the ring sling to work for us.
The first day we bought this, probably a day or so before this picture was taken, we were in a mall and Kieran would not stay put in his stroller. He wanted to be up in our arms experiencing the world at our level, snuggled up close to our hearts. It was something he had recently started doing.
Out on my own the first time it happened, I wasn't particularly pleased to have to carry Kieran in my arms AND push the bloody big stroller around. Out with Sean at the mall one day, both our arms were sore quite soon toting the little man around, so we bought a new carrier and put Kieran in it face out for the first time.
He was in it for about an hour when we went out to the truck to strap him into his seat and drive home. As I put my hand under his chin to steady it and start unlatching the straps, I unconsciously squeezed the fabric covered foam directly in front of his face. It foamed! It foamed like a cartoon of someone putting too much detergent in a washing machine!
Kieran had spent an hour chewing away at the top of the carrier, loading it liberally with gob that then foamed out of the fabric when touched! Yuck! It was grotesque and hopelessly funny at the same time.
Kieran lived in that carrier until I got my Mei Tei a year later. Then he lived in that!
A year later, Kieran had filled out but hadn't grown any hair yet!
In this image, he looks exactly the same then, sleeping, as he does now, sleeping. Except for the hair thing, of course.
He is finally looking like the little boy he was becoming and not the baby he used to be.
And here he is looking like the person we know best now: full of laughter and mischief, silliness and curiosity.
I miss those days long ago when he and I were so physically close all the time, when he depended on me for so very much. I depended on him just as much, I think. Seeing these photos at this time in my pregnancy was really moving for me. I'm so glad I get to go through these phases again. Making people is so much fun.
The photos were all from Kieran's first year of life.
And, what do you think my reaction was?
Hysterical sobbing! Yes, the sentimental pregnant hormones came flowing out of me in snotty torrents!
Kieran rushed over to me to double check that I was OK, gave me lots of kisses and gently and sweetly told me that everything would be alright. What a sweetheart!
Wanna see what I was crying over? Over course you do!
Canada Day, July 1, 2003 - Kieran was 3 mths old.
Taken that same day, this image sorta illustrates the way Kieran looked in his first few months: he never smiled and look outta sorts all the time.
I love this image! Kieran had started babbling and laughing and getting really animated, so this compilation of images shows his emerging personality.
This was the first image Sean IMed to me and it sent me right over the edge. I can remember so vividly what it was like to watch Kieran learning to be a person. I can remember the pure joy of hanging out with him. Don't get me wrong, many times were very difficult for me, but on the whole, Kieran and I always got along really well. He made me soooooo happy, just as he does now. He is pure entertainment!
The thing that is so weird looking back at these photos is now that Kieran has an almost perfect command of the English language and can even make jokes, this baby seems almost like a different person.
Of course, it wasn't all giggles and daisies!
Luckily, by the time Kieran was three and four months old, the good times outweighed the bad.
And speaking of weight, look how skinny that kid is! I had problems with my milk supply. Kieran was healthy, growing and meeting all his milestones, but I never did put a lot of pudge on the poor kid. Hopefully, that will be different with this baby, but regardless of the breastfeeding challenges we faced, I persevered and I was really happy that we did.
We have always been very AP style parents. We co-sleep, we feed on demand, we carry. Here is the third carrier we tried, after Kieran grew out of the Snuggli and I couldn't really get the ring sling to work for us.
The first day we bought this, probably a day or so before this picture was taken, we were in a mall and Kieran would not stay put in his stroller. He wanted to be up in our arms experiencing the world at our level, snuggled up close to our hearts. It was something he had recently started doing.
Out on my own the first time it happened, I wasn't particularly pleased to have to carry Kieran in my arms AND push the bloody big stroller around. Out with Sean at the mall one day, both our arms were sore quite soon toting the little man around, so we bought a new carrier and put Kieran in it face out for the first time.
He was in it for about an hour when we went out to the truck to strap him into his seat and drive home. As I put my hand under his chin to steady it and start unlatching the straps, I unconsciously squeezed the fabric covered foam directly in front of his face. It foamed! It foamed like a cartoon of someone putting too much detergent in a washing machine!
Kieran had spent an hour chewing away at the top of the carrier, loading it liberally with gob that then foamed out of the fabric when touched! Yuck! It was grotesque and hopelessly funny at the same time.
Kieran lived in that carrier until I got my Mei Tei a year later. Then he lived in that!
A year later, Kieran had filled out but hadn't grown any hair yet!
In this image, he looks exactly the same then, sleeping, as he does now, sleeping. Except for the hair thing, of course.
He is finally looking like the little boy he was becoming and not the baby he used to be.
And here he is looking like the person we know best now: full of laughter and mischief, silliness and curiosity.
I miss those days long ago when he and I were so physically close all the time, when he depended on me for so very much. I depended on him just as much, I think. Seeing these photos at this time in my pregnancy was really moving for me. I'm so glad I get to go through these phases again. Making people is so much fun.
posted by mamaloo at 10:37 AM
3 Comments:
ok, what's a mei tai? sounds like a drink to me! i loved carriers when the kids were babies. being such a little thing, it was hard to carry them by "hand" when they got bigger than about a month and a half (liam was 9#3 oz, so i could NEVER carry him easily, lol) (also, my forearms are 9" from elbow to wrist, no ROOM!). i had the front snuggli i think everyone gets, and then a backpack one that the kids just adored! my only problem with it was getting my hair pulled, lol!
i miss my babies, too. sean is 12 1/2. oh well. i'll just have to wait for grandchildren
I love your last sentence: Making people is fun! I had a fleece pouch sling that I loved, have you tried those too?
DK: http://www.slingtastic.ca/Slings/TieWrap/wrap.htm This page has a number of Mei Teis for sale. Essentially, they are a carrier that look very similar to the commercial carriers but they have long soft straps that you wrap around yourself. They distribute the weight of a baby and toddler far better than any other carrier I've ever tried. They are also called Asian Baby Carriers (ABC's).
Magpie: I have tried the Maya Wrap pouch and I wasn't thrilled with it. I think a tight and high riding pouch is really good with newborns and young infants, but I found that when I used with Kieran as an older baby I was constantly walking and standing contra-posto, overcompensating for the pull on one side of my body.
I bet a fleece ouch, sling, wrap or ABC would be wickedly cozy for the winter, though!
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