Our Baby Story: The Age I Got to Know My Son. November 13, 2011

Of all the advice out there on 'getting to know your baby,' the best advice a mommy can take is her own. There are so many books that tell you exactly what your baby should be doing, and exactly when, but really those have to be taken with a really large grain (or block) of salt. Advice from your friends is well received, as well, but make sure that you listen to your motherly instincts and, most importantly, to your baby. Otherwise, you're going to have a tough time trying to "figure out what's wrong" with your baby.

Many times over, I've read that babies fall into their amazingly long sleep cycles around four months. That sounded like a brilliant age, but I went into it expecting a little too much and had to lower my expectations once I realized that Dominic wasn't quite there yet. We were back to infancy, waking up every 1.5 to 2 hours and making mommy very, very cranky and tired. Though, I must admit that my crankiness at night has really started to go away, and I've been leaning more towards loving the time I get to spend with him since he goes to daycare while I'm at work.

The past few days have been glorious, though. They've been gloriously amazing with nights ranging from 7pm until 10am. Yes, my son is sleeping that long with just one, short wake-up in between. And that's because come bedtime, he's too dang tired to eat anything; so, he gets hungry around midnight - 2AM.

Getting to know Dominic has been a long process. When you've got a newborn, you're informed that you'll learn your baby and know each and every one of his cries, grunts, groans and so on, and so forth. Well, let me be the mom to tell you that with me, such was not the case; now, at four months and just over a week, I'm finally starting to learn my baby boy. I can tell what cries are leading him into a nap or sleep; I can tell his "let me down" wiggle from his "I just need you to comfort me" wiggle. I can tell his "I'm in pain" cry from his "I'm just playing, mom" screams. I tell you, every single noise that kid used to make, happy or otherwise, I was right there to find out "what was wrong" with him. And there usually wasn't anything wrong. When he first came home, I was a bit of a nutcase really. He was sleeping in his crib and I kept the monitor inside the crib so I could make sure I could hear it. First of all, those things are so sensitive that you could have it in the bathroom next to his room and you'd still hear him! Secondly, that was just cruisin' for a bruisin', so to speak, because every single time he moved in his sleep, I would jump out of bed and run to his room.

My husband keeps a camera in the baby's room and can keep an eye on him when he's at work at night. He used to laugh at me and tell me to "turn off the monitor" or "at least turn it down" so I'd get some sleep, because I was so crazy about being in there for every, single, solitary noise! I had no clue what anything meant; and perhaps it can be chalked up to being a first-time mother, and perhaps all you first-time mothers are reading this and cracking up because "that's what I did, too," but it's how we learn. Now I have the monitor in his room but the walkie talkies are in the kitchen and in the basement; not in my bedroom. The only time I get up at night is if he is really wailing. If I hear him talking, my butt rolls over and goes back to sleep. From the great advice of my loving husband, the baby is now sleeping in his own room and his crazy noises no longer wake me up in the middle of the night.

I really think it takes a lot of growing before one can get to know their baby and his/her habits. At newborn to a couple to few months, I really think it's difficult to gauge the baby and his/her habits. This is just my .02, but I'm nearly certain that baby #2 will be treated identically to my perfect #1.

So here we are, November 13, 2011, and I've had a revelation. I've finally gotten to know my son, and dang; it sure feels good. :)