Checking on the Newborn

Although I am a “seasoned” parent, I find myself still doing what some new parents do - checking on the newborn. When things are a little too quiet, my brain immediately defaults to thinking something may be wrong. With my older two kids, it usually is the result of them being sneaky about something. With my newborn, it is more about checking to see if anything is happening that is not suppose to be happening.

Now granted, my first two kids were very difficult newborns. It is like parenting on hard mode with back to back wildlings. Colic. Check. Reflux. Check. Other random crazy situations. Check. It wasn’t easy, but I am familiar with chaos at all times in the house. With my newborn, this is not usually the case. He is much calmer as a baby than my other two and I frequently wonder whether most parents who have kids have this type of experience with their newborn. My other two kids could (and would) cry for hours non-stop if you did not give them way they wanted as babies. Car rides were a nightmare, where an hour and a half car ride would be 99% screaming and crying at the top of their lungs if you did not stop and pull over to remove them from the car seat. I have never seen anyone else’s babies do that. Ever. I guess you can call that determination?

My newborn knows when to call it quits and calms down after a few soothing mechanisms. He is also hitting the two month mark and starting to develop a semblance of a pattern to his days. Over the last few days, he has been letting me pat him to sleep in the evenings and would stay asleep after I transfer him into the bassinet for about 1-2 hours. It seemed like a miracle and made me check on him a few times to make sure he was breathing (like new parents do). I haven’t had any babies that would do that and hopefully this trend continues. It helps that he is starting to give smiles and coos while he is awake during the day to remind me that there is less crying in my future (hopefully!).