1m2aSandbox

Maddie’s been practicing her Jedi
Mind Tricks on people again – a trick she used to use before
she actually spoke English. Back in the babble days, she’d
stare intently into your eyes and wave her hands before you while
speaking hypnotically, as if willing you to understand and obey.
These days, with a common language between her and the other half
of the conversation, she’s become much more direct.

When I was pregnant with Madeleine,
everyone told us, “The first two weeks are the hardest. If
you can survive the first two weeks, you can survive
anything.”


Everyone lied.


I’m not sure where this myth got started – probably
some first-time, sleep-deprived parent who couldn’t imagine
it could get worse. But the truth is, the first two weeks are
relatively easy. Newborns are in this intense sleep/eat mode, an
almost hibernation, for the first couple of weeks, and are pretty
basic in their needs. Yes, there’s the “how do I change
a diaper” crisis, and yes, the whole
nursing-for-the-first-time thing is very traumatic and yes, as a
first-time parent, the sleep deprivation is a huge shock those
first two weeks. But you know what’s worse?


Week three. When baby becomes more alert and colic kicks in.

Madeleine takes her role as Big Sister
very seriously. I think she hovers around Cora more than I do, and
would probably inadvertently smother the poor kid if I didn’t
hold her affection back sometimes. I see Maddie mimic me whenever
Cora needs tending to: if Cora starts crying and needs to be picked
up, for example, I’ll start pacing with her and gently
bouncing her only to notice Maddie’s rushed to her doll
cradle, picked up a dolly, and placed the dolly over her own thin
shoulder, energetically patting it on the back and saying,
“It’s ok, dolly.” She’ll watch me closely
and follow me around until Cora’s once again calm, at which
point Dolly’s miraculously better and back in her own cradle.


Maddie still loves holding Cora and begs for a chance several times
a day. She also helps give Cora a bottle any time I’m out and
Daddy’s on duty, and will solemnly hold the bottle firmly in
Cora’s mouth until the bottle’s bone dry. But by far
the cutest Big Sister job Maddie’s selected for herself is
Pacifier Duty.

You know how, when you have a second child, you think about how much money you’ll save because you’ll be able to use all your old stuff again?

Ok, set that thought aside for a second and think about this: remember how, when you stopped nursing your first child, you swore you’d gleefully burn all your nursing bras, so much did you hate those stretched-out, fugly, sour milk-stained things?

See where I’m going with this?

First, a little back story:


We decided to follow the AAP’s recommendations for toddlers
and keep Madeleine from watching any television before age 2. My
husband, raised on Sesame Street, has been straining at the leash
to introduce Maddie to some of his favorite childhood memories, and
her second birthday presents included more than one DVD.


Now that she’s over the magic age, we are slowly allowing her
to watch select programs. And at this point, I have to confess that
I didn’t watch much Sesame Street growing up: I was in ballet
class after school from a pretty early age and missed the whole
“kid t.v.” thing. And since one of our television rules
is that a parent has to sit and watch with Maddie rather than using
the t.v. as a babysitter, I’m getting exposed to Sesame
Street for the first time as well.

When planning Maddie’s recent
birthday party at the zoo, I had one big worry: what to do with
baby Cora. She’s still in the “potted palm”
stage, meaning that all you have to do is carry her around and
water her periodically – she’s not a huge attention
drain. But my concern was being outdoors for such a long period of
time, and how I’d deal with her sun exposure. I did a recent
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blog on sunscreen and bug repellent for toddlers, but as
many of us know, sunscreen is not recommended for babies under six
months due to the fragility of their newborn skin. I guess too many
chemicals seep directly into the bloodstream, or something. So I
was left worrying about how I’d keep her from burning for
several hours.

Let me start with the one thing I DIDN’T forget about nursing: at first, it hurts. And all those books that talk about the joy and peace and easiness of nursing forget to mention that fact. I’d even go so far as to say that most of those books actually make it sound like you’re doing something wrong if it hurts. And sure, there’s lots that can go wrong that causes nursing to be painful. But I have yet to meet a woman who didn’t go through a week of sore, cracked nipples with a newborn, proper latch or not.

So believe me, I was prepared for the pain, since I’d vowed the first time around to never forget that tidbit. But there was plenty about nursing I didn’t remember, including: