I'm waiting for something to go wrong. With M.D. Not anything you'd normally fear when it comes to babies. No, I fear it will come back. Why? Because I don't understand how it went away. The Colic. I get that it only is SUPPOSED to last for a few months. I guess we just got so used to the idea that our child was going to be an emotional mess. He was the equivalent to a teenage girl with PMS 24/7. Everything set him off. He didn't even like us. US. HIS PARENTS. He'd scream and scream and scream. I can now admit that I dreaded picking him up for Grandma Barb's. Not because I didn't want to see him, but because every day. Every Single Day. He would scream the ENTIRE drive home from Grandma Barb's house. He hated the car. Every Single Day from 4pm-4:15pm I would listen to blood-curdling screaming in my car. Every Day. Without fail. And add that on top of screaming around 5-6 hours of his day away ON TOP of that. We had to accept the fact that we were going to raise a very unhappy, emotionally sensitive baby boy. We accepted it. We didn't always love the idea, but we loved him, so we figured it out.
Now, everything is different. Like, not a little bit different. 100% opposite different. M.D. has become THE HAPPIEST baby I have ever met. In fact now, when he cries, we say, "Uh oh...what's wrong?!" because we know it MEANS something when he cries. He does it SO RARELY that this "new" baby only cries when something is actually wrong..which, thankfully, is rarely.
He doesn't have a "fussy time". He used to scream all evening. Mornings & afternoons it was sporadic. Evening...we just PRAYED for him to fall asleep to stop the screaming. Now, he plays & talks & we read books. Then, when he starts to act sleepy, I make him a bottle and we sit on the couch and he eats. I get to watch T.V. We relax. He gets tired, starts to fall asleep. I give him his "binkie" (pacifier) and lay him in bed. He rolls to his side & falls asleep. It's magical. It doesn't make sense.
How did we go from this:
Now, everything is different. Like, not a little bit different. 100% opposite different. M.D. has become THE HAPPIEST baby I have ever met. In fact now, when he cries, we say, "Uh oh...what's wrong?!" because we know it MEANS something when he cries. He does it SO RARELY that this "new" baby only cries when something is actually wrong..which, thankfully, is rarely.
He doesn't have a "fussy time". He used to scream all evening. Mornings & afternoons it was sporadic. Evening...we just PRAYED for him to fall asleep to stop the screaming. Now, he plays & talks & we read books. Then, when he starts to act sleepy, I make him a bottle and we sit on the couch and he eats. I get to watch T.V. We relax. He gets tired, starts to fall asleep. I give him his "binkie" (pacifier) and lay him in bed. He rolls to his side & falls asleep. It's magical. It doesn't make sense.
How did we go from this:
And this:
To this:
And this:
It doesn't make sense to me. Steven & I actually describe our previous high-strung child as "laid back". I never thought we'd use those words. When Steven drops M.D. off at daycare now, he smiles at Miss Michele. The other day he even gave her a hug & kiss when Steven handed him off. When I show up to pick him up, his eyes light up, he jumps up & down and I get a giant hug & kiss. Apparently, M.D's little baby-buddy at daycare (who is also 9 months old) has a fit every day when his parents drop him off. That's normal to me. This is not. M.D. goes with the flow. He's happy. He's content. You see why I'm nervous? He's not even fearful of things. Sometimes people, but only when he's tired and being passed around from person to person. Loud noises don't frighten him, he loves getting BIG kisses from Uncle Matthew's big dogs (who almost knock him over every time). To be honest, I'm not even sure what his "scared" face looks like, because I've never seen him scared. Whatever situation life presents him with, he adapts and finds a way to be content with it (he must get this from his father).
Don't get me wrong, I'm happy & excited about this "new" baby that M.D. has become. That is why I'm fearful. I don't want to go back!!!! :
Don't get me wrong, I'm happy & excited about this "new" baby that M.D. has become. That is why I'm fearful. I don't want to go back!!!! :
special olympics
Today is my Friday, sort of. I will be coming to work tomorrow, but only for about 2 hours. Tomorrow is the day some of my coworkers and I are volunteering at the MN Special Olympics Summer Games. I helped out 2 years ago, I didn't last year, I was WAY too pregnant and overheated to stand outside for that long. I'm excited. The games hold a special place in my heart now. I realize that I have no idea the feelings of a parent who has a child who actually has downs syndrome or other special needs, however, I understand how quickly their lives changed with that diagnosis. When we were told that M.D. showed a symptom in-utero that sometimes can be attributed to having downs syndrome I felt the world caving in. It wasn't even a definitive diagnosis, and yet I racked my brain to figure out how we would cope if it was going to become a true diagnosis. Thankfully, our little boy is healthy & happy, but I don't take for granted the idea that our lives could have gone in a different direction.
That being said, I won't have time to post tomorrow.
Steven & I are VERY excited for this weekend. Nana Joanne called and asked if we would like her to come up this weekend so we can have a date night. (She must have read my intervention blog post) :). So she is going to come up on Saturday so Steven & I can go out to dinner. We are psyched. We can't even figure out where to go because we have so many restaurants in our head that we haven't been to since M.D. was born. It will be awesome :) *Thanks Nana*
That being said, I won't have time to post tomorrow.
Steven & I are VERY excited for this weekend. Nana Joanne called and asked if we would like her to come up this weekend so we can have a date night. (She must have read my intervention blog post) :). So she is going to come up on Saturday so Steven & I can go out to dinner. We are psyched. We can't even figure out where to go because we have so many restaurants in our head that we haven't been to since M.D. was born. It will be awesome :) *Thanks Nana*