Reflecting in the Mirror of My Children

I'm up early to write and it's raining outside, I was going to have coffee but I think, when it rains, tea is more appropriate. I went to visit my Grandmother recently (I'll write a separate post about that visit) and  Vivienne crawled for the first time at her house! It was really neat that my Grandmother got to witness that, and that it happened in the same house where my own mother was raised.

Vivienne on the day she was born! She didn't cry much!

Whenever I see Vivi do something new it reminds me of something that Bella used to do as a baby. When Vivienne started clapping recently I remembered that Bella used to clap when she was upset, and it always made me giggle. I know that clapping is a developmental milestone and I just think it's funny that, as infants, we assign our own meaning to it. To Bella, it was a way to express irritation and malcontent, not happiness or praise. I could have made up a new song for her, "If You're Grumpy, and You Know it, Clap Your Hands".

Bella at about 8 months - this baby is mislabeled!

Bella was always more highly-strung than Vivienne. As a tiny baby, she hated to have her diaper changed, but hated more to sit in her mess. She would cry the instant her diaper was wet but wanted to hold your hands while you changed her, so a peaceful diaper change for that child required four hands. I guess it must be scary to be laid on your back (unswaddled) as a tiny baby because both of my children would throw their arms out when laid on the changing table as if trying to regain their balance, and Bella would always try to grab a hold of her self, if she had a onesie on she would get a good handfull of it and shriek for dear life, but if she didn't she would grip her own skin! I remember seeing her with a good handfull of the flesh on her chest, trying to pry free her tiny fingers and thinking, Stop it, kid! I bet that hurts!

Sweet baby Bella on her first day of life!

It's really neat getting to see all the ways my children are the same, and the myriad of ways they are different. I knew the first day she was born that Vivienne was going to be very different from Isabella. Vivienne had no latching issues like Bella had. When Bella was born I had already been up for 24 hours straight by the time she was born and when she couldn't latch I stayed up a further 12. I have never, ever been so exhausted, yet so unable to sleep, worrying about my child. So when Vivi was born and latched right on and went right to sleep I didn't know what to do. I recall waking up at 6 AM in a complete panic the day after she was born because she hadn't woken me up since midnight. Bella fed every two hours, Vivi slept for 4-6 hours at a time since the day she was born.