12 days

And you thought it would take me until day 12 to finally get some pictures on here! Ha! If you look under this post there are pictures of day 8. That's right, mother of the year award is definitely mine this year.

You know what I love about babies before they discover that the arms and legs flopping about beside them are actually their own? I watch her when she's hungry, but not mad enough to cry. She'll be laying on a blanket and sort of rooting around in the air for some munchies. Then, her hand or arm brushes against her cheek and she whips her head around and opens her mouth and kind of starts sucking mid air. Seriously, lips, tongue, jaw, all involved. If she can just suck hard enough milk is sure to find it's way in there.

"nom nom nom"

Of course, her hand is long gone. It's such a tease. Then the other arm brushes against her ear or neck or cheek and she flops her head over that way - more sucking.

"nom nom nom"

The voraciousness with which she sucks makes me cringe, because I know that soon it's my turn.

Here is a (totally non-posed, reeaallyy) picture of my baby on the couch:

You know, I have this thing where I think that babies really should sleep on their stomachs. Before you all gasp and send ehate-mail, rest assured that Elliot has yet to sleep face down when she's not sleeping on me.

Just look at her. Curled up like a little beetle, all cozy. Jordan still sleeps like this from time to time. It's hilarious to see her five year old arse pointing up in the air and her long arms and legs all tucked under her with her feet curled around the bottom of her bum. I love it.

I've always kind of waited until my kids are a few months old and then switched them to their fronts. Suddenly, they fall asleep faster, they sleep longer, and they moan, groan and grunt less. It looks natural. The curves and shape of their arms and legs fit so perfectly when they sleep like this.

Do you want to know what I think about all the advice given to parents to save their babies from SIDS? I totally agree with not smoking, and not covering them with loads of blankets. When it comes to keeping the room chilly and making the baby sleep on its back (among other things)? I think the idea is to keep the baby as uncomfortable as possible so there's no way it can sleep nice and warm and cozy and comfy. Then it won't die. I know, morbid topic, and I shouldn't think about it. You know, I think there is a lot of focus on SIDS these days, and it freaks people out. I'm always happy when my babies hit 6 months old. I breathe a sigh of relief. It sucks! It sucks that when I wake up in the morning and my baby is a month or so old already and I realize it hasn't cried for 6 hours that I jump out of bed to make sure it's breathing, when what I should be doing is rejoicing!

That being said, I'll leave her on her back for a while yet.

A friend of mine at playgroup this winter was talking about the H1N1 vaccine. I think we might have been discussing the line ups or wait times or something. She said that she waited and had it done because if she hadn't, and one of her kids had died, she'd feel awfully stupid not having gotten the vaccine, since it was available.

It still makes me laugh, that she worded it that way. Gotta love her. I'm laughing right now.

Ever watch Fresh Prince of Bel Air? There was one episode where Hillary almost takes her back pack instead of her parachute to go sky diving. When it was pointed out to her she said "Wow, that would have been embarrassing!" Funny stuff.

Want to hear some of my responses (or the ones in my head anyway) to baby questions? Okay! You're going to have to suffer through this kid/baby stuff for a while. It's kind of all consuming. You should have seen Steven's face yesterday when I told him there had been an oil spill/environmental crisis in the states. Apparently he knew already. Cuz it happened months ago. Too bad they don't talk about this stuff on Max & Ruby.

Q: "How are you doing?"
A: "Great! A little tired, but normal I guess." Do you really want to know? Really? About the nursing pads, sore boobies, other pads? Cramping? Sitting down? Nah, didn't think so.

Q: "How's the baby?"
A: "She's good!" Not sure what to say. She sleeps, she eats, she poops, she wakes up all night to eat and poop and poop and eat. She doesn't complain much. Seems to like her clothes.

Q: "How's she sleeping?"
A: "She sleeps all day. She saves the 'awake time' for all night. Then it's time to par-tay"

Q: "How's she sleeping at night?"
A: "Eh, normal baby stuff." Sure, she sleeps. After I feed her, burp her, change her and then she decides she's hungry again, which makes her poop some more and after all that is done she wants to hang out and compare faces and show me that she really really does wake up! She is very cute you know. Good thing too, because in an hour and a half we'll be starting this all again.

Q: "Does she ever open her eyes?"
A: "Yep. Come back at 3am." Actually, she'll probably wake up as you're pulling out of the driveway. She's a little stinker like that!

I jest, but come on - scroll back up. How could you not love that face? All is forgiven. And I keep reminding myself that it'll be tomorrow or sometime next week that I'll be packing her little bag for nursery school, and that'll be it for my newborn snuggling, midnight feeding, waiting for the first smile days.