Oh, the baby ...

Since having a second baby I’ve had lots of flashbacks to my life two years ago, to the time right after Meredith was born. What a difference!

As we were sitting in church on Sunday, with Meredith squirming between me and Kevin, I looked over and noticed Clara lying peacefully in her carrier-seat, her eyes moving around to focus on various objects in the room. It’s often easy to forget that Clara is around when we take her to public places. That was never the case with Meredith.

I was always so tense when taking newborn-Meredith to public places, like a church service, where she might make noise and be a disturbance. What if I couldn’t control the crying and make it stop? It was the unpredictability of this new little creature that made me nervous.

I remember trying to coordinate Meredith’s feedings so that we wouldn’t have to move her from her carrier-seat during the service hoping against hope, tightly crossing my fingers, that she would just sleep and not cry. Every newborn grunting noise emanating from her mouth set me on edge. It was like I viewed her as a time bomb waiting to go off. We kept her swaddled tight with a pacifier in her mouth the whole time. Even then, I was nervous. (Yes, I know, I seriously needed a chill pill.)

Clara, on the other hand, just sits there without a pacifier, peacefully moving her hands about, and probably making noises that I’m unaware of at the time.

Nowadays I’m too distracted with a toddler to worry about the newborn acting up. I’m also more experienced and therefore more relaxed. It’s nice to have finally arrived at this place.