The extremes of parenting styles, from least draconian to most:
- You and your spouse adapts to the newborn’s schedule
- The newborn learns to fit to your schedule
- You all give up your schedules and adopt Gina Ford’s timesheet
Baby: May 2008 Archives
Faith brought Caleb to the doctor’s for his medical examination. At one month old, he weighs 4.6kg. He was 2.75kg at birth. That’s a 70% increase. Scary.
A few moments ago, he deposited a significant amount of that weight into his diaper. Where Anne craps like a World War 2 sniper, Caleb simply lays down the law. I’m sure he changed the total amount of matter in the universe with that last poop.
Oh, the other difference between boys and girls: pee is now omni-directional. Every diaper change is a potential hosing down of the changing surface, your clothes and the car in the garage.
That’s the washing and rinsing we’ve had to do yesterday night. Caleb hit the sheets twice, and Anne didn’t make it to the toilet bowl on time.
Woohoo.
Caleb as of this morning.
Compared to Caleb at birth.
It’s been exactly 1 month. God has been gracious to us. He’s drinking three times the amount Anne consumed at the same stage, and has put on what feels like a metric ton. By my calculations, if he continues at this exponential rate, our universe would be consumed by the time he’s 4.
Taking care of Caleb, Faith and I remember how it was taking care of Anne.
We were first-time parents, driven close to insanity by a child that refused to sleep.
We’ve done a lot of things differently with Caleb. For starters, he sleeps in his own room. Anne continues to occupy our bedroom. As our bedroom and Caleb’s room is quite far apart, Faith and I have taken to sleeping in the living room. I run the age-old joke about how I finally get a television set in my bedroom.
We’re also a lot more structured when it comes to Caleb. Where we carried Anne whenever she cried, we’re quite ok with having Caleb holler for a little bit before attending to him. He’s learned to amuse himself lying down and falls asleep on his own. He drinks a whole lot more milk than Anne ever did, hammering 100mls each feed on his first week. Anne took 40mls for many months.
There’s so much to thank God for. Anne’s growing up so quickly. It’s beautiful to watch her and talk to her as you would an adult. Looking after Caleb has become a family affair, and Anne is as indispensable a part as any of us. She’d run in whenever Caleb’s awake, pat him on the head and say “Baby Caleb, you’re so cute!”
