Disconnected thoughts.

[rivka]

I've got to say: it's been ten days, and there's still a pervasive sense of unreality about this whole "we've got two kids now" thing. I keep looking at Colin and thinking, Really? We're really going to have this baby from now on? ...But no one else has come looking for him, so clearly he must be ours.

It's way too early for a social smile, of course, but Colin has these milk smiles that can't be beat. They come just as he's falling asleep. The eyes roll back in the head, eyelids flutter down... up... down... and then he gets a big, goofy, crooked milk smile. It is awesome.

I don't know how generations of people apparently got conned into thinking those early smiles are "gas." Babies with gas look uncomfortable, not happy. It's clear that it's not a social response, yeah, but it's also so transparently clear that he's feeling contentment, not abdominal pain.

Colin is still not very fussy. He's started to have a few more calm-alert periods where he is awake but not nursing, but we haven't hit any real awake-and-unhappy periods. Sure, if he had the motor coordination he'd be speed-dialing Child Protective Services every time we change his diaper or clothes, but when we're not messing with his clothing he is a pretty content little boy. i think 3-6 weeks is supposed to be the peak of the purposeless fussiness, though, and we're only at a week and a half.

Also: there is no reason on earth why a newborn baby should smell this good, and quite a few reasons why he shouldn't. But wow do I love that new-baby smell.

Comments

[ratphooey.livejournal.com]

They really do smell delicious, don't they?

My second never went through the purposeless fussiness stage. I wish you the same good fortune!

[chargirlgenius.livejournal.com]

Have you had that icon a while? I think I remember seeing it over three and a half years ago when my oldest was itty bitty, and resolving to take some naked baby shots. Awww...

[ratphooey.livejournal.com]

That wee babe is nearly four and a half now. :-)

[chargirlgenius.livejournal.com]

Sometimes people look at me a little strangely when I ask if I can smell their baby's head. They just smell so... baby!

[eeyorerin]

New-baby smell is the best.

[redbird23.livejournal.com]

Boo is almost two-and-a-half, and I still sometimes marvel that he is ours and no one is going to come and say "Oh, we made a mistage, you don't get to keep him."

He's an amazing kid, and he never went through the really fussy phase either, so you may be spared.

And that picture of Colin is just wonderful. I can't wait to see more!

[kalmn.livejournal.com]

they smell that good so you don't decide they are an additional source of protein and eat them. it's an evolutionary adaptation.

[kate_nepveu]

Milk smiles, huh? I always thought of them as "falling asleep" smiles--SteelyKid still has them--and yeah, they're just adorable.

Glad things are still going well.

[ailbhe]

Smiling, not gas: My mother and I have decided it was a Ploy to drive a wedge between mothers and their babies, so that you could hand them over to a nanny. Or possibly because infant mortality was so high, de-personing the baby was important. But yeah, babies smile because they are happy. (And one of the things that makes them happy is passing wind, I suppose, but not harbouring it).

And nothing but nothing smells as nice as a new baby.

[fairoriana.livejournal.com]

It's funny. Having a baby is giving me serious baby-fever! You think I'd be happy because I HAVE a baby but instead I just want more and more babies! Well, not exactly. It's confusing.

[lizardling.livejournal.com]

Yep! If they could can that new baby smell (without the bad-stinky bits), they would be rich. I haven't had too many opportunities to hold a new baby, but when I have, that new baby smell has been really nice.

[(Anonymous)]

Your post reminds me of the happy ending of one of my favorite stories: Laurie Colwin's "Another Marvelous Thing."

They were accompanied in the elevator by a nurse. It was hospital policy that a nurse hold the baby, and hand it over at the door.

It made Freddie feel light-headed to be standing out-of-doors with her child. She felt she had just robbed a bank and gotten away with it.

In the taxi, Grey gave the driver their address.

"Not door to door," Freddie said. "Can we get out at the avenue and walk down the street just like everyone else?"

When the taxi stopped, they got out carefully. The sky was full of slilver clouds and the air was blustery and chill. William squinted at the light and wrinkled his nose.

Then, with Willian tight in Freddie's arm, the three of them walked down the street just like everyone else.