You are my sunshine

November 3, 2012

It is amazing how fast you start to see a personality emerge in a newborn baby.  

My oldest craved his routine from the very first day.  The child has gone to sleep around 9:00 p.m. every night and arose between 7:00 and 7:30 a.m. every day of his life since the day he was born. 

Any attempt to get him to sleep earlier were a wasted effort.  He would cry or lie awake in the dark until 9:00, and then he was out. 

He was so attuned to this schedule that I actually gave up full time pay and benefits at my job in order to start later every day, knowing that trying to awaken him earlier and rushing him off to daycare would mean one very long day for the caregiver.

As it turned out, those five extra hours every week with my son in the mornings were well worth it.  Kids have a way of slowing us down and reminding us what is really important.

And now I have another newborn.  Mostly our new baby is a mellow dude.  We have to wake him up to remind him to eat. 

As soon as he’s awake, he realizes he’s starving and lets you know about it.  But if left to his own devices, he’d sleep himself to death.

You’d think with all that sleeping we’d be the most well-rested new parents around.  No such luck.

The thing about our little sleeper is, he never really stops making noise.  All day and all night, when he’s eating, when he’s awake, when he’s sleeping – he never really stops chirping, grunting, growling, squeaking, even laughing.

I thought I was hearing things the first time I heard him giggle.  But he was definitely snickering, happy smile and all.

I thought maybe it was a fluke thing, but my doctor said her daughter also giggled as a newborn. 

What exactly does a newborn baby laugh about? 

Personally, I think my son is reliving the moment he peed all over his dad in the middle of the night. Dad sure did jump high, and kind of danced around swatting at the stream shooting straight up in the air. 

I’m pretty sure I’ve laughed about that one in my sleep as well.

It takes our little lion cub a good half hour to fully rouse from sleep. All the while, he is stretching, yawning and rolling from side to side, grunting like it takes a great deal of effort to be so darn cute. 

He does all of this with his eyes closed, often smiling that irresistible grin. Despite being kept up all night, it is impossible not to fall in love with our happy camper’s sunny disposition.

And our new addition is clearly all boy.  I can already imagine him at sixteen, stumbling half asleep into the bathroom at 11:00 a.m. on a Saturday, scratching his backside, hair all askew, yawning and stretching.

It may take our boy a while to greet the day, but when he does, he does it with a smile.

This article first appeared in the Lewistown News-Argus and the Sidney (Mont.) Herald on November 3, 2012.