Baby Days

By Guest Blogger, Lucy Truman

Today and yesterday and the days before that have been special days at our house. I have a new baby brother!

We used to be three, and now we're four!
We used to go to parks and to stores, to restaurants and to museums.
We used to go outside any time we wanted.

Now our days are full of different things.

Momma says these are the baby days.
Days when we don't notice the setting or the rising of the sun.
Days when our eyes are full of new sights and our hearts are full of new feelings.

Momma says baby days are full of giggles. I laugh and laugh when baby's tiny tongue peeks out at me. I laugh and laugh when I hold him and feel his tiny body wiggle.

Momma says baby days are full of work and that I am her best helper! I use my sharp eyes to search for baby socks and I can run fast to get a diaper.

Sometimes when I try to help, Momma say, "please don't..." or "not right now." When it's not time to help with the real baby, I find my pretend baby.

My pretend baby always needs me to take care of him!

Momma says someday I'll have my very own real baby and that I will be a real mother. Momma gets little tears in her eyes when she tells me that being a mother is the very best job in the world.And sometimes I get tears in my eyes, too.
Momma says baby days are full of tears. She says sometimes we have tears because we're so tired, or because life with four is different than life with three. But sometimes, she says, we have tears because we're so full of happiness that it spills out our eyes!

Momma says that baby days don't last very long. She says she remembers that every time she looks at me. She says that soon we'll go to parks and stores, to restaurants and museums.
Soon there won't be so many tears.
Soon our tiny baby won't be so tiny.

Momma says that baby days are some of the most special days in our lives and that she's so happy to share these special days with me!

Spencer Says...

Thank you for the super warm welcome!!!
(Spencer's emotional momma especially appreciated all of the kind, cheering words!)

Lucy says...We still love our baby! (The other day she was examining Spencer's tiny fingers, one by one. When she got to the fourth finger she oozed, "Ohhh, his ring-man is so so cute!"

Lori says...We still love our baby! (And those of you who made such thoughtful comments about my post-birth appearance should see me today! Wow. One fails to fully appreciate shower time when one does not have a newborn in the house. Glad Spencer loves me for my milk and not my good looks!)

Wes says... We still love our baby! (Funny, isn't it, how life doesn't stop, or even slow down, when you experience a major life change. What? Books to read? Papers to write? Presentations to prepare?? Whew! Go Wes!)

We're so happy to be a foursome - and are so happy (read: eternally, utterly grateful) for you supportive, supportive, helpful, and loving friends and family memebers!

Morning Has Broken

Unexpectedly.

Spencer Dee Truman

Monday morning

6lb 14oz, 17.5 inches.

(So much for "just the girls," eh, Lucy?)

Big sister was beaming all day.

"Oh! He moved!" "Oh! He sticked his tongue out!" "He touched me!!" "Guys, let me see his eyes! If they are blue!" "He's so, so precious!"

Little baby, lots of love.

For Lucy

We're both excited, you and I, to meet our new baby.
We get more excited every day.
You often ask me, "Mom, will you let baby brother come out?"
And I smile at your request, wishing it were that easy.

But as this looming era of excitement and change grows closer - daily, breathlessly closer - one thing keeps me feeling patient.

You.

I know that the birth of your brother won't hinder or impede my love for you.
There's no limit to love.
It multiplies and is ever inclusive.
Your Grandma Packer, actually, had to remind me of that once. During the shocking days immediately following your birth, I remember crying, worried that my relationship with your father would "never be the same." Grandma assured me that there would be enough love to go around.

And of course there was.
And of course there will be.

But still, I can't help savoring you just a little.
I can't help delighting in the way you declare, "Just the girls!" after we send Dad off to school in the morning.


I can't help prioritizing the impractical just for the sake of togetherness.

Pedicures? Let's remind our readership that I have painted my toenails maybe once in my entire life. But you loved it. You didn't care that I could hardly bend over enough to paint straight. And now, every morning you come and pull off my covers, saying, "lets show Dad our beautiful toes."
 
Lucy, I love your beautiful toes. And your beautiful eyes, and your beautiful hair, and your beautiful cheek dimple. But mostly I love your beautiful heart.


I so love seeing your nurturing nature unfold as we anticipate a baby together. You spend hours everyday with your little "bundle" (as you call your wrapped up baby doll) - singing, humming, rocking, reading, and gently reciting your repertoire of mothering phrases, like, "I've got you, babe" and "Not time for playing, just time for sleeping."


And so, even though it takes a herculean effort to roll my body over in the middle of the night and I feel ultimately ready to discharge my little nine-months occupant, I will delight in the waiting, grateful for time to soak in every beautiful thing about you.
Grateful for time to lay on your bed, feeling you twirl my hair in your fingers until you drift off to sleep.
Grateful for a few more days to be "Just the girls!"

Growing Up

It was time.
Past time, really.
The "nukkie" had to go.
Lucy'd been sleeping with a soothie since birth.
Ah, such pacifying bed-time bliss!

True, like most paranoid parents, we'd worried about dental development and independent sleep skills, but it pretty much came down to laziness.
How could we just up and toss that blessed, tear-stopping, sleep-inducing device??!

But excuses can only last so long, eh?
With baby brother on the horizon, I knew that waiting "a little longer" meant waiting indefinitely.

So Sunday, we took the plunge.
We told Lucy that the Leprechauns were coming in the middle of the night to trade her nukkies for a special surprise.

Yes, Leprechauns.
Never mind that it's not St. Patrick's day.
Never mind.
Every good parent needs a scapegoat.

Lucy was totally enthused.
She drew a picture for the anticipated green visitors.

And then she gathered her "nukkies," lovingly kissed each one of them (not kidding), placed them in a bowel, and hollered "Goodbye nukkies!" over and over until bedtime.

And she did, indeed, have a hard time falling asleep. She didn't cry and she wasn't cross. She was just...confused. Didn't know how to fall asleep. Wes and I couldn't help exchanging "poor little thing" glances every time she'd peek her head out of the door or call for one of us in a timid voice.

She eventually dozed, only to wake up multiple times throughout the night. At about 5:30 she was up for good. I laid by her until about 7, but the hour and a half was really just a restless struggle.

I finally whispered that it was time to see if the Leprechauns had come.

And they had!And she was thrilled.

And each subsequent night has been easier.

She's learning fast.

And growing up fast.

And I readily admit that it's breaking my heart and making me smile, simultaneously.

And I suppose I'm growing up too, as yesterday was my twenty-seventh birthday.
But I think you could make the argument that I'm growing OUT more than I'm growing UP.

It might be because of the ripe baby in my belly.
Or it might be because of the "birthday cake" we three Trumans shared last night.

But fresh, seasonal peaches are my favorite!


FAVORITE.

And Wes must have known that, cause he served them atop my birthday breakfast yesterday too - making for the best french toast I've ever had in my life. Hands down. But it might have tasted extra sweet because I sat sleepily on the couch watching it be prepared by a darling Wes and Lucy pair, both clad only in their underwear. (And I do, actually, have a picture of that...but because I value my life, I'll post this later-in-the-day one instead...)

And speaking of my sweet Wesley, look at him all grown up and turned grad-student!

He survived orientation last week only to come home pretty exhausted tonight after his first official day of classes. I told him, don't worry dear. We'll only be more tired when baby brother comes. (Wives should be encouraging like that, don't you think?)

Glad that all of this growing up also means growing together!

Not sure it'd be worth it any other way!