Cliff Notes: Newborns

Many of my friends are either pregnant or are planning to be not far in the future, but have not really spent much time with babies, just as I had not prior to the arrival of our son.  This post is for you.  It is a wee primer on what I have learned so far, and truth be told, it would have helped me enormously to know these things before coming home from the hospital with a tiny infant in my care.

• White noise is not cheating.  It is a necessity, not a crutch.  Apparently it recreates the whooshing noisy atmosphere of the womb, where your new baby surprisingly would prefer to be.  Restaurants are also sometimes good for the white noise effect, although this can backfire.
• Most babies want to be held most of the time. Enjoy this before they get heavy and squirmy.
• Motion is essential: rocking, car rides, swings, jiggling, and walking all count.
• Babies, even if full-term, are not finished developing yet when they are born.  They can't hold anything except your finger and they can only see approximately twelve inches from their faces.
• Things that are snuggly and close-fitting (and that seem as though they would be terribly uncomfortable) are soothing to the tiny ones.  Hence, swaddles.  They also can't control their arms, and they hit themselves in the face as a result.  The hitting results in them being startled or woken up.  Really, check out swaddling.  
• Babies, much like my husband, use sleep as a system lockdown if they are overwhelmed.  They are easily and often over-stimulated.  Normal everyday settings, such as Target or a neighborhood park, or even a visit with an overly enthusiastic loved one, are sensory explosions and can provoke either crying or sleeping, or both.  This is why you see sleepy, blissfully unaware babies in their carriers at restaurants.  
• Tiny children love tiny babies.  They say "baby" or something like it, and point, when you walk by with your baby.
• When babies "tell you" that they are hungry, there are specific signs.  Even baby amateurs like me can learn the signs.  Newborns are hungry all the time.  I'm not exaggerating.  Their stomachs are the size of a marble when they are born and grow to the size of an egg by their tenth day.  Which explains why they need to eat so often and why they become ornery if you overfeed them-there is no room in there!
• Toys that appear cheesy and lame seem to make babies (and then as a result even their hipster design-obsessed parents) happy.
• Babies look longer at things that surprise them and they look away from things that bore them.
• Babies have to learn to connect their sleep cycles.  They learn to do this by learning how to self-soothe in-between the cycles (which are shorter than adult sleep cycles).  If they fall back asleep on their own even once, that is the beginning of them sleeping through the night.
• Babies are a great excuse to stay home, take it easy and/or to go to bed early.

Stroller Walking

The sidewalks of Houston are a study in extreme disrepair.  They are broken, multi-level, interrupted, sometimes non-existent, often blocked by vehicles, frequently encroached on by rowdy plant matter, and definitely not wheelchair or stroller-friendly.  As a result, I expected to grow extremely annoyed with my neighborhood while walking with the stroller.  The opposite has happened; I have grown more fond of this area as our daily walks have caused me to notice more features which have further endeared it to me.  Also I feel gratitude for the sturdy construction of our stroller.

I discovered, and later visited, a museum of print history.  It is on a side street and in an unassuming building that I almost didn't notice when I initially passed by.  Eventually it turned out to be a pleasant and stroller-friendly activity while my mom was visiting for the weekend.  It was especially excellent that there was a food truck out front and we were pleased with said truck's offerings.

Another Festival of Quilts

I can't believe it's been a year since I went to the Quilt Festival here in Houston.  Suddenly it's that time again.  I heard on the radio this week that the festival draws over sixty-thousand attendees and that quilters spend more money on quilting than hunters spend on hunting and golfers spend on golf, which kind of boggles the mind.  Regardless of the hoopla, I just go to see the amazing display quilts from around the world.

It is bizarre how everything is different in my life than it was a year ago, and it all started just after the festival last year.  Last year I hung around the festival with my camera for hours, exploring and admiring the art.  This year, I raced around the festival with my camera in my diaper bag and my baby in the stroller.  I held my breath for most of the time and finally did a slower, more leisurely stroll only after I was certain that I had seen the highlights, lest I miss anything if the baby erupted.  But he hung in there, and I enjoyed a decent overview.

I was not as taken with this year's quilts as I was with those from last year, but they were beautiful and inspiring nonetheless.  The highlights for me this year were other details, like the fact that the friendly and enthusiastic ticket-taker at the door greeted me with "You must be from Wisconsin!", which was remarkable since I had never seen him in my life.  Even though I'm not from Wisconsin, from down here Minnesota and Wisconsin are essentially the same thing, so I was willing to consider that an accurate statement. Then I realized that he figured it out because I was wearing a sleeveless top and it was only 72 degrees outside.  For Houstonians, this constitutes a chill in the air.

Another aspect of the festival that amused me this year that I didn't notice last year was the husband's lounge.  It was a walled-off area in the back of the convention hall equipped with a big TV and a bunch of comfy armchairs and lounge chairs.  Pretty smart, and thoughtful, in my opinion.

There was something else I noticed this year that had nothing to do with quilts.  I noticed how many people in the world love babies.  As a person who has always feared them desperately, this fact never ceases to amaze me.  A sleeping baby in a stroller is a grandma magnet, and I was in a convention hall overflowing with grannies.  It's really fun walking past people who reflexively smile and get a little dreamy, giggly look on their faces when they look at your tiny companion.

Regardless, there were also beautiful quilts.  Here is a sampling of what I saw: