Easy

I'm putting together a Shutterfly book for my daughter's first year (hoping to make this an annual tradition - I already did one for her gestation and birth) so Mike and I were looking at photos from last summer.

And even though the photo subject was (and is) adorable, I definitely felt a little sad looking at her (and us). We just all looked so miserable! For myself, it was a combination of new-mom-ness plus post-partum depression. For her, it was normal newborn behavior plus reflux plus that first terrible (and ineffective) hip brace. For Mike, it was trying to keep it together for his crying ladies while also going to work every day!

And we got through that year and we survived and some might even say we thrived. But would I say it was easy? Ummm, no. And would I say I had an easy baby? Ummm, no (at least not after she got the Pavlik brace). I reread some of my old blog posts and I had forgotten how sad it was that we could only snuggle for one hour per day. Luckily it wasn't for a long period (she was waened to 12 hours/day after a few months) but it was rough at the time to maximize our bathtime/snuggling/breastfeeding in those short sixty minutes.


A few comments and segues into reflux:
- once we got a different kind of brace, everything changed! What I thought was crankiness due to reflux was apparently just discomfort from the brace. She became such a happy baby!
- since she continued with the reflux, the pediatrician dubbed her a "happy spitter". As the person who did the laundry, I disagree with the term "spitter"! This was not spit!
- the puking (and even all spit up) stopped magically when she started walking. It was such a distinct line - one day, crawling and spitting up everywhere (i needed to bring a burpcloth for a 5 min errand into CVS) and then walking and NOTHING. No puke, no spitup, nothing. Amazing.

And most importantly...just because they are fussy and not easy, it doesn't mean they aren't cute!