Looking back on the last year there are some moments I remember and look fondly on. It was my first year of being a parent, and it still feels weird to call myself that. There were a lot of ups and downs this year, but these are some of my favorite moments to reflect on.
When I first heard them cry
It might sound weird. I don’t know. I still remember them crying when they were born. For the first time I could hear my children. I thought that cry was the most beautiful thing I had ever heard. The nurse heard me say something along those lines and she clearly new my feelings about that would change. Obviously, I’m not a fan of the crying, but at that moment it was really special.
When both began sleeping through the night
From the beginning they’re lives were very scheduled and it all revolved around feeding. I can’t believe we used to get up twice in the night to finish their 8 feedings per day and how difficult it was to get Lawson to eat enough.
After only a couple of months we had removed those feedings and gone to 6 per day. Lawson was sleeping through the night. Gwendolyn would keep us up with here crying and we thought it was gas. It may have been at first, but when her problem continued after changing her diet and we realized it was only at night, the doctor informed us that our princess was just used to us picking her up and soothing her.
A week of giveing her the chance to learn to self sooth was all it took and we had two babies sleeping through the night. Which meant I could sleep through the night. It all seems so long ago.
When they would listen to me sing
Now the babies crawl around so much and they love to play and thrash anything they can get their hands on. I still sing to them, usually when changing diapers, but I used to to full on karaoke for a captive audience.
When Sara does her pumping, I am tasked with taking the babies somewhere so they don’t grab at the equipment, or anything. Early on it was because when she’s pump at night, they would be screaming so much the stress it caused would weaken her supply.
I would take two crying babies upstairs and the only thing that would quiet them was for me to sing, so I would look up karaoke versions of songs on my phone and put on a little concert. They loved it so much. I would sing them songs by Ben Folds, “Weird Al,” ELO, Oingo Boingo, Billy Joel, and Elton John. It was the first time we would hang out together and I could see their reactions.
A good flight on an airplane
So, we have traveled a few times. every time we have traveled the babies have been older and more developed and I always get so nervous about taking them on a plane. They alway’s impress me, though. One of my favorite flights what when I held Gwendolyn in front of me from LA to Portland. We just looked at each other the whole time smiling and making faces. It was so fun.
Now that they are a little bit older, its really fun when we get an empty seat next to us. A couple of times this has happened to Sara and both of our children have had the opportunity to fly in their own seat. It’s really cute to see them sitting their all stretched out.
They said Dada
Of course there are the milestones. A big one was the crawling. That was huge. and after they had done it once, there was no stopping them. I remember having them in a travel playpen in a hotel room thinking they were confined within a circular bin with sides about 10″high. I was watching TV and looked down, amazed to see Lawson was booking across the room and almost to the door.
The big moment for me came shortly after. both of them had begun saying mama around the same time they began crawling. but They would not say Dada. When they did finally say it, I couldn’t believe it. Now they say it all the time and it makes me so happy each time I here it.
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