Last weekend, my husband and I got a healthy dose of snuggly-baby bliss when our sister-in-law and 6-month-old niece were in town for a visit. Now, I've been around a lot of babies, and yes, maybe I'm biased since she's family and all, but she might be the easiest, happiest baby ever. We spent about three or four hours with this sweet little love monkey, and while she did plenty of smiling and giggling and baby-gabbing, not once did she cry or fuss or scrunch up her face all pissy. Even lying there in a wet, stinky, poopy diaper, she didn't make a peep. Now that's a trooper!
Of course, after spending several hours with such a good baby, I thought about the twin boys in my belly and went, "Hey, I could totally handle two of these." But, then I thought, "Gulp, what are the chances I'm going to get even one that's as easy as this?"
I have to say, I've noticed that particularly good babies tend to have particularly chill parents. When I ask one of these easy-going moms what the secret is, they usually say something like, "Oh, we just got lucky." See, even that is a cool mom response! If I press further though, they're likely to admit that they tend to stay calm and try not to freak out, even in the face of a full-on baby meltdown. So, maybe the baby just vibes off of his or her parents' relaxed energy, or maybe the baby is genetically predisposed to go with the flow.
But then, what does that say about fussy, colicky babies? That it's their parents' fault? I don't really buy that. Some babies are, by nature, just more of a handful. I imagine even the most Zen-like Mommy can't help but lose her shiz when her baby is crying for eight hours straight. And I'm sure all those "let's all just breathe" good intentions fly out the window when you haven't slept in days and you've got an angry baby who you just can't seem to reason with.
It would be nice to think that maybe I could just will my boys into being good babies. And, of course, like many moms-to-be, I keep thinking that there must be some secret method, tricks that will give me a sense of control and ensure an easy ride. So I put that Happiest Baby on the Block DVD on my Netflix queue and will watch it 10 times if I have to! I've registered for three different kinds of bouncy seats, three different kinds of music-makers/white noise machines/mobiles, hoping that at least one will be the Holy Grail of baby soothers. And then, predictably, I worry that I'm worrying too much, and am already setting myself up for failure by putting too much pressure on them to be easy, happy babies.
And then, I take a deep breath. As a rule, I tend to be pretty easy-going, and I've been particularly relaxed during my pregnancy, which hopefully bodes well for my life as a new mom. At the end of the day, it's probably a little bit nature and a little bit nurture and what will be, will be, right?
Okay, so that being said, there have got to be some tricks! What were your secrets to having a happy, easy baby? Pregnant moms, do you think there is a secret?
Image via The Last Manx Elf/Flickr
