Benchmark

So my friends Mike and his wife, Kat gave birth to a healthy baby girl, Kaitlin last week at Gleneagles Hospital. It was such a happy occasion that the Mrs and I visited them at the hospital twice.

Looking at them brought back many memories for us. For instance how small Isaac was about 9 months ago. How we carry him around using only one hand and it freaked many people including experienced parents out there. Now, we sometimes struggle with even 2 hands when carrying Isaac.

However what hit me the most was the diaper changing and crying. The smell of her poop seemed so familiar and then it dawned on me that diaper duties will be back soon but that I think is still manageable because we have Ani. What got me a little worried there was the crying. See, Kaitlin has a very healthy set of lungs and she was not shy in using them to the full capacity (she cried till she turned red). Unlike Isaac who needed almost no feeding during the first 2 days, Kaithlin was a hungry baby and as most mothers would do, Kat tried to latch her on but had no luck during her short spell in the hospital. Each failed attempt was greeted by loud wailing by little Kaitlin.

My “look” must have been pretty obvious for the Mrs to shoot me a “don’t be rude” kind of look. I like to clarify that she was mistaken. I was not “frowning” at Kaitlin for crying out loudly because that is the most natural thing for babies to do when they need to vent their frustration and communicate with us. The reason I had a look on my face was because I was recalling if Isaac went through the same thing. Funny how being a dad shorten my memories because I drew a blank hence the “look”.

I was standing there trying to recall what went on in our hospital room with Isaac about 9 months ago. I guessed I was just curious how we handled the wailing Isaac because what I had just experienced was really a wake up call for our coming babies. If our babies turn out to be totally unlike Isaac then we may have gotten way over our heads this time.

Isaac for the most part had set a pretty high benchmark for the coming babies. He was a relatively quiet baby during the initial few months. All he did was eat, shit and sleep. There are of course the night feeding duties but that was manageable for us even though we did it without a confinement lady. He drank almost every 3 to 4 hourly day and night. He was able to sleep through the night shortly after the fourth trimester.

He is not a picky eater. I mean he has his likes and dislikes of course but he is alright with most things. He is even happy with just plain water. Sometimes he gets a little restless in the car, we feed him plain water and he will drink it and be quiet for a while.

Isaac sets and follows his own routine rather religiously. He will eat when he is supposed to and for the most part sleep when he is supposed to also. Actually come to think of it, Isaac will almost never say no to eating, be it milk, porridge or puree. He has even upgraded to eating just plain rice nowadays. He will make noise whenever we have our dinner so we give him few grains of white rice at intervals and that will keep him happy for a while.

Isaac is also not sticky and at the same time not afraid of strangers. This goes a long way in sharing the burden (read his weight) with friends and family. There are of course days that he feels a little cranky and he will be a little more selective who gets to carry him but these occasions are few and far between.

He also gave us no headaches when we brought him for his injections. Besides crying really loudly for his very first jab at the PD he never shed any tears for the subsequent two and he also did not develop fever after each of those jabs.

Looking back it could be because we had a relative easy time with Isaac that gave us the courage and final push to try for a second one so soon.

Our fingers are crossed for the coming babies to be as good if not better than Isaac. We really need them to be in their best behaviour otherwise we will really have a hard time handling them together. Managing one crying baby may not be too much of a challenge but if both of them cry at the same time then it is a different ball game altogether and I seriously hope and pray that they will not affect Isaac when they cry.

I have a feeling our lives is really starting to get interesting.

Meanwhile it is official that Isaac is a plus size baby. I was never too convinced that Isaac is a plus size (cannot use the word Fat) baby because the way I see him, he is really not much difference from other babies. I mean they come in different shapes and sizes right but in my defence I did not really have a baby of about his age to compare in person.

So what convinced me was the birthday lunch that we attended yesterday. It was my friend’s son who turned one. During lunch a stranger (seated at our table) whose wife is also expecting twins approached us for our “secret” in getting Isaac to the size that he is today. My honest answer, it is all his own credit because he was the one who ate the quantity that he has been eating and also set his own routine. Guess I was not of not much help huh?!

By the way, the birthday boy is only about 9.2kg and 1 year old and Isaac weighed in at 8.8kg that morning, nuff said!

Never get tired of seeing this "ugly" face!

Just as happy when carried by mummy!

Isaac at 8.5 mths old is only 400g lighter than birthday boy, Aloysius!

What's the secret for keeping such round and smooth face?

There is always time for a little father and son fun!