Dear Aida, About next week...

My sweet Aida,

I hope you don't mind that we rocked a little longer than usual tonight.

These days and nights, I want to memorize every second I have with you. Your tiny body, warm against my chest. Your furry head, nestled perfectly against my neck. The soft, breathy talking sound you make when I scoop you into my lap for the day's final feeding.

Boy do I wish I could stop time.

We've had three months. Fifteen weeks. An otherworldly get-to-know-you period of late nights and early mornings, of intimacy the likes of which I have never before experienced. You have consumed my every thought and action. My waking and my sleeping. My eating and even my not eating.

I am not ready for this to end.

Aida's newest noise

"Eeeeeeeeyuh!"

Sweet child o'mine

Apparently, one skill you develop as a new parent is figuring out exactly the right way to jiggle, bounce, rock and sway your baby into a place of peace and, eventually, sleep.

Aida was relatively straight-forward at first. Put her upright on your shoulder, sit down in a rocker and rock. Done. Out.

On the outside

I think I started rubbing my belly as soon as I knew I was pregnant. Every day in those first few weeks, I'd look in the mirror, my hands hunting my midsection for any sign of The Baby.

Over the months, the motion became as instinctual as breathing. A baby body part would slide under my rib cage and my fingers would chase it. Another would poke up in my lower abdomen and I'd give it a pat.

I remember toward the end of my pregnancy interviewing someone for a news story when the source stopped mid-sentence and asked if I was ok.

Flipping pages

It was nap time, but I'd successfully riled her up with my cheek-to-cheek kisses.

("MMMMMMM-wah!" I say while kissing one side and then the other. "Uuuuhh-huuuh," she responds, her version of a laugh, then squeals through her toothless smile.)

Wait for it...

Does it make us bad parents that Steve and I fall out of our seats laughing every time we watch this clip (and that we watch it over and over when Aida's asleep)?

Aida starting pulling the lower lip pucker at about two months old. It's devastating. And also kind of hilarious.



Video taken Jan. 20, 2011, age 2 1/2 mo.

Desperate times call for desperate measures

Aida likes to eat. This is not a problem.

Aida does not like to eat from a bottle. Problem.

I return to work two weeks from today. And unless Aida learns some flexibility, she will be coming with me.

Today, my mom had a genious idea.

Breast milk by spoon.

Here's how it went:

I didn't know

Hours after Aida was born, I rose from my hospital bed, put two feet on the ground and then felt the entire contents of my bladder empty onto the hard floor below.

I had no idea this could happen. None. But when I mentioned the experience to other mothers, no one seemed surprised.

"It happens!" a nurse and mother of two told me later.

Really??? It does??? You stop being able to go to the bathroom like a normal person???

It wasn't the only time I've been completely floored by what I didn't know would happen after giving birth.

In truth, what has surprised me the most about motherhood is how much I didn't know -- especially considering how many millions of women since the beginning of time have gone through the same thing. Couldn't someone have mentioned these things?

Our new favorite word around the house...

"Ah-gooooooo!"