Let Your Baby Cry

I really didn't know what kind of mom I would be. Or I guess I had years of denial. In theory I would love to cloth diaper but realistically there is no way that would've worked for me. I love the idea of making all of our own baby food but after I just pureed all of our apples that were about to go bad, it was so time consuming I laughed and declared myself not about that life. To summarize, I wish I could be a crunchier mom but in practice I lack the patience and true desire to do these things regularly. 

In reading this heading one could assume I am picking a fight and maybe I am. That I want to argue for the cry yourselves to sleep movement of generations past. But really I am just here to journal my new mom realization. My mom will read this and chuckle to herself murmering, "of course Rylee, you didn't know that?" But I didn't and now I do so here:

I've learned over the past two weeks that I need to let Gemma cry and listen. Her newborn cry/ squeal has left us along with most of her hair and she is slowly transforming from newborn to baby girl much to my dismay. But with this comes growth in many ways, most notably, communication. She can smile and gosh to hear her coo. You should see how expressive her hands and face have become. And for me, the most helpful of her communication tools is her cry. In listening to her cry I can distinguish the feed me cry from the I hate my headband cry. And the I'm so tired and I forgot how to fall asleep cry from the don't stop moving cry. And the I want to be held cry from the there is nothing you can ever do to make me happy, ever, cry. As time goes on I am amazed at her communication skills (prediction that she will be a choleric-sanguine we will see if I'm right) but more so I am impressed with my own ability to interpret them. And so, I've learned to let my baby cry so that I can know why my baby is crying. Though lets be honest, I have been known to let her cry in her swing while I shower because desperation.

We will conclude this post with a photo dump.