There is nothing like those first few days with your newly born baby. It’s a gray zone; they were just inside you, an extension of your body, but not yet uncurled, open, an entity apart from you.
One of my favorite parts is the smell. Before they’ve been cleaned, had a bath, smell like laundry detergent. That’s a baby smell. It’s not the swooning… it’s just… the smell of fresh, pure chance at life. Life itself. Before it gets interfered with.
It’s been a month, and for the first few weeks there, I have to admit – it was tough to bond with my new girl. I think that’s partly due to all the distractions I had: Pesach, family visiting, unfinished business at work and, well, my other kid. It’s also partly due to the fact that I didn’t experience the first-time overwhelmingly powerful sensation of becoming a mother; of pushing a baby into the world for the first time; the adrenaline rush that comes with it all. I kinda… did what I had to do to meet my baby. And then get back to life. And that life is having two kids, a husband, long distance relationship with extended family, a job in transition, a newly-bought apartment, etc.
Secretly, maybe it runs deeper than that. Maybe it’s that I’ve always been a bit uncomfortable around other girls. Maybe because I never had a sister. Maybe I feel awkward about how much love I already have for one kid, and where to start with a second.
But now that she’s a month old, me and baby girl are down to business, getting to know each other. There is a lot of eye-catching, eye contact. Mothering smiles, babylicious nearly-smiles. The mother-baby dance. Nose-to-nose, fingers wrapped around fingers, lips brush forehead.
We’re going to figure this out together.
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