Yesterday Reiko and Isabelle came home from the hospital and I got a taste of what it`s like to have a newborn baby around at night. She cries and cries and cries.
I`ve been apart from Reiko last week as I couldn`t stay at the hospital. Reiko is exhausted and as I write this, she`s grabbing some much needed sleep. In a bizarre way, when the baby`s asleep, I want to wake her up. When she`s awake and not crying, she`s delightful – attempting to focus on things seemingly she alone can see, falling asleep on my knees and becoming stronger every day.
I`ve also assumed Oyabaka (doting parent) status by comparing Isabelle with babies I see in the street or in magazines and having Isabelle trounce them in cuteness.
We both don`t want her to grow up, preferring she stay in this state of adorableness forever though I must emphasise that a lifetime of changing her nappies, bathing her and being peed on would grate quickly.
Yeah, it’s *exactly* like that.
The feelings of not wanting her to grow up will not go away for a long, long time. And it only gets worse as she gets bigger and starts developing her personality… Of course, this may be different for everyone else, but for me, when I look back at photos I took alng the way, it kind of makes me miss how tiny Kei was at first. Anyway, my advice, if you’d like, is to take MILLIONS of photos, print them all and place them in chronological order in albums. I’ve made the mistake of not printing enough, and my wife gets mad at me ‘cos I take zillions of pics but print only a few.
Oh, and getting peed on? Just wait ’til she gets some bacteria introduced into her little system and her poo starts to really smell. WHOA!