The "baby season" of a mothers life
Dear Chosen Mothers,
"Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. Then they can train the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the Word of God." Titus 2:3-5 There are seasons in a mother's life. There are seasons of nursing and changing diapers. And seasons of correction and answering questions and more correction. Then there are seasons of teaching and training and gearing up for adulthood. Lastly is the season of slowly letting go. Each season has its ups and its downs and its beauties and its flaws just as each of the four seasons of the year. But you wouldn't want to miss one season of the year, and you wouldn't want to miss one season of a child's life. Spring is the season when new things are being born and coming up. Newborns are the first season of life.
I learned when my children were babies and nursing that they were very attached to me. They needed to have me close and to hear my voice often. I held them a lot and kissed them and prayed over them while breathing in their special "baby smell". My mom use to say I was going to wear out their cheeks with all my kisses! I had special little nicknames for each one of my children that use to make my husband laugh. Now when they are older they like to hear their nicknames for it makes them laugh. I learned with my first baby that the baby stage is a very short time, so I relished it all the more with each consecutive child. I would get in their face and make them giggle and laugh with my silly antics.
The smell of my babies was a luxurious odor to me. I loved to put them in the bath and wash them gently with soft little cooing sounds as the warm water trickled over my hands to their back. They would look back at me in wide-eyed wonder at the feel of it all. When I hold my friend's tiny babies, this "bathing urge" comes over me. I just want to wisk them away and bathe them. Rubbing them afterwards in a soft towel and combing their fragile hair while breathing in their sweet baby's breath. Every one of my babies loved bath time. I think it was because I loved it more than them! I nursed all of my children. It was not an easy task. For I learned soon with my first born son that one of my breasts would not work. I thought I wouldn't be able to nurse, but a kind doctor told me to just nurse a lot with the good one. So I did! I was nursing quite a bit more than most women, usually every two to three hours during the beginning months. And I was also quite lop-sided which I took measures to disguise. Smile. But I am very grateful that the LORD helped me to nurse all of my children.
"Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. Then they can train the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the Word of God." Titus 2:3-5 There are seasons in a mother's life. There are seasons of nursing and changing diapers. And seasons of correction and answering questions and more correction. Then there are seasons of teaching and training and gearing up for adulthood. Lastly is the season of slowly letting go. Each season has its ups and its downs and its beauties and its flaws just as each of the four seasons of the year. But you wouldn't want to miss one season of the year, and you wouldn't want to miss one season of a child's life. Spring is the season when new things are being born and coming up. Newborns are the first season of life.
I learned when my children were babies and nursing that they were very attached to me. They needed to have me close and to hear my voice often. I held them a lot and kissed them and prayed over them while breathing in their special "baby smell". My mom use to say I was going to wear out their cheeks with all my kisses! I had special little nicknames for each one of my children that use to make my husband laugh. Now when they are older they like to hear their nicknames for it makes them laugh. I learned with my first baby that the baby stage is a very short time, so I relished it all the more with each consecutive child. I would get in their face and make them giggle and laugh with my silly antics.
The smell of my babies was a luxurious odor to me. I loved to put them in the bath and wash them gently with soft little cooing sounds as the warm water trickled over my hands to their back. They would look back at me in wide-eyed wonder at the feel of it all. When I hold my friend's tiny babies, this "bathing urge" comes over me. I just want to wisk them away and bathe them. Rubbing them afterwards in a soft towel and combing their fragile hair while breathing in their sweet baby's breath. Every one of my babies loved bath time. I think it was because I loved it more than them! I nursed all of my children. It was not an easy task. For I learned soon with my first born son that one of my breasts would not work. I thought I wouldn't be able to nurse, but a kind doctor told me to just nurse a lot with the good one. So I did! I was nursing quite a bit more than most women, usually every two to three hours during the beginning months. And I was also quite lop-sided which I took measures to disguise. Smile. But I am very grateful that the LORD helped me to nurse all of my children.
Since I had this problem, I was up a lot during the night. A lot. We lived with my parents for
nine months soon after my first son was born. My mother said she never saw anyone up as much
as I was with him. Some nights I would lay there and cry with him as I felt so inept as a mother.
But the LORD helped me to get through it as I knew I was doing the best I could for my baby and
for our tight finances.
As I see it now, I learned to keep my babies quite close to me because of my abnormality. It was a concern of mine that they weren't getting enough milk, so I did my best to make sure they were frequently well nursed. This meant that I could not pump milk ahead as I was just producing enough at the time of nursing. Consequently I did not go far without my babies. As I look back on this, the LORD again was working through all of this to help me stay home and learn to be very close to my children.
The baby stage is such a short time. I know they cry and get fussy, but there was something special about learning your child so well and just how to get him or her out of their fussiness. Oftentimes I would relate to my husband just the right way to hold our daughter or our son that would cease their crying as I was so well practiced at it. Two of my sons were particularly fussy children crying so much. The doctor called it "colic" meaning no one knew what was the matter with them. I had to work especially hard with these two boys. They tried me more than the other two put together. Many a night I would be up late rocking them as they were so often distraught. My mom said I loved the hurt out of them as she so enjoys their pleasant natures now. She took a picture of me one morning asleep in the middle of all my laundry. The last I remembered I had been folding it!
My "baby" is presently five years old. Yet it seems like only yesterday that I held him and blew kisses into his neck making him wriggle in delight. He was My Big-eye Tuna for he had the biggest eyes in his baby face. Every time I called him that my fisherman husband would chuckle. The names I picked for my babies were not your normal nicknames: My Angel-face Girl, My Precious Punkin' Head, and My Kitten-Face Child. Where did those names come from? Who can say. But they marked those special children as my own as only a pleasant nickname can do.
Yes, the newborn stage can be difficult with all the diaper changing, nursing round the clock, crying and crying and more crying; but it also can be the most precious of times when you hold that sweet smelling Angel-face Girl in your arms after her warm bath, and pray for her childhood while blowing butterfly kisses all over her cheeks. She's wriggling and aching to grow, but you slow down the season a bit every time you kiss her and tell her how special she is to you. For no matter the time of the year, when there's a newborn in the house, it's spring!
As I see it now, I learned to keep my babies quite close to me because of my abnormality. It was a concern of mine that they weren't getting enough milk, so I did my best to make sure they were frequently well nursed. This meant that I could not pump milk ahead as I was just producing enough at the time of nursing. Consequently I did not go far without my babies. As I look back on this, the LORD again was working through all of this to help me stay home and learn to be very close to my children.
The baby stage is such a short time. I know they cry and get fussy, but there was something special about learning your child so well and just how to get him or her out of their fussiness. Oftentimes I would relate to my husband just the right way to hold our daughter or our son that would cease their crying as I was so well practiced at it. Two of my sons were particularly fussy children crying so much. The doctor called it "colic" meaning no one knew what was the matter with them. I had to work especially hard with these two boys. They tried me more than the other two put together. Many a night I would be up late rocking them as they were so often distraught. My mom said I loved the hurt out of them as she so enjoys their pleasant natures now. She took a picture of me one morning asleep in the middle of all my laundry. The last I remembered I had been folding it!
My "baby" is presently five years old. Yet it seems like only yesterday that I held him and blew kisses into his neck making him wriggle in delight. He was My Big-eye Tuna for he had the biggest eyes in his baby face. Every time I called him that my fisherman husband would chuckle. The names I picked for my babies were not your normal nicknames: My Angel-face Girl, My Precious Punkin' Head, and My Kitten-Face Child. Where did those names come from? Who can say. But they marked those special children as my own as only a pleasant nickname can do.
Yes, the newborn stage can be difficult with all the diaper changing, nursing round the clock, crying and crying and more crying; but it also can be the most precious of times when you hold that sweet smelling Angel-face Girl in your arms after her warm bath, and pray for her childhood while blowing butterfly kisses all over her cheeks. She's wriggling and aching to grow, but you slow down the season a bit every time you kiss her and tell her how special she is to you. For no matter the time of the year, when there's a newborn in the house, it's spring!
Love,
Laine
Laine
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