Babes

All of the kids have had distinctly different personalities as babies. Here's hoping to capture or remember some of the similarities and differences:

Hadley LOVED to swing. I mean LOOOOVED it. From day one. In fact, up until she was way too old to be in infant swings she still wanted to do it. She slept in the swing, watched Baby Einstein in the swing, just sat and enjoyed the view while in the swing, anything was great while she swung. Neither Vincent or Lauren much cared for the swing and it appears as though Gentry appears to be following in their lead which is quite bothersome to me. I do however have a theory -

Vincent, Lauren and Gentry sleep on their tummy, not on their back like Hadley did. This is always very stressful for me and I remember hoping that Gentry would not sleep on her tummy like the last two b/c all the literature and pediatricians today will tell you, no insist that you put babies on their back due to SIDS. I slept next to Vincent for the first three months because it made me so nervous. Then I would go to bed worrying about them. I got a little bit more used to it with Lauren, but it still makes me nervous.

Hadley loves a pacifier. Vincent and Lauren like their thumbs and blankies.

A lot of people refuse to sleep with their babies or share their bed with them but looking back, Chris and I both agree it was the best thing we ever did with Hadley. She was such a cuddler when she was in bed with us. It got us over the nighttime feeding hump, and she would always know it was time to go to sleep with us. Of course this wasn't as ideal when she was supposed to sleep on her own or without us but I wouldn't trade all the cuddling with my first child for the world.

Vincent never really liked sleeping or being near anyone when it was time to sleep. In fact, I remember when I discovered that his newborn crankiness was just a need to sleep. By himself. In his own space. If we were desperate we could bring him in our bed and ignore him as much as possible until he would peter-out and fall asleep.

Lauren does not cuddle. At all. She likes her crib. She rarely, if ever, will fall asleep with us. I admit she never had as many opportunities to cuddle with us but even now she will jump and play around in our bed when we try to get her to sleep.

The word that would best describe Hadley as an infant is Content. She was the most content, happy, easy baby ever. I of course only know this now after having subsequent children. She was soooo easy to appease and rarely cranky.

I nursed (am nursing) all of you. Hadley was the hardest b/c she was my first but I have to admit, it didn't get much better with the rest. I just knew what to expect. Latching on was a problem as was getting thrush with Hadley, Vincent and possible Gentry. Lauren was probably the easiest one to grasp breastfeeding and became the most portable. I've never been great at breastfeeding with one arm or being mobile but I remember with Lauren, that I could get up and walk around if necessary. Hadley self-weened about two weeks before her first birthday. I weened Vincent at about 14 months because I was pregnant. I also weened Lauren at about 16 months because I was pregnant.

Vincent was the opposite of Hadley. I remember how crabby he would be after waking up from naps, before being put down and often in between time. I struggled with finding what would appease him most of the time.

Lauren was less difficult than Vincent.

So far, Gentry is most like Lauren.

Hadley never crawled on her knees but used her hands and feet instead. Vincent did the army crawl on his tummy. I'm realizing that I can't remember about Lauren so my guess is she was the first one to crawl the ordinary way. Now I am glad to be writing more of this down . . .