Transcript

Ellyn (00:07.822)

Today, we're starting a new series. It's called 10 Things I Love. And we are talking about 10 things we loved about having babies. There's so much to love here. Let's get right into it. And these are in no particular order. Some of the things farther down on the list, we actually love more than things on the top of the list, but we're just gonna do it in the order that we've got it. The first thing is new baby smell. Everybody's heard of new car smell. New baby smell is so amazing when they're all fresh and clean and brand new and babies have a smell and it's amazing.

Lauren (00:48.149)

It is. I remember when I had my first, we were in Sunday school and one of the ladies in there was like, Oh, I love the smell of a fresh baby. It was so cute. What'd you say?

Ellyn (01:01.814)

That's fantastic. I actually had somebody in the grocery store come up and smell my baby when I was a new mom, which honestly, new parents are a little freaky about people touching their baby. So I wasn't thrilled about it at the time, but I get it. New babies smell amazing.

Lauren (01:14.905)

not okay.

Lauren (01:24.745)

Yeah. I mean, I do get it, but I'd never do that. I... In Sunday school, we were all kind of gathered around, and I knew the person, and I didn't mind, so... But it's so weird touching other people's babies in like a public space. I find it strange.

Ellyn (01:45.31)

Yes. Don't do it. If you're tempted to do it, just don't. It's not OK.

Lauren (01:46.877)

Yeah. Just stop. Stuff yourself. I know it's hard, but you know, don't.

Lauren (01:57.709)

Okay, another great thing about babies that you're not going to see quite so much in the older ones is that they sleep all the time. They sleep and then they wake up and they eat and poop and then they go back to sleep. It's amazing.

Ellyn (02:15.662)

They do. And a lot of them, this isn't all of them, a lot of them also can sleep through anything. So once you get a little bit older kid...

Lauren (02:25.265)

a wild stampede of elephants could run through your living room and they'll be like, you know, doze back off.

Ellyn (02:39.659)

I remember with our youngest. So when she was born, I had a 12 and a 14 year old. And we'll do 10 things we love about teenagers sometime in the future. And this will not be on that list that they're quiet, that isn't on there at all. But they were in the living room making the noise that teenagers do.

Lauren (02:56.049)

Ha ha ha!

Ellyn (03:05.87)

She slept through all of it. We played games, we bopped a ball around, I mean, just all kinds of stuff, and she could sleep through all of it. It was amazing. I wish I could sleep like that. That's where the phrase, sleep like a baby comes from, I think. But then she, and she also slept about 20 hours a day.

Lauren (03:22.065)

Mm-hmm. Yep. I believe it's pretty great.

Ellyn (03:31.298)

So not only did she sleep through anything, but she slept a long time too. She really did just wake up to eat and get rid of what she ate and then maybe make eyes at us for a few minutes. So then she drifted back off to sleep. That lasted a couple of months.

Lauren (03:45.113)

amazing. Not all babies are like that either. In fact, I've had different variations on newborns, as I believe Ellyn has too, where they don't necessarily sleep quite that much. But as a parent of more than one child, all of whom have grown out of the newborn phase, I can say they sleep more when they're newborns than any other time. And you just take that as you will.

Ellyn (03:58.892)

Yes.

Lauren (04:15.545)

your baby isn't sleeping that much. I'm sorry, it's only gonna get worse.

Ellyn (04:15.874)

Mm-hmm.

Ellyn (04:24.542)

Yep. So the next one is maybe something only the parents of the babies appreciate. Maybe other people do too. I appreciate it in other people's babies. But I think until you have babies, you just, you don't realize just how tiny fingers and toes are and just how you can hold an entire foot in your hand. And...

Lauren (04:43.761)

Mm-hmm.

Ellyn (04:50.478)

Now I stand on the other side of it and my oldest is in a size 14. And so it's, but I used to hold that foot in my hand and the tiny toes and the tiny fingers and it's oh so sweet. I loved them.

Lauren (05:06.941)

They're a little stinky now. But that's to be expected.

Ellyn (05:10.79)

Yeah, they really are. The young man wears work boots.

Ellyn (05:25.024)

Yeah.

Lauren (05:25.901)

Yeah. I, when my youngest was born, I've got a story for this one too. When my youngest was born, I took a picture of her and my husband and I both noticed that she had really long toes compared to the other kids and I sent a picture of it to my mom who was watching the older kids at our house and she showed it to my older kids and they drew a picture of the family and it was like it was mom dad and the three kids and I was holding the baby and like I was holding a tiny little bundle but sticking out of the bundle were like these pterodactyl claws so it was kind of a and you know now they look completely normal it's like they haven't grown since she was born.

Ellyn (07:05.391)

Our next one is the wonder of new discovery. So when you first bring your baby home, they're kind of, I've always called them the baby blob.

Lauren (07:29.19)

Mm-hmm.

Ellyn (07:30.754)

They don't have any personality. They sleep a lot. They have two functions, in and out, and that's really it. But as your new baby gets to be a month, two months, I mean, the change from newborn to a month old is significant, but then the change from one month to two months is huge. It's like they realize that they are something between a month and two months and they start to have wonder about what they see and of course everything is brand new to them and so things like the ceiling fan. I think it was my older daughter. We would lay her on our bed while we did other things you know I'll be putting away laundry or something just in case you're not a new parent or if you're not a parent yet, you lay your baby on your bed, make sure to put pillows around them so that they don't roll off, just so you know. Right, and you never know when they're gonna start rolling over and you don't want it to be up on your high bed. Anyway, we would put her on our bed while we were in the room, but maybe not right next to her. And she looked at that fan, I'm telling you.

Lauren (08:39.036)

because you never know what they're gonna do.

Ellyn (08:56.718)

10 or 15 minutes at a time. It was the most amazing thing she'd ever seen in her life. And then we turned it on.

Lauren (09:00.701)

Mm-hmm. We did the same thing, but we set the baby in the center of the table, the kitchen table, like when we were eating dinner, and turned on the fan that was right over the dining room table, and that kept her entertained while we all ate.

Ellyn (09:25.384)

Yep, it was your baby centerpiece. I remember that.

Lauren (09:27.745)

Yeah, I did it with all of them. It was just easier, like to be able to see them and you know, do stuff with them during the meal. I always put them up on the table. And in like a baby holder of some kind.

Ellyn (09:45.934)

Yep. But they around maybe four or five months, they start to discover their hands and their feet. And that's a good day, because they are completely fascinated with themselves when they've made this new amazing discovery. And they'll hold their hand out in front of you them and like stretch out their arms and look at different sides of it. And they're good.

If you have a project that you want to do, wait until they discover their hand and you have pretty much the whole day to yourself.

Lauren (10:21.617)

Yup. They, I mean, my oldest actually spent a lot of time checking all the sides of things when she never put things in her mouth. She's my only kid that didn't. And she just, she, anything that you put into her hands, she would look at the top and the bottom and the sides and then do it all over again, over and over again. With every single toy.

Ellyn (10:47.671)

Hmm

Ellyn (10:53.434)

like to know all there was to know about that.

Lauren (10:54.493)

she did and then she would begin to play with it. But she didn't chew on it. I wish they'd left it for all the kids. It didn't. We still have a problem.

Ellyn (11:06.218)

Yeah, I don't think I got any like that. Mine all put everything in their mouth.

Lauren (11:12.479)

Yep, they must have been hungry.

Ellyn (11:17.39)

Probably.

Lauren (11:20.341)

They stay where you put them. This is one of the best things about a teeny tiny baby. And it's at varying ages where they stop staying where you put them and you have to start putting like little fences around them to keep them from crawling off. But I will say that even the fences don't always work. My son was particularly good at escaping or using the fence to his advantage.

But I digress. He did stay where I put him for like the first three months.

Lauren (12:01.925)

That's all I got.

Ellyn (12:03.457)

 tell our dear listeners what he did with the fence. This is fantastic

Lauren (12:08.945)

He would, well we put the, we have hardwood floors. We put the fence on, on like foam floor tiles, both so that it was

Ellyn (12:20.782)

And it was the snap together fence that you make a circle out of.

Lauren (12:25.021)

Right, right. It was both so that it was a soft place for him to play and also because the tiles like gave some hold, like they had a hold on the on the fence, but he figured out how to like he would lift the fence off of the tile and push it off.

And once one corner of the fence was off, he could move it off. And then he would climb up it and stand up and use his legs to push it the rest of the way. And then he would just take the whole fence for a walk around our house.

Ellyn (13:11.65)

So you'd come like out of their kitchen and there would be her son with his fence right outside their kitchen where you left him was 10 feet away over on the other side of the room. But you know, he wanted to be in the kitchen too. He liked to cook.

Lauren (13:25.513)

Yeah.

Yeah, he just wanted to be wherever I was and he did not enjoy being separated. And that wasn't at three months. at three months he rolled everywhere. So he didn't have the skills or the leverage to do that yet. But I would say by five months he could do the moving fence thing. And then by nine he was crawling.

Ellyn (13:35.501)

Yes.

Ellyn (13:57.33)

Yep. But so if you are a new parent, understand that this is a special time and the only time pretty much in their entire life where you set them down. And when you come back, that's where they'll still be. It never happens again.

Lauren (14:12.033)

Yeah, that's amazing. Yeah. Where you're allowed to tie them up because it's for their safety. Like you tie them into the swing and you tie them into the little boppy seat because that's what keeps them safe.

Ellyn (14:37.39)

There's two portability stages. There's highly portable, you put them in their car seat, they stay there, you take them out of the car in their car seat and take the car seat to whereever you want to go. That's portable. That's fantastic and a really good stage in your child's development. Again, with staying where you put them, they're also highly portable. Then they get too heavy for the car seat and depending on, honestly, depending on the size of the parents, this can happen very young. We're large people, tall people, so none of our kids stayed in car seats for very long. And then there's the worst stage of portability, which is the stage where you have to take them and carry them anywhere, everywhere, because they can't walk yet. Then you get back to portability again when they learn to walk. So there's this really hard stage right there in the middle from anywhere from three months to two years, depending on when your kids learn to walk.

Lauren (16:09.113)

And walk reliably. See, once they're walking, it doesn't necessarily mean that you have reached that second stage yet, because they don't walk reliably for a while. So it's not like you can walk them in from a Walmart parking lot. That would take you 10 years.

Ellyn (16:21.866)

Right. Or in the direction that you point them. Right.

Ellyn (16:31.798)

Yes. I remember with my oldest, he was so big. And I did keep him in a car seat as long as I could lift him. I swear, I went to the gym so I could keep him in a car seat longer because I didn't want to carry him. Because then you have to have other things like if you're going to have a shopping cart, you have to have the fabric thing that goes around the shopping cart so they don't actually touch anything and or you have to bring a stroller so it was just easier to leave him in the car seat and I did. I left him in that car seat way longer than (not safety wise longer than I should have) but way longer than my back thought I should leave him in that car seat he probably I was probably carrying around 30 pounds by the time I finally gave that up.

Lauren (17:24.037)

By the time I became a parent several years later, the child wearing was a big thing. So I switched to that pretty early on and it was much easier because I got one that you could do on the front, you know, when they're cute little snuggly baby and then that same one switch so that you could wear them on your back like a backpack.

Ellyn (17:37.718)

Uh-huh.

Lauren (17:48.777)

And I probably, I mean, I'd still be carrying them around in there if he'd get in. But yep, I did. And I did the back wearing with all of them. I did that while I was cooking. I did it while I was cleaning. I did it while I was shopping. They just, they like to be touching you and they stay happier for longer. If they are. Well, I got.

Ellyn (17:56.567)

At least you knew where he was.

Ellyn (18:09.139)

Mm-hmm.

Lauren (18:14.577)

so much stuff done with the baby wearing. And you don't have to carry around a car seat, your arms are free. Yep. I am an advocate for baby wearing.

Ellyn (18:19.341)

Mm-hmm.

Ellyn (18:26.494)

Yeah, by our last one, baby wearing had come a long ways. And so we definitely wore her a lot more than I did with my older ones. With the older ones, the good carriers were so expensive that I just couldn't afford them. But by the time our youngest came along, there was more competition in the market. So I got a really good carrier for much cheaper than I got my horrible carrier for my older ones. So, yeah, we did We did baby wearing with her a lot more.

Ellyn (19:04.33)

Our next one, when you get a new baby, when a new baby comes to your house, more often than not, other people wanna see your new baby. So when we brought home our oldest, I remember I had church ladies would call me on their way over and say, well, I'm coming on over, I'm gonna come meet your new baby. And they would just show up, which was okay. You know, I didn't mind because we had a new baby and they expected the house to be messy. So I didn't disappoint them and clean. And they always were so sweet and they would hold the baby and often volunteer to do some little chore that I had, you know, fold up the baby clothes or make a meal sometimes and

Lauren (20:01.989)

bring presents. They brought presents a lot of times. I know all of our neighbors brought us a present when we had a baby. And definitely people at church too. And you know, friends, they're friends. I mean, it's not a big deal to just grab some blankets or a little plate set or you know, something like that.

Ellyn (20:03.996)

It was just, it was so sweet. Yeah.

Lauren (20:27.977)

And certainly the clothes. We got so many clothes from people that we knew and visitors.

Ellyn (20:34.786)

Yes.

Ellyn (20:39.172)

Yeah, it was just a special time because everybody is so happy and you.

get to just enjoy the moment you get to enjoy them enjoying your baby. You get to enjoy a visit from somebody. It really is. I treasured that time.

Lauren (20:59.065)

Yep. Your life changes when you bring home a new baby. So the life that you and your husband had is gone. And it's a little bit sad, you know, at times, but mostly it's just happy and you get this wonderful opportunity to make new memories with this new person that you never had before.

Ellyn (21:25.356)

Mm-hmm.

Lauren (21:25.945)

That's another one.

Ellyn (21:27.574)

Yep. And the things that you enjoyed doing before you had kids, you will enjoy doing all the more after you have a baby. For instance, my husband and I always tried to make a trip to a local cider mill in the fall, which was fun. We had a great time, you know, cider and donuts, you just can't beat that. But after bringing home a baby and making that same trip again, it was a completely new experience because of the awe and wonder of him and him enjoying the experience. When he was a little, little baby, these things weren't as special, of course, because it wasn't special to him. But once he was five or six months old, it was so much fun to take him on those new experiences that we had been enjoying all along. But now we get to enjoy it with this new special little person. So I love making new family memories together.

Lauren (22:34.801)

lowered expectations for the adults. So Ellen kind of touched on this a little bit  and one of the other ones, but people don't always expect as much out of you and your house doesn't have to be quite as clean, you don't necessarily have to participate in every event or even really go anywhere because you just had a baby. So you have this great excuse to just not really do much of anything. Because you are doing a lot of new things. Some of the old things. Yeah. Get crowded out.

Ellyn (23:10.962)

You have this new person.

Ellyn (23:16.15)

Yep, and people expect that. And I mean, yes, this one is supposed to be a little bit funny too, that people expect you to let them down because you have a new person. So maybe you did certain things before that now you just don't have the energy to do for a while because your baby was up all night or because honestly, you just don't feel like it because you'd rather be at home with your baby. And that's okay. People are accepting of that. And so I guess if I do offer a tiny bit of advice on this one, don't try and do all the same things that you did before, because it's okay to take a step back and enjoy this new little life that you made.

Lauren (24:06.717)

Mm-hmm. Yep. Take some time. Hang out. I still think back on those times. Even the first few days when we were just together, all with the kid and my husband in the hospital, those times were so special. Even with the terribly uncomfortable couch that he had to sleep on.

Ellyn (24:15.455)

Yep.

Lauren (24:36.189)

And we both, like, just dozed off all the time. Yeah. I'll just be over here in my adjustable and comfortable bed because I just had a baby. Yeah. All I had to do was have a baby to have this comfortable bed.

Ellyn (24:38.638)

But I'll just be over here.

Ellyn (24:55.282)

You have fun over there on your half couch. You'll remember from the top of the episode that we mentioned our people are tall, so those couches were just ridiculous. My poor husband, he's 6'4". And I think that couch was 4 feet long. It was awful.

Lauren (25:09.445)

He needed two.

Lauren (25:16.607)

Yep, he needed to. They should have gotten him another one. Just lined it up with the other one.

Ellyn (25:22.812)

Right!

Lauren (25:23.365)

He could have brought an air mattress and just blown it off on the floor. That would have been more comfortable. Why didn't I think of that? Yeah. The chair that turns into a couch. Only it doesn't really.

Ellyn (25:30.942)

Absolutely, but these were back in the olden days. We didn't think about it.

Ellyn (25:42.552)

Yeah.

Then we mentioned this next one briefly above, but um, meals brought by other people, family and friends. When those church ladies came to visit, they almost always brought us a meal and it was such a blessing. They didn't, and one of them said to me once, she said, I know you don't have time to cook, so II made you these egg salad sandwiches. She even made the sandwiches as if we didn't even have time to prepare the sandwich ourselves. She made them right into sandwiches for us and stuck them in the fridge. And it was such a blessing because honestly, we didn't have time to do other things. I don't know what we did because now I look at it three kids later and I'm like, what did we do when we just said one?

Lauren (26:33.785)

I know we had all this downtime and for some reason we used it all. Like what did we use it on? I have no idea. When I remember hearing that advice, that annoying advice that all parents hate sleep when the baby sleeps.

Ellyn (26:43.758)

I have no idea.

Lauren (26:54.821)

You can't do that once you have two or three. Like that, that dream is over. It's died. But when you have the first one, you actually can, you, you can go to sleep. Like people talk about, well, I clean or, you know, do laundry or, you know, whatever during that time. It's like, no, I don't. I went to sleep. That stuff can wait.

Lauren (27:24.577)

I'm tired.

Ellyn (27:28.334)

That's right. So those meals brought by other people were just an amazing blessing. We had a refrigerator full of food we didn't have to think about. So that was awesome. Can't beat it.

Lauren (27:40.061)

Mm-hmm.

Lauren (27:44.413)

But if you are about to have a baby, it's not a bad idea to make a couple of meals and throw them in the freezer so that your tired self doesn't have to make them later.

Ellyn (27:52.039)

Absolutely.

Ellyn (27:56.414)

Yep. Or if you know somebody who just had a baby, take them a meal.

Lauren (27:59.229)

Totally. Yep.

Ellyn (28:05.914)

And our last one is back to that little baby, because these last couple have been more about the grownups than the baby, but ridiculously soft skin. New babies have the best skin. And when, actually all three of mine, when they, I would hold them in my arms and just like rub across their… wrist or hand or what and it was so soft. I remember that.

Lauren (28:37.629)

It's so soft you almost couldn't feel it, like your fingers touched it, but you could hardly register it.

Ellyn (28:42.476)

Right.

Ellyn (28:46.418)

Yep, it was amazing. I miss babies.

Lauren (28:48.941)

Yeah. Me too. I like holding other people's babies briefly and then giving them back though. I'm not, I think sometimes, maybe I could have another baby. And then I think, nah, no, it's okay. I don't really want to start this all over again.

Ellyn (29:09.076)

Good. I'll just feel some other baby soft skin.

Lauren (29:13.677)

Yep, my friends still have babies sometimes and yeah, I can ask if I can hold their baby. Do some nice things, buy the presents, bring the food, I will do the things. I just won't be giving birth anymore. Alright guys, this is the first in a series of 10 things I love. Make sure and check back for more in the series. There are a few things that are frustrating about having a new baby, but they are far outweighed by the wonderful and new things. Until next time.