The long blob period

Upon visiting a friend with a five-month old child recently, Mark kept asking me questions about what River was like at that age. “Didn’t he interact more by then?” He asked. “When did he first sit up?” That was easy enough to calculate because it coincided with my first overnight trip away from him – at around age 5.5 months.

Later he commented, “I just realized how long the blob period is. That they don’t come out fully formed like little Rivers (thinking of him in his 2.5 year old state). That there is a long time in which they are only full of demands.”

I agree. The baby period is pretty boring and I’m not too excited about the blob period, or the fourth trimester. Yes, this baby’s skills seemed to be limited to smiling, waving her arms around, cooing, grabbing toys and fingers and lifting her feet. And no, these skills didn’t seem too momentous to us as bystanders.

But I do remember celebrating River’s first coo. I remember feeling so proud of him rolling over that I couldn’t wait for him to show off his new skill at mom and baby yoga (as if anyone would care). These things took on more meaning to us as parents because we knew what complete dependence he started from, and each move towards independence, however tiny, was a cause for celebration. Also, each little milestone met helped to reassure us that he didn’t have a hidden disorder that would make his life more difficult.

Hopefully, we’ll be touched by the strong parental interest again and that will help the blob period pass more quickly. That said, I do expect my butt to be tied to the couch in the initial weeks and I’m not really looking forward to that.