Fourth Trimester is Over

The first three months of a baby's life he/she is considered a newborn and this time is referred to as the fourth trimester.  It's the time needed for the baby to gain the maturity to be able to handle living outside the womb.  No, the idea isn't that she is now mature enough to live on her own, but that she is mature enough to do things like soothe herself, handle the stimulation in the world, and her senses are now more well-developed.  The colicky type behaviors are supposed to end at this time and most babies begin to enjoy the world more.  In other words, the end of the fourth trimester is what all the books encourage parents to hold on for when their newborns are inconsolable. 

When Sarah Graves was first born we used the techniques taught in Happiest Baby on the Block to soothe her.  This meant bouncing her so that her head jiggled, swaddling her, making a loud "sshhh" noise in her ear, and giving her lots of opportunities to suck.  At the time, it felt like we would be doing that forever.  Now I notice that I spend little time bouncing and swaying with her, she is only swaddled to go to sleep, she likes to hear your voice talking to her and she responds to it, and she often does not want the pacifier anymore.  Wow!  What a long way we have come! 

One other thing that I have noticed is that when she was in the womb she kept her feet crossed at the ankles all the time, which caused me great discomfort, and once she was born she continued to keep her feet crossed.  I notice now that when she is laying on the floor or nursing, she chooses to keep her legs stretched out and enjoys curling and uncurling her toes.  Funny how all of these changes happen so gradually that I can't tell you what day they happened, just that my baby girl is no longer a newborn.  Wiping the tear away from my eye now...