New Mom

The first baby is a life changing experience. I thought I was prepared, having been my mother's #1 assistant for Philip and Ruthann, and certainly I was familiar with the diaper changing and all that. I wasn't prepared for the feeling of ultimate responsibility. This very small and helpless child was depending on me to take care of him 24/7 and I was utterly clueless. He could die just because I had no idea what I was doing. I became one of those new mothers who calls the pediatrician in a panic--"My baby's nose is running! What do I do?"

But I was determined to become a good mother; I would engage baby Gordon in stimulating songs and activities. So after the changing-feeding-bath routine, when he was awake and alert, I would sing him songs and play "this little piggy" on all his toes. It took about 20 minutes to exhaust my repertoire. ... We looked at each other, he waiting to see what else Mom would do, I realizing that no matter how much I boned up on nursery songs, I would have to endure a certain amount of repetitiveness. But he didn't seem to mind.

This was a foreshadowing of years to come, of singing "The fox he went on a chase one night" uncounted times through the years of rocking 5 babies to sleep, of trying to skip "The Little Engine that Could" (it's long) in favor of "The Snowy Day" (it's short) or Goodnight Moon (even shorter) at bedtime.