Babies and Dogs
I’ve spent the last two evenings with SIL and BabyH at our husbands’ baseball games and for the most part it’s been good. I love my neice, and it appears that I do have that mommy instinct in knowing just how to hold her, rock her, talk to her to get her to stop crying. It just feels so natural.
Like I said, most of it is good. There are moments, however, when I look over at SIL giving her baby a kiss on the cheek and settling BabyH into her arms that I feel a million miles away. Something so simple and honest, seems so easy for them… and here I am, here we are, still so far from it. How much longer are we going to have to wait for our turn? How much more do we have to go through?
::
I brought Zoe (the little dog) both days. Zoe isn’t good with strangers. Or strange things. Or strange noises. She is extremely skittish, hides from people, cowers in the corner, etc. But honestly I felt like I needed to bring her for me… I feel so alone without a baby in my arms, so at least bringing her gives me something – someone – to take care of. She’s not so thrilled with this however… she’d much rather stay home. But she did really well… I’m quite pleased with her progress in general.
It was also Zoe’s first introduction to a baby. She’s met little kids before, but never a baby. I was curious how she’d react. And she…. didn’t. I mean, she knew the baby was there. She sniffed BabyH’s feet and took about .2 seconds to decide that babies aren’t a threat so they’re not on her radar. Baby screaming? Whatever. It’s cool. Actually, when someone strange (and thus, scary) walked too close to our blanket Zoe actually crammed herself between me and SIL, right next to BabyH. When I was holding BabyH I said, “Hey Zoe, come look at the baby,” and turned to show Zoe. Zoe basically responded with, “Thanks, but I’m cool mom,” and stayed laying behind us. (Hiding out of sight from all the baseball players.) She just doesn’t care. Not scared of it, not interested in it either.
Do I think thinks would change in our house? Maybe. A little. A baby would be more interesting to her if she wasn’t so concerned about everything else around her. But it’s obvious that she feels that a baby is totally non-threatening and she’s not at all concerned about baby cries or even screams. I think she’ll be an excellent dog to have around a baby… she’s the kind of dog to nap at my feet all day or just occupy herself with a chew toy. I think when the baby starts crawling it might change, but we’ll just have to see.
We have yet to see how Zeeke (big-dog) would react. Quite frankly no one wants Zeeke around their baby. He’s a bit… exuberant.
i understand. today i went shopping for work clothes and saw a mom with newborn twin boys. i could hardly swallow, i wanted to cry. i went to a place in my mind where i had twins, not just two little boys. it hurt. it sucked. i realize our situations are different because when you look at SIL and babyH you fell like “damn…when can i have that? when is it FINALLY my turn???” and i always think “it was my turn…it didn’t work out and it never will” (unless we do IVF again and end up with twins which is doublful..but you get the point)
oh–i like how you call Devin “Dev” keeps him in the present…makes him what he is…your little boy.
Ahh, I own 155 pounds of exuberance, in the form of an English Mastiff. And she’s great with babies. Terrified of them when they start walking. They fall over, and she looks at us as if to say “I didn’t do it. I had nothing to do with it. It fell over entirely on it’s own. Not my fault. I didn’t even breathe on it, mum.”
I’m glad you were able to spend some time with your niece. I understand the feeling of distance when you see the mommy-baby moments.
lol, Zeeke exuberant? I guess that’s one way to put it. Diamond did well with the girls, she’s actually taken to hiding now since the little one started walking. But she’s also a bit older than Zeeke. I’m sure he’ll do fine, shepherds are usually good with kids, particularly their own (meaning their owners kids).