*my* baby

smiles + thumb, originally uploaded by amy_and_kevin.

From the start, Lucy has been my baby. (As in: Amy's baby. Sometimes it's hard to read emphasis on a screen.)

I think some of it is her status as a second child. I didn't interrupt a row of knitting to tell Kevin, "oh! the baby's kicking!" because, really, we've all felt babies kick and I like to have a little time to myself. I went to the doctor several times by myself because - again - we've all gone to the doctor and heard the glowing report of health and no worries.

Also, we're a lot busier now than we were with just Peter - and not just busier-with-toddler, but overall busier as well. As a result, some things we did with Peter from the start, like pumping milk so Kevin could feed Peter a bottle and I could get out of the house already just hasn't happened.* It's entirely possible Lucy will go through her entire infanthood without a bottle.

I hold Lucy almost all day long. This mostly is to protect her from the abundance of love her brother has to show for her, but also to protect her brother from himself.**

And, we cosleep. Again, this mostly is from my laziness, this time being waking up and putting her back in her bassinet after a nighttime feeding. But we have a crib for her, and we might actually assemble it before she turns 4 months old. I just can't imagine putting her inside it, though.

Yes, Lucy is my baby. Much to Kevin's disappointment. But that's the way we like it.

*The pumping itself isn't a problem, but the dishes. I HATE doing pump/bottle dishes. They linger on the edge of the sink, mocking me, for days on end.

**My new fear: Mad Hatterdom. Specifically, his newfound ability to turn on and off his bookshelf lamp, and the fact that the lamp has a compact florescent bulb. Which, as we all know, is chock full of mercury. When it starts looking like a disco in his room and I hear him say "on! off! dark! light!" I know to pull out my hazmat suit.