What’s Her Name Again?

I just spent the day with my dear friend Jill and her sweet, precious  6 day old baby.  She is a trooper, that one.  Her husband had to go back to working long hours when the baby was just 3 days old, which leaves her to figure out the whole baby/nursing/recovering thing on her own all day.  She’s exhausted but she isn’t mean.  She’s happy and actually grateful that she has it as good as she does.  I don’t have that talent to see the bright side of things that way.

It was so fun to hold her tiny baby (which she thinks is huge) and think back 2 1/2 years to when I was in the same sleep deprived state, just trying to figure this whole thing out.  I remember thinking my 7 lb. 11 oz baby was enormous.  How did she fit in me?  As Jill told me her nursing drama, I remembered wondering the same things: was my baby eating enough and sleeping enough?  I remember strange things happening and not knowing if they were normal or cause for alarm. 

I also forgot a lot of things, but was reminded of them when Jill asked me for advice or told me a funny story about her baby. 

Like how hard it was to remember my baby’s name.  It had been Lydia before she was even born, but once she was here, I couldn’t seem to remember to call her that.   She was “Baby” or “Abby,” my then 2 year old niece.  I remember feeling so bad that I called my child her cousin’s name.  How is that even ok?  I’m her mother.  Of all people, I should know her name and use is appropriately.

But I don’t feel too bad anymore.  Jill and I laughed and laughed when she admitted to me that she occasionally slips and calls her baby “Lydia.”

I figured we can’t be the only 2 people this has ever happened to.  Did this happen to you when you had your first baby?  Or maybe even your first dog?  First goldfish?  Even if it didn’t, why don’t you pretend like it did, so Jill and I can feel better about ourselves.