Folks, it was a miracle.
We brought Gregory to church on Saturday night, and it was a flat-out miracle. I know my baby– heck, I’ve spent all day/night, every day/night with him for the past 5 weeks, and I’ve never seen him behave like this.
We made it to Vespers at 5pm on Saturday night, and he was hungry, so I stayed out in the car and nursed him for about 20 minutes. That’s all, nothing special. Jesse and I wrapped him onto me in the Moby Wrap, fully expecting that I would need to nurse him again before the end of Vigil.
Not only did G make it through 2.5 hours of church with only two tiny whimpers (both occurred when the choir stopped singing), but he also let Jesse and I go to confession, still as quiet as a mouse. Of course, we were also hungry afterwards, so we went out to Chipotle with the Folsoms. I warned them that it had now been 3 hours since Gregory had last eaten, an ETERNITY for him, and that our first “nursing in public” episode would probably have to commence once at the restaurant.
We got him out of his carseat at Chipotle. He was very much awake, wide eyed and staring, but not crying. Jenny held him as we ordered our food and sat down. Still not crying. We put him in his infant carseat there in the booth with us. He just stared and stared, without a peep. Then, as we were eating, he fell asleep again. We continued to talk, long after we were finished eating. Still, nothing.
Long and short of it: Gregory went 5.5 hours without eating, crying, or having his diaper changed. He cried for about 2 minutes when we transferred him back into his carseat to go home, but that was it. When we got home, we realized that his to-go diaper had completely soaked through, and that he was sitting in quite a mess.
Again, one of these factors would have been enough to make him scream as though limbs were being ripped off. This kid does NOT do hunger pains gracefully. But he was better behaved than I’ve ever seen him.
And then, he proceeded to have a great night, with a few 3-4 hours chunks of sleep.
And then, at church Sunday morning, he went another 3 hours without a peep. No feeding, no diaper changes, he was just…angelic! Everyone commented on how he was the perfect baby, and sooo beautiful. A few even said he was one of the best looking babies they’d ever seen 🙂 Compliments to one’s baby are definitely waaay better than compliments directed at one’s own self.
At first, I was pretty convinced that Jesse should investigate the incense. It sure smelled like weed to me.
But I think there’s a better explanation, one that was offered by our friend, Brad. He pointed out that the babies of regular church attendees tend to do well when they come back to church, simply because it’s the music they heard consistently the entire time they were in-utero. Once they hear it again, they feel at peace and relate it with being back in the womb, safe and sound. I can say for sure that Gregory got a lot of church music whilst I was “growing him”, especially since I was in the choir. I also think he will react well to classical music, seeing as he was with me as I taught piano lessons every day for nine months.
All I know is that we are going to try and make it to church as often as possible with this kid. It’s like a free handout of Peace. We could always use more of that around here 🙂
Related posts
Adventures in Sleep Training |
Choir Practice |
Prayers with Gregory |
WHAT a boy… |
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