Sorry, no speak Baby

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Back when I was on maternity leave, I had a babysitter watch Nathan for a couple hours one day while I ran some errands. When I got home he was napping. The sitter told me “I put him down because he told me he was tired.” I believe I responded by casually saying “Ok, thanks” acting as if this was the most normal thing I had ever heard when inside I was thinking “He told you?!?!” I’m glad someone could understand him because I had no idea what Nathan was “saying” when he cried.

I’ve heard it over and over that mothers eventually learn their baby's cries and are able to tell if it’s a hungry cry, tired cry, bored cry, or a “Wow, this sound is so cool I’m going to keep doing it over and over” cry. If I was in school I’d be getting a big fat F in this class because I was not learning his language at all. I still had to guess every time. I would check his diaper, try to feed him, play with him or put him down for a nap. Usually one of those worked. On a bad day, his diaper was dry, he didn’t want to eat, he was not amused by my silly faces and he was wide awake. Those were LONG days.

We’re coming up on four months now and I’ve finally got the basics down. I’m definitely not fluent, but I know enough to get by. When he’s bored, his cry sounds more like he’s yelling “Hey!” When he’s hungry he stretches his cry out to the point that he makes no sound. When he’s tired, it’s a fast repetitive cry over and over. It’s a huge relief for me to finally be able to understand my baby, and I’m sure it’s a relief for Nathan that his mommy is finally catching on. There were some moments where if I let him cry long enough, I swear it started to sound like “What is wrong with you and why aren’t you helping me?!?!”

Luckily, those moments are few and far between these days.