Dichotomy

I was lying in bed nursing Max the other night and thinking about how my two children are quite different. In many ways, opposites. (And this is quite apparent in only five months. It remains to be seen where things will go.) I can only hope that if the dichotomy remains, the differences will compliment each other. I could spend lots of time categorizing the minutiae of various medical intervenions vs. none, but I won't spend endless time on such details.

There are obvious distinctions like boy and girl; and there are more subtle variances, like which child could be considered a better sleeper. Both were Kaiser babies, born in operating rooms, though one in northern California (San Francisco) and the other southern (Irvine). One is breastfed, the other was bottle and tube fed. One was considered a micropreemie, the smallest they come (1 lb. 1 oz./a mere 485 grams). The other was a healthy, term infant born without needing any medical interventions at all (6 lbs. 3 oz.). Eating baby food seems to be a delightful experience for one while the other pushed most spoonfuls out with the tongue. At six weeks old, one had already visited Disneyland while the other didn't go until four years of age. One was content in the carseat for entire meals at restaurants, whereas the other loves to be held. One seems to be meeting milestones on time or even early, but the other needed lots of assistance along the way. Outgrowing clothes is easy for one, though the other seemed to stay in the same size for months and months on end. Fueling that change, one child's weight would plateau for long periods of time, whereas the other seems to be constantly getting bigger. Naps were a regular part of one child's infancy, but the other seems to be more sporadic and unpredictable. One child has tiny scars to prove all of the IVs that were survived, the other has never even had blood drawn.

Although there are many more distinctions that were apparent to me in the middle of the night, I can't think of them all right now. When I was originally thinking of this post, the list seemed to go on and on ad infinitum. I didn't have a pen or paper, nor did I really want to write everything down at that point anyway.

And for now, the younger of the two seems to no longer be content watching the washing machine drum cycle round and round. It appears it may be time for his mid-morning nap, although I cannot be sure, since he is the unpredictable napper. In any event, I will rescue him from his seat to see what he'd like to do next.