Personal Narrative: My Life As A Real Baby
Babies are strange creatures. I had the privilege of taking a fake, yet VERY realistic one home for 72 hours, and what an experience that was! She taught me many great lessons of being a parent, number one being, I don’t want a baby any time soon. But also she made me realize the quantity and quality of time invested in a child. Not only did she eat none stop, but she also needed her diaper changed, and the nurturing like a real mother would give her child. Her sleeping habits were probably as close as you can get to a real baby. She never slept an entire night. I’m glad I decided to take the weekend off of work, or else I would have been very tired. Nutrition is a vital need in a rapidly growing child’s life. “From birth to 1 year of age, human infants nearly
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triple their weight and increase their length by 50 percent.”(Santrock 80) Babies are amazing. They grow so fast. Without a balanced diet, babies can be malnourished. While I was taking care of my little girl, it seemed like every time I turned around she was crying to eat again. After every feeding she required to be burped. If you don’t assist in the burping, the baby may get a bad stomach ache. A child’s diet relies on the parent. “A recent national study of more than 3,000 randomly selected 4-24 month olds documented that many U.S. parents are feeding their babies too few fruits and vegetables, and too much junk food.” (Santrock 81) So we, the parents, need to step up and provide our children a healthier future, by starting with our newborns. Having a child means money. When I say money, I mean you are going to spend a lot of it on diapers, formula, housing, and clothing. I learned that I would NEVER bring a child into this world unless I knew I’d have the money for him/her. My little girl constantly required a diaper change, and diapers are expensive. If you don’t change a child’s diaper consistently and according to their needs, you can give him/her a rash, or even a bacterial infection. So you need the time and energy to invest in a baby or else he/she could be neglected.
Not once did my baby sleep an entire night.
Honestly I think this was the worst part for me. I LOVE my sleep and the worst thing anyone can do is wake me up from it. Newborns all have different sleep patterns, but for the most part they sleep around 17 hours a day. I don’t feel like my little girl slept that much though. But in real life, usually around the first month of age the newborn will develop their own sleep pattern, and usually spending more hours at night sleeping. “By about 4 months of age, they usually have moved closer to adult like sleep patterns, spending the majority of the time sleeping at night and the most time awake during the day.” (Santrock 79) The majority of time spent sleeping as a newborn is in REM sleep. “Researchers are not certain why newborns spend so much time in REM sleep. The large amount of REM sleep may provide infants with added self-stimulation, since they spend less time awake than do older children.” Let your child sleep when they want to, but also make sure you are there for him/her when they are awake and need you. So many people suggest sleeping on their child’s schedule. A baby grows the most when they sleep, so it’s a vital need in their life at such a young
age.
Like Erickson states in his eight life-span stages, the baby needs to establish a sense of trust. “Trust in infancy sets the stage for a life long expectation that the world will be a good and pleasant place to live.”(Santrock 18) With that being said, nurturing is very important. A mother must be there for her child in all times of need. With my little girl, I had to establish that sense of trust by making it known with my wrist band that I was her mother, and then proceed to take care of her needs. Even when she didn’t want anything, she just wanted to know I was her mother and she was in my arms. After rocking her for a couple minutes, she’d calm down and stop crying. Another way I provided her the care she needed, was by making sure she was held correctly and in a comfortable position. Babies can not speak, so as a mother you must know and pick up on the needs of your child. Different cries, smiles, frowns, and noises may mean different things. So you must have the knowledge to understand and take care of these things. Newborns respond to touch, and can feel pain. You can touch a baby in a variety of places and he/she will respond differently. Such as touching the lips, he/she may make a sucking motion. Most people say motherhood comes natural, and I sure hope so!
All in all, I had a very knowledgeable experience by taking the fake, yet realistic, baby home for 3 days. I enjoyed getting to act like a mother and taking care of her every need. There were a couple times I decided to take her out to dinner with me. The first time, she slept the entire ride there and then decided to cry the entire dinner. It was fun, and attracted a lot of attention. I do think that in some cases, real babies MAY be a little easier to please and soothe. But that’s just obvious. Every child is different. I probably wouldn’t do it again, and don’t plan on having one any time soon.
triple their weight and increase their length by 50 percent.”(Santrock 80) Babies are amazing. They grow so fast. Without a balanced diet, babies can be malnourished. While I was taking care of my little girl, it seemed like every time I turned around she was crying to eat again. After every feeding she required to be burped. If you don’t assist in the burping, the baby may get a bad stomach ache. A child’s diet relies on the parent. “A recent national study of more than 3,000 randomly selected 4-24 month olds documented that many U.S. parents are feeding their babies too few fruits and vegetables, and too much junk food.” (Santrock 81) So we, the parents, need to step up and provide our children a healthier future, by starting with our newborns. Having a child means money. When I say money, I mean you are going to spend a lot of it on diapers, formula, housing, and clothing. I learned that I would NEVER bring a child into this world unless I knew I’d have the money for him/her. My little girl constantly required a diaper change, and diapers are expensive. If you don’t change a child’s diaper consistently and according to their needs, you can give him/her a rash, or even a bacterial infection. So you need the time and energy to invest in a baby or else he/she could be neglected.
Not once did my baby sleep an entire night.
Honestly I think this was the worst part for me. I LOVE my sleep and the worst thing anyone can do is wake me up from it. Newborns all have different sleep patterns, but for the most part they sleep around 17 hours a day. I don’t feel like my little girl slept that much though. But in real life, usually around the first month of age the newborn will develop their own sleep pattern, and usually spending more hours at night sleeping. “By about 4 months of age, they usually have moved closer to adult like sleep patterns, spending the majority of the time sleeping at night and the most time awake during the day.” (Santrock 79) The majority of time spent sleeping as a newborn is in REM sleep. “Researchers are not certain why newborns spend so much time in REM sleep. The large amount of REM sleep may provide infants with added self-stimulation, since they spend less time awake than do older children.” Let your child sleep when they want to, but also make sure you are there for him/her when they are awake and need you. So many people suggest sleeping on their child’s schedule. A baby grows the most when they sleep, so it’s a vital need in their life at such a young
age.
Like Erickson states in his eight life-span stages, the baby needs to establish a sense of trust. “Trust in infancy sets the stage for a life long expectation that the world will be a good and pleasant place to live.”(Santrock 18) With that being said, nurturing is very important. A mother must be there for her child in all times of need. With my little girl, I had to establish that sense of trust by making it known with my wrist band that I was her mother, and then proceed to take care of her needs. Even when she didn’t want anything, she just wanted to know I was her mother and she was in my arms. After rocking her for a couple minutes, she’d calm down and stop crying. Another way I provided her the care she needed, was by making sure she was held correctly and in a comfortable position. Babies can not speak, so as a mother you must know and pick up on the needs of your child. Different cries, smiles, frowns, and noises may mean different things. So you must have the knowledge to understand and take care of these things. Newborns respond to touch, and can feel pain. You can touch a baby in a variety of places and he/she will respond differently. Such as touching the lips, he/she may make a sucking motion. Most people say motherhood comes natural, and I sure hope so!
All in all, I had a very knowledgeable experience by taking the fake, yet realistic, baby home for 3 days. I enjoyed getting to act like a mother and taking care of her every need. There were a couple times I decided to take her out to dinner with me. The first time, she slept the entire ride there and then decided to cry the entire dinner. It was fun, and attracted a lot of attention. I do think that in some cases, real babies MAY be a little easier to please and soothe. But that’s just obvious. Every child is different. I probably wouldn’t do it again, and don’t plan on having one any time soon.