He's Not Just ANY Baby!

...He's MY baby! That's what I wanted to tell the ladies in the nursery at Church when I dropped Micah off there for his very first time last night. Terry was meeting me there straight from work, and so I had to leave him with strangers all by myself.

We'd planned this to be the first time we left him in the nursery, so I got there early to make sure we had plenty of time. I figured they'd need to fingerprint us both, get our social security numbers, etc, etc. :) Actually, the only thing I had to do was write Micah's name on 3 different stickers. One for his diaper bag, one for himself, and one for me to bring back when I pick him up. I was told it's very important to not lose my sticker, because it is the only way they'll release any child to an adult. There was only one other baby in the infant room (which tells you how early I was since our church has 150 babies under 2!) and the two women in the room, were very polite and asked all of the required questions. Does he have allergies? When will he eat? If he cries, how long do you want us to wait until we page you?

I answered while trying to learn the Bear Creek nursery protocol. Where does the diaper bag go? where can I put his carseat? What will happen if I freak out, have Micah withdrawals and need some immediate bonding time with my baby and have lost my sticker???

I was so overwhelmed by all the rules that I left the room without giving Micah a proper goodbye. So, when Terry finally got there, I rushed with him off to the nurseryto check on Micah before our class. The top part of the door was left open nursery-style and we looked into the room and realized it was now full of babies. Micah had been placed in a reclining bouncy chair and was surrounded by other babies in similar contraptions. The two nursery workers each had a baby in their arms.

The whole sight struck me as wrong. Why was Micah lumped together with all the other babies? Didn't they know he wasn't just an ordinary baby, but he was OUR baby? How could the cute little blue-eyed, blonde, stickie-uppie haired child NOT be the center of attention?? Why wasn't he being tickled and played with and cooed at??? DON'T YOU KNOW HE'S NOT JUST ANY BABY?

While I was having all of these thoughts, Terry, apparantly was proud of Micah. He thought it looked like he was having fun. At one point Micah looked over to the door and we waved and smiled at him like baffoons. He blinked and then went back to chewing his hand and watching the lights.

Throughout the rest of the night I begin to feel more and more secure in Micah's new found independence. He was away from his house and his parents, his aunts, uncles, grandparents, and anyone he knew, and he was doing just fine. And teaching him that we trust other people enough to leave him with them will teach him to trust other people, right?

I am glad this "first" can be crossed off the list. Even though we only left him for an hour I wasn't too fond of it. Especially when we came back to get him and he was in the same chair and getting fussy. One of the ladies said, "He's been happy the whole time, except when anyone talked to him. That made him cranky."

"That's weird," I said, "he usually loves being talked to."

"Well,he just looked at me like- 'you're not my mom.'"

That's right. You're not his mom. I am. Aren't I lucky?