May 23, 2004

Food and Liturgical Rocking

I did two things for the first time tonight. I fed my daughter and I rocked her in the rocking chair.

In the first instance, I have not had the God-given equipment to feed heretofore. I'm not saying that I have that equipment now, obviously. However, Mrs H expressed some of that white infant libation to keep Abby from using a particularly over-used apparatus. The joy of the moment was brief. Even after a long feed, Abigail took the two ounces in that bottle practically in one gulp. Later Mrs H provided a further three ounces to supplement what should have already been a full meal and that, too, was gone in an instant. We have a hungry little girl.

She is hungry enough that I was sent out into the night to find some formula, should the need arise in the wee hours. I mentioned offhandedly to Mrs H a few days ago that with all the costs of raising a child, at least we didn't have to buy formula. Feeling I was not fully appreciating her contribution, it soon became apparent that I might continue to hear my remark repeated back with just that little edge of sarcasm until at least next Forgiveness Sunday. However, having now purchased formula at the recommended retail price, I'm not so sure I take back what I said.

I bought 4 little 250ml cartons for 43p (approx. 80¢) each. If this becomes a regular occurance, this is going to add up. We don't need additional costs. Mrs H recently calculated that our nappy bill right now works out to about £2000 a year. This is no doubt due in part to Aidie's reluctance to potty train. Hopefully he will soon reduce our outgoings by redirecting his.

On to that other thing... Rocking is something I experienced a lot of as a child. My father rocked me every night from when I came home from the hospital until I was about 8 years old. He also rocked my brother, but like Aidan, he never really took to it.

My father also made up lullaby songs using the tunes of invitation hymns from the Baptist Hymnal (the old green Baptist hymnal, to which he still remembers all the hymn numbers, even though neither it nor he have been used by the Southern Baptists for nearly 30 years). I would follow his example, though I'm not sure whether to use the tune to O Heavenly King, the Cherubic Hymn, or rather to just pick one of the Tones, or maybe rotate them weekly. (Should I start by chanting, "The Lullaby in Tone 4..."?)

We'll have to see how it all works out.

Posted by david at May 23, 2004 11:58 PM | TrackBack
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