The trump card

chase  ·  Wed, Aug 26, 2015

There are many things you can do to soothe a baby: hold them, bounce them, swaddle them, coo, hum, sing, rub, etc. They like being warm, so a little sunshine doesn’t hurt either, and you can give them a direct link to your body heat with skin-to-skin contact. As it turns out, they’re also very comfortable with the gurgling, swirling, muffled whoosing sounds of the womb, so they enjoy white noise, which is now as accessible as an app (no more pesky cassette tapes).

Of course, if Milo is hungry, none of those tricks are worth beans. She’ll cry until she gets fed, period.

Usually we can tell the difference, but sometimes even when we can’t, we give her the breast. And why not? It always works. But sometimes it feels like the nuclear option — like we’ve played our trump card when a pair of aces would have worked. Like we’ve cheated.

But that’s okay. She likes it.