Thursday, 23 April 2009

The language of the newborn

When you're pregnant, many of the words which crop up in conversation are unpleasant - words like bump (not one of my faves, mainly because it rhymes with dump), fat, swollen and heartburn all spring to mind. However, once the baby emerges, a whole new vocabulary is required, and within days, nay hours, the new parent is spouting these with impunity. Here's a few examples - guaranteed I will use all of these several times a day for the next few weeks, and then never again.
  • Lanugo - the soft coating of downy hair on a newborn (Emily has hairy ears like a little hobbit which is hilarious! She's gonna hate me later for that one)
  • Vernix - the gunky Vaseline-like stuff which covers a newborn in the womb and protects their skin from basically being in water all day every day
  • Colostrum - what breastfed newborns eat for the first few days until the breastmilk comes in. Colour of custard and consistency of water, should anyone be interested!
  • Engorgement - what happens to your boobs after the milk comes in. The discomfort then wakes you up in the night while the baby sleeps soundly. Fun.
I'm sure there are more but those are the ones that are stuck in my mind at the moment. I actually think that some other words should be in use but aren't. My favour of these is Infanticipation (the state of being pregnant) - but I admit to having stolen that from my Dad!

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