spidey senses...

I haven't discussed this issue with other parents, so I can't be totally sure, but I imagine a lot of new parents share the fear that they will not wake up to their baby crying at night.  I was a pretty heavy sleeper before Jack came along.  We live downtown and our house is next to a baseball stadium, a football stadium, shock trauma and a main road so I got used to noise.  I was worried that when Jack came along I would sleep right through his crying and feel like a horrible, neglectful mom.  Um, yeah, I was wrong.  I can hear an ant fart in his bedroom.  I wake up when he wiggles his toes. 

Just the other evening I was washing pump parts and bottles in the kitchen.  Josh was across the house with the monitor and Jack stirred (very quietly I might add) and I heard it!  I did that loud whisper thing across the house (the whisper where you might as well not be whispering at all) and asked if he was awake.  He had only wiggled, and I'm not even sure Josh noticed even though the monitor was in his hand.  It was pretty cool how my mothering spidey senses picked up his itty bitty baby whimpers from across the house with the sink running and the tv on. 

Additional improvements/modifications/aquired spidey senses since becoming a mother:

• Improved reflexes.  I am able to catch spit up in my hand.  Gross?  Yes.  But it beats cleaning it off the sofa.  I am also able to simultaneously fold clothes and catch Jack when he topples over while working on sitting up.
• Ability to function on about 49 minutes of sleep a night.  I might only be functioning at about 30% but I'm still functioning.  No one knows I forgot to put on underwear as long as I remember to put on pants.   
• Ability to differentiate Jack's cries.  Before becoming a mother, all baby cries sounded the same to me.  Now I can tell the difference between a hunger cry, a gas pain cry and a "help my legs are stuck in my crib rails" cry.

* Spidey Sense definition/image from Urban Dictionary.