Nice thread to bump.
When DW's water was broken, the nurse noted a green color to it which indicated DD had ingested and defecated placental fluids, and all that fluid would have to be cleaned out of her sinuses and lungs before she was allowed to take her first breath, to prevent a potentially lethal lung infection. Therefore, DW was instructed to stop pushing once DD's head was projecting outward, allow DD's nose and lungs to be vacuumed, and then proceed with the delivery once instructed.
Apparently, DD did not appreciate the treatment she was getting, and she popped her own shoulder out, and started pushing with her free hand against DW's body. The delivery staff was freaked to say the least. DW was injured in the process.
The vacuuming continued against her cries, so she was in a pretty miserable state when they finally wrapped her up and placed her in my arms. I started rocking her and said her name. She immediately stopped crying, locked eyes with me, and tracked my relative motion with her eyes... all things the baby development book we'd been reading said she could not do.
Later that day in the hospital room, DD started fussing in her bassinet while DW was taking a nap. I took DD out and laid her on my chest, belly down. She picked up her head, looked around until she located DW, stared for a minute, then settled back down to take a nap. Again, the book said she couldn't do that. We promptly threw away the book.
Within the first couple months, we tried out one of those Baby Einstein videos. It had a bunch of 15-30 second clips of random nothing, and the kid hated it. But put on a show for pre-schoolers, and she'd watch the entire 20 minutes.
Around 3 months, we could no longer dress her without her approval. If we selected an outfit she didn't like, she'd wriggle and squirm while we tried to dress her. We had to hold her up to her closet and let her pick out her own outfits. Likewise, when we went shopping we'd have to hold up anything we were considering, and she'd either seize it (buy) or shove it aside (don't waste your money). She'd make her own choices apart from things we brought her, too, because she'd start leaning out of the cart and reaching out towards something she liked.
At four months we took her to a photography session. Her mom had put her in this dress, and she was sitting up for the photos, fidgeting with her dress. DW kept coming back to DD, putting the dress back to rights, and finally admonished her to stop playing with the dress. Just before the photographer snapped the photo, DD grabbed the bottom of her dress, flipped it up high, and grinned a huge grin. This photo is priceless.
And on, and on...
