I never knew (before Dr. Ruf's book) that eye contact at birth was unusual.
Delbows, I was stunned when I read that little tidbit in Ruf's book. Immediately I thought of the night DD6 was born. I held her all night long, and kept waking up every hour or so to make sure she was okay...and every time I opened my eyes, she was staring at me, gazing right into my eyes with the most intense look.
Now, if you can picture this, what made it comical is that she had one eye somehow shut tight so it looked like she was winking at me all night long--and yet the look in her other, open eye was deeply serious and intense. She also had one ear that was flipped forward on itself--it must have been pressed against something in utero that way--and every time I gently pushed it back where it belonged, it would SPRING forward again and stick like that. She looked quite homely that first night. It made me chuckle every time I looked down at her...but I was truly amazed by the incredible (one-eyed) eye contact.
Oddly enough, she was the one of my three kids who mastered winking at a very early age--long before her brother, who is two years older, could do it. We always tell her she was born winking.
