Safety

Where do babies get such little old lady hands?

How can babies be born with fingernails long and sharp enough to scratch themselves? Shouldn’t their bodies automatically be safer than that?

The hospital nurse said it’s best to file these tiny nails, rather than use baby clippers. So to protect my daughter, one of the first things I did to her body was to file her nails. She was relaxed, the nails were very soft, it was not difficult, just very very strange. It seemed out of place at the hospital: she and I should instead be 15 years into the future, at some day spa, but here she was just one day old, and the filing of the nails had more to do with her not marring her tiny, fragile face (because she doesn’t yet know how to use her hands, and they flail around, hurting herself without really knowing it) than an attractive manicure.

I saw something in this photo of my daughter’s hand. She needs me; she is almost one hundred percent need. And here we are, and we have to take care of her, keep her safe. Maybe the little old lady hands will help teach me.

(Happy one month, Merida!)