Let me start by saying that I'm totally expecting some flak for the title of this post, whether from the mother of our child, her family, or any of you. I'm okay with that and I'll tell you why:
My beautiful little girl is sometimes (how do I put this gently?) less than brilliant.
The Moro Reflex is how babies react when they suddenly think they're falling or about to fall; they flail their arms out, then bring them in suddenly. This often happens when placing an infant into their crib no matter how gently you do this.
So I want you to picture this:
Daddy is holding a sweet, beautiful, sleeping infant in his arms, looking at her adoringly after trying to get her to sleep over the last 2 hours. The baby is sound asleep and all "floppy" which means that she's probably not faking it this time so daddy decides that he's going to try to actually get some sleep. It is midnight, after all, and he could use a little rest*.
Daddy creeps quietly to the crib and gently, oh-so-gently, puts his little angel** down. Just as he carefully releases the baby girl's head so that it cradles into the crib the Moro Reflex kicks in, her arms flail wildly out, then rush back in; her own hand smacks her across the face, startling her into wakefulness.
She looks up, knowing only that she has just been struck across the face and that daddy is staring down at her, trying not to laugh and now her little infant brain thinks that daddy just bopped her in the eye/cheek/forehead/nose. She cries at the betrayal by daddy and wakes back up to 100% for at least another hour.
It'd be funny if I didn't see the psychiatry bills piling up already. I'll be charging them to Dr. Moro.
*Yes, all moms everywhere are laughing at this and calling Daddy a wuss for wanting to sleep at midnight with a new baby in the house. I understand. Mothers are superhuman. It's a fact.
**When sleeping she is daddy's little angel. When awake she is (often) daddy's little brat. Amazing how the state of sleep vs. wakefulness can polarize things so much.
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