When a Baby Just Ignores You - Ow! Ego Hurting

Do you turn into mush whenever you spy a baby across the room? Now babies are the cutest things on earth, aren't they? When there is a baby, somehow adults turn to mush (ok, not all adults) and they will start acting or speaking in strange voices to attract the baby's attention. Some pull funny faces, some giggle in high pitch voices, some blackest faces around suddenly seem to be able to find the light of day and smile and revert to normal the moment the baby is not around.

I, too, am especially bitten by the baby bug since..well..I got pregnant. I never really use to like babies all that much. I will say I am scared of babies because somehow they just seem so ...fragile and I am too rough for them. So when my sister-in-law has a baby (Zoey) recently, I could not help but found myself mesmerised by the little one. And like all other normal adults, I start to try to attract the her attention. An epic failure.

You know how one feels that no matter how hard one tries, things doesn't seem to be going right? I thought with all my maternal instincts radiating from my aura; I should be able to attract the tiny one's attention. But it was not to be! I looked at it, I spoke to it, I sang to it, I tickled her but somehow I am pretty sure the expression etched on her face was one of pure horror. I watched (admittedly, slightly green-eyed) as my husband just picked her up and she started babbling like no tomorrow. Then when my second sister-in-law picked her up and suddenly there seems to be a conference going on between her and little one!

Is it really because the Chinese Myth that a Baby is Jealous of the other Baby inside?
I tried convincing myself. She prefers males? But no, she's now having a complaining session with my second sis-in-law. There must be something that I did wrong. My husband tried to comfort me... "Ah, maybe because she can sense that you have a baby within you so she's jealous and is not comfortable talking to you!". If that is really the case, I pity all mothers who have a child straight after the brith of their first one. It's understandable if one is ignored by people due to whatever reasons there are but by a baby? Ow.. Ego hurting! I did remember her smiling once or twice somewhere and she didn't make a fuss when I carried her. It's just that she just refused to smile and often stare at me with a very strange look on her face - no matter how many times I visit her.

How to Talk Baby - It's called Parentese
Then I read about Parentese. Sheesh I didn't even know such a thing exists. It's when one talks in a high pitched singsong voice that is directed to the baby. What you are basically doing is that you will be:

• speaking more slowly
• enunciate more deliberately and with greater emphasis
• speak in a high picth
• elongate vowel sounds, particularly the long vowels in words

I thought about it. Did I do the following when speaking to her? Nope. For all my supposedly maternal instincts that are supposed to come out by now, all I did was to speak to her as if I am speaking to my secondary students. I didn't realise that infants can only process sounds that are slower in speed, higher in frequency and clear and distinctive! Interestingly, this parentese style of talking. is supposedly to come naturally to parents ... I must be a slow work of nature somewhere.

My husband did tell me to talk in a sing-song voice before. I wasn't convinced before... but I guess I have to give it a try now. Otherwise, my little one will look as stressed as baby Zoey when she comes out.