baby dimensions

I love how babies are so small. I tried to get some pictures showing how small Dominique's hands and feet are. The hands are hard to show since newborns like to curl up their fingers into little fists, but you can see her feet pretty good. And in the way of newborns, Dominique is not what you would call small. A friend of mine just had a 6 lbs baby and when I saw her, I couldn't believe how small that baby was, like 1/3rd less than Dominique!


I'll never forget a study in a psychology book that showed how we are affected just by the shape of a baby. In the study and text book, they showed four body types, 4 silhouettes, all the same size, all black outlines. One was a baby shape, another a preteen's dimensions and the others adult figures. They asked people which body they wanted to cuddle and nurture. The study showed that there is something about that round body and oversized head that makes us just want to hold and cuddle and protect the infant. People were not as drawn to the preteen image or the adult. As we still have friends and visitors come to congratulate us and see the baby, they all want to hold her, which is good since she loves being held.


Other studies have shown that if an infant receives sufficient food, diapering, medical treatment... but no touch, they will start to shut down, become ill and possibly die. So I guess it's a good thing that babies have so much hold appeal, we need it and they need it too.