Edmund and Mommy at ChurchThough I have seen babies as young as 4 days old at church, I decided to hold off on bringing Edmund until today. Pediatricians often urge parents to wait until their babies are 6 weeks of age before heading to a crowded place, so I figured 5 1/2 weeks is close enough. However, Edmund probably could have gone sooner if it weren't for his weary parents. As Steven pointed out, if Edmund could survive a 4 hour trip to the Durham County Health Department at 2 weeks old, he could certainly handle church.
As per usual we fed Edmund before leaving the house. Contrary to his usual routine he did not fall asleep after eating. In fact he was semi-awake when we arrived at Chapel Hill Bible Church. We were greeted by a c
o-worker of mine who also attends CHBC. Though she has seen Edmund on several occasions, she had never actually seen him awake. She commented on how blue his eyes are. Edmund's eyes were such a dark blue at birth they were almost black. They have since lightened slightly. Steven and I are still curious to see if Edmund's eyes remain blue. I guess we'll need to wait a few more months.When we sat down in the sanctuary some rather loud welcome music was playing. At this point Edmund was sleeping, but the music didn't cause him to stir. I took him out of his carseat to hold him. As the music played I rocked him to the beat. I secretly hope that my doing so will give him a musical inclination, though intuitively I know this is wishful thinking. Edmund slept through the opening songs, but again I swayed to the beat. As the sermon began he perked up. Edmund is a very good baby for the most part, but he is quite noisy. He's a noisy sleeper and player. Fortunately at this point he isn't a noisy eater.
CHBC has a "family room." It's a small soundproof room that faces that sanctuary. It used to be called the "cry room," but in these days of political correctness the name was changed. I stood up to take my "noisy" baby to the family room. Steven soon followed suit. When we arrived in the family room two other families were already there. In the next 5 minutes at least five other families joined us. I wonder if their babies also decided that they wanted to be the center of attention during the sermon. While the family room is great in theory it really is not conducive to active listening. The majority of our time was spent focusing on Edmund and watching the antics of the other children. In a few weeks we will send Edmund to the nursery. Given his personality thus far he should really enjoy it. He tends to want to play much more than be cuddled.
The sermon finally came to a close. Edmund was wide awake for the final song. He enjoyed dancing with his mommy to the music. Another mother commented that he seemed to like to move. She definitely has him pegged. Edmund's first trip to church was a success, and the sermon didn't even put him to sleep!
* Edmund does not spend the entirety of his outing in a carseat as some of these pictures suggest. In fact Edmund is not a huge fan of the carseat or any restraint. He also hates getting in and out of his carseat, so once he is buckled up for a car ride we won't disturb him, even if it means missing a great photo op :)
