12 days old

Things that can happen (sometimes all at once) with otherwise completely healthy newborns:

• Gas pains that make her shriek at octaves that would make most opera singers jealous
• Hormones that make her have her first period at three days old. (And even though I actually did know that could happen, somewhere in the back of my brain, it is still NOT COOL to open up your three-day-old's diaper and see blood.)
• Dry skin that makes it look like your baby's entire skin is flaking off.
• Bleeding from the cord stump. Really, anything that involves an infant and her blood leaving her body is not fun for mommies and daddies.
• "Newborn rash" that looks like she has angry red pimples or mosquito bites all over her (thankfully this is gone now).

It is really hard to be a big mommy, as my mommy would say, and not panic at all these things—which my parents, my books and my doula all assure me are perfectly normal. Mom, I'm sorry if I ever doubted you on that point. You are absolutely right.