What's it like to be a baby?

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I wish I could remember being a baby. The youngest I remember being is 3, and even then there's not many memories.

Sometimes when I look at a child of 2 or younger I wonder if they're conscious of anything in the moment or if they're on autopilot and time is warped for them; like an hour to us is like a minute to them.

Could this be true, being so most people don't remember their early years? It just interests me.

No idea. My earliest memories are from when I was two or three, can't tell which... but probably two. Not that I remember a lot, just some flashes. I have a lot of memories after about five and half years of age, though.

I'm kind of glad I don't remember being a baby. Not being able to move, talk or control my bodily functions. Yeah that sounds like a blast. Being born must have also been pretty terrifying.

Yeah I think maybe it is for the best people don't remember when they were babies.

I remember having an all-encompassing, paralyzing fear of everything when I was a toddler.

As an infant, I have no memories.

Many of them, unless they are colicky, seem pretty happy for the most part. But they do get upset pretty easily, and are very sensitive. They have an amazing ability to get back into a good mood really quickly, though.

I can remember being a few months old. My youngest brother remembered the moment just after he was born and gave an accurate account of the room which shocked my mother as she thought he was joking.

I remember my own birth.
Did you know your heart stops during your mother's contractions?
Worst part of being a baby was the diaper changing.
That was the most degrading week of my life.



Disclaimer, I stole that from an episode of Malcolm in the Middle

Don't remember anything before age three (much like the OP). But have run across autistics on this site who seem to remember every moment of their lives. Maybe not just after birth, but mind blowing amounts of detail from early childhood.

A friend remembers a moment from being a toddler in a play pen. But that was an extraordinary moment when his crazy parents got into a physical fight in front of him that was probably traumatizing to him.

Actually my earliest clear memory was being with my mom and aunt when they were touring the then empty house we moved into when I was 3. But I can't remember the house I was still living in at the time.

I remember being in my cot.

Actually I hae a lot of individual memories from being a few months old onwards.

And then there are the giant monsters (family members) who make hideous faces at you as they stare over the top of your tiny prison (your crib), except for the slightly smaller monster (your older sibling) who makes even more hideous faces at you from between the bars of your prison, but the faces are different because they're full of hate and jealousy.

Of course, until I was a few months old their faces probably didn't look much more than smudges hovering around me.

heaven on earth. it all goes downhill after that.

I was the first so I didn't get that.
I remember growing up. I hated hugging. I felt so panicky and claustrophobic because if I had to hug, I wanted it to be quick and me doing the hug rather then others doing it.
Even worse then that is that we were often ordered to kiss my grandparents or auntys etc. My Uncles were ok as they didn't want a kiss! I didn't mind kissing my Grandad. I can only just remember one Grandad as he died when I was 1 but the other I did meet often. Usually about once or twice a year. He was interesting. Even my Dad who came from the other side of the family loved him. He was always up to exciting things. He was a designer. He was the type of person that when he bought something, he would improve it somehow. Mind you. Sometimes he had a headstart like with his cars. As he once worked designing for Renauly, they kind of built him a car that was rare. It was a renault 15 that had a top of the range Renault 17 engine in it (1600cc). Once a year he would test it after working on it, and he showed me a certain stretch of road, that if the car didn't touch 120mph, he was dissapointed. I sometimes pass that stretch of road today and you don't have a lot of straight road to open up. It is fairly straight but only for about a quarter of a mile before one has to break, and on the one side there is a steep windy hill with a village, and on the other side it goes into a sudden sharp right and left hand curve with a sudden drop in gradient where cars have been known to have accidents, so one does not have a lot of space to do it. I would say that even today most cars would struggle to touch 100 on there. I can see why he used that road to test his cars.
I wanted that car but he gave it to my eldest cousin as I didn't drive. He had a brand new Peugeot 309 diesel with all the extras. It even had two horns.
The Renault didn't last long. My cousin used to use it on the motorway and then there was a nice long smooth concrete dual carriageway where he lived, and he and his wife were silly. He was doing over 100 and a car pulled out so he ended up with a dent on the front of the car.
Then a couple of weeks later his wide was going way over 100 (I think it was more like 140... certainly over 120, and the same thing happened. It wrote the car off and everyone was lucky to survive. My Grandad said "What were you doing at those speeds?" The road my Grandad used to use was at least flat, very visible from both directions and he only did it when there were no one around when it was quiet.
Then my Grandads Peugeot. It had the extras... It even had two horns. Fog lights, spot lights... OK, he had fitted extra lights on his Renult. But the Peugeot had them built in.
He the died, and as my Grandmother didn't drive the car was to be sold. It was in the old shed type garage that my Grandad also had his tools in at the bottom of the garden. My Dad went to et it ready to sell it. It was only about a year old. Maybe a year and a half.
Well. My Dad didn't know about the alarm. We could hear an alarm going. My Dad had got a spanner, undone the alarm and had it in his hands and was running up and down the garden path with it going off in his hands! He was shouting to me "Get abucket of water!" I saw a place where you could put a key into it and pointed to it and my Dad tried it and we turned it off!
I think our ears can still hear it, and my Dad has been dead for over ten years!
I think a garage boutht the car. A few garages were competing trying to offer the highest price. I remember £7000 being offered but I think it may have ended up being sold at £9000, which was a lot to sell to the trade, but it was rare to have so many extras. We ever found out how much my Grandad had paid for it as he had to hide that from my Grandmother as she would not have let him get it if she found out.
I remember once where they used to live which was about 82 miles away? (They later moved to be in this area). My Dad played a prank on my Grandad. He bought him a cigar in a little plastic tube. My dad took the cigar out,and drilled a small hole at the bottom. He filled the tube with water, and the water stayed in it as the lid sealed it, but when you open the top...
It was hillarious. My Grandad opened the top, and saw the water. He was about to say that my Dad ad pranked him with the water, but then he noticed the water level dropping... and he said "Where the hell is the water going?" He realized he had been pranked. My dad then gave him the cigar to compensate for his wet lap.
My Grandad gave up smoking. He used to use chewing gum to do it. He would place it in cubes he made with it in his fingers for when he needed it again.
I hate chewing gum, but he then gave up the chewing gum and all was forgiven! Haha.
I remember when I was little and we visited and my
grandad was asleep in the chair, and I was so excited to see him I ran and launched myself onto his lap to hug him. I loved my Grandad. My poor Grandad had a fright as he woke up, and my Dad was telling me off for jumping on him when he was asleep.
I also loved my Nanna. (Grandmother). I stayed there for a week once. My parents drove up in the 3 wheeler van (The exact same van and colour as the one in Only Fools And Horses) and they spent the day there and left with my brother to go back and collect me later at the end of the week. My brother played a prank. He mixed salt in with the sugar, so for the week I had to have breakfasts with salt in them.
I remember that my Grandmother used to have All Bran or Special K for breakfast. My parents didn't buy us those, so it was exciting. Special K used to be nicer as it used to be made into tiny little flakes rather the the larger flakes it is today. All Bran is the same as it was then. It is like little sticks which I used to make eavers dams in the bowl with. (Or that is what I called them I just constructed little building like structures with the little sticks if I could get away with it before I was told to eat it! ).
Oh. The highlight of the visit was a trip with my Nanna and Grandad in My Grandads car to the nearest seaside town. The dials and the steering wheel in his car looked so cool. It was like being in a racing car! A girl living in the cottage opposite (She was on holiday there to see her grandmother) called Rhiannon came with us. Now at this small seaside town there were bumpercars, and as my Grandad had once for about a year worked at the fair to service and run the smaller battery bumpercars just before he retired. When we came to the fair, I think they opened the bumpercars up just for us, as we were the only bumpercar going, and I had fun. Rhiannon also enjoyed clinging on in the other seat. I could get the back wheels to skid as the floor of the bumpercar area was damp. It was exciting and fun! Great memories. I also remember buying three little mice in Woolworths. A creamy white one, a grey one and I think the other was black. I loved them! They weren't real of course. Stuffed teddy type mice.

I remember going in the back of what I believe must have been one of my Grandads cars, and my only view was to look up, as I was in the baby part of my pram. (The part that comes off the frame. My pram had big wheels but it could collapse to transport it. It was navy blue).
And I was looking up and I was looking at the wires. Years later when I was in my early 20's I believe, I identified the road I was on by looking at the wires, and I was on this road near to where I live now.
My grandparents used to live a mile further on. They moved then about 80 miles away when I was only a year or two old? My Mum said that I was only in that pram for the first year of my life, yet I can remember several scenes from those times.

I don't remember anything from babyhood. I may have one or two very vague memories but I don't know if it's just something my brain has made up. I moved to the house I grew up in when I was a year old and I do not have any memories of the apartment we lived in before.

Maybe when I'm really old if I get Alzheimer's that shrinks most of my memories away, I might be able to reveal my very earliest memories. I've heard that can happen to people with Alzheimer's; there is a part of the memory that the Alzheimer's can't get to and that's usually where your earliest memories lay, but throughout your life these early memories are so buried beneath all your other memories that you cannot get to those early memories.

Rather interesting.