This is what’s called the 'Moro' or ‘Startle’ Reflex. I took it off YouTube.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_bAQDOOgq0]
It’s something babies do where they suddenly shoot their arms out into the air. The new baby in our family kept having it last night when we were all together.
When I used to watch it happen with my babies, I assumed it was because they suddenly felt like they were falling.
That’s how it looks exactly: like they wake up from their dream and think "Oh GOD what's this new medium all around me? What happened to that that nice firm waterpack I’m used to?' but no. Evidently any new baby will have this Startle Reflex that seems to last for three or months.
All I can say is, in a world where there are blizzards in October and tornadoes in full winter; where the price of gas is higher than the Bride of Frankenstein’s forehead and the ice caps are melting and people in charge are getting so cavalier they’re letting their cruise ships keel clean over How are we not ALL startling ALL the time?
Yet we don’t. Yet our babies grow calm in the face of it all, like this baby, old enough now so that she has grown accustomed to the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahgmjVeqHIU&feature=endscreen&NR=1]
But do you ever get used to them really? Maybe that’s what big brothers and big sisters are in a way: shock absorbers offering just that extra needed bit of insulation.
