Time flies even when you're not having fun!

I started this post a week and a half ago but didn’t get around to finishing it… Oh, and about not having fun- well, we're starting to have more fun:>)

I have been a mother for 2.5 weeks. In these last weeks, I have sought lots and lots of advice from friends and family. My sister got a nice wake-up call in the middle of the night when I wanted to know what to do because Wynne had been crying and wouldn’t nap. Some of my friends got an email asking when all of this gets better and doesn’t feel so stressful. And through all that, there were two thoughts that really stuck out. First, my friend told me that parenthood was like the peace corp motto (so he says, didn’t check the claim myself)- anyway, it’s the hardest job you’ll ever love. Lots of people told me "give it two weeks- it’ll get better, and by 6 weeks, you’ll start to feel like yourself again". That was nice as it gave me goals but the funny thing was that it wasn’t until just after 2 weeks that I got this little hint: it won’t be better after two weeks because she’s changed, but because you have. In hindsight, that seems obvious but I really thought she would change more. She would become predictable and eat when she should and sleep when I told her it was time to sleep and if I got really lucky, she’d be able to communicate her needs to me in English. But just a day or two after two weeks, she was crying in the car on the way home from the mall and it didn’t make me cry or cringe or stress or want to jump out of my skin and I realized that Steve and I have in fact changed.

So here’s the scoop on my last couple of weeks. My super wonderful great patient sister (and her adorable, charming, quiet 3.5 month old son) came to visit for nearly 3 weeks. She pulled me through labor and my first week of motherhood, including nursing, diapers, bathing and the umbilical stump. Her and Steve were such champs- they made sure I was perpetually fed (nursing takes a lot of food I learned), house was clean and I didn’t change a diaper for the first four days. They took great care of us so I was really upset to see Randi leave and Steve go back to work (part-time for the first week). I had some rough days trying to cope with the stress and sleep deprivation and all the hormones I guess. I’d spend every minute I could outside in the sun (we’re having great weather now).

Anyway, 2.5 weeks on, I can now function on little sleep and most of interrupted by another feeding. I’m learning to read Wynne’s cues that she’s tired so naptimes are more successful. She’s getting better at feeding although she is still pretty slow at it if you ask me. The other night, I had my first dream in weeks and my first daytime nap (when she was asleep, I’d generally be too wound up to sleep). We’ve gone on several outings but the first I was sorta shoved into. I was all wound up, sitting on my front porch, crying and listening to Wynne cry on the baby monitor (I hate that thing- the damn red lights that light up when she cries stress me out) so I called my neighbor to sit with me and pull me out of my funk. She was on her way out the door for the dentist but invited me to come along for the ride. I pulled myself together (sorta), put the sleeping wynne into her carseat and we were off to the dentist. I sat in a dentist waiting room for 3 hours (she had 3 kids to get in to see the dentist) and learned that Wynne is in fact, portable. The next day, we ran errands with the neighbor again and we’ve taken her out several times since then. I’m also making progress towards being "myself" again. At Steve’s urging, I got my first manicure and pedicure in several weeks.

We’re now at 4 weeks and motherhood is keeping me busy clearly as it’s taken 1.5 weeks to post this! These last few days have been my personal best yet- relaxed and getting reasonable amounts of sleep. Steve is still adjusting to his parental sleep routine- he’s napping next to me as I type this. Wynne is getting bigger- her feet mostly. She’s starting to outgrow her pjs- not because she’s too long, but because her feet are too big for the feet in the pjs. She’s quite alert and strong and generally a questionable napper. Thankfully (knock on wood) she sleeps well at night although she’s got a nasty habit of waking at 5 that we’re working on breaking. So, not much more to report right now.

We’re doing well and occasionally have glimmers of our old life. Like today, we were walking on the corniche with wynne in her stroller, and we were talking about our upcoming London trip. We’re not entirely sure how you travel with an infant- dumb things like how do we eat dinner if her bedtime is 7:30? And how do you manage taxis and what about museum visits and so on. We figured the best way to handle it is to wing it- we consider this our practice trip before we get into real vacations. Our next trip is in May. Oh, and it amazes me that my four week old daughter has a passport with a picture of her at 2 weeks… Who would’ve guessed.

Anyway, I’d like to say I’ll be more frequent with the blog posts but it’s unlikely. Maybe once I go back to work in April…