The Hardest Job You'll Ever Love
Motherhood is "the hardest job you'll ever love," someone said to me not too long ago. I think that is a great way to describe it. These past 7 weeks have been a whirlwind, but we are emerging from the fog and I feel like we have our feet back on the ground a bit more. I cannot believe Henry is 7 weeks old now! I am already looking at pictures of him from when he was born and thinking how small he looked then! He's still a little guy, but he's already grown so much. I can't believe in just another week he'll be two months old!To catch up a little (again)...we had a check-up with the pediatrician on March 5, when he was about 5.5 weeks. His height was 22.5 inches (74th percentile), his head was 14.5cm; and his weight was 9lbs, 11oz (24th percentile). Basically, we have a long and lean babe on our hands. He had gained 3lbs in the past month though, which is pretty impressive, so the doctor was not worried about his weight. And let's be honest...tall and skinny genes run in our family, so really he's probably perfectly normal. It does present a challenge with his clothing though. Henry is now mostly wearing 3 months clothes because he is too long for the newborn size, but a lot of the 3 months things are still a bit too big on him. The pants are particularly hilarious because they swallow him and he looks like a teenage boy with his pants sagging. Generally, we're still sticking to the onesie type outfits because those don't look quite so big on him and they're much easier to get in and out of during the numerous diaper changes that inevitably happen during they day.
Anyways, here are two other small notes I made in my phone earlier in the month:
Please please please don't ever stop sleeping with one hand under your chin and the other by your face. It is so uniquely you and I love it. I hope you are 25 and still sleeping like that.
Also, when your paci isn't nearby and you are desperate to suck on something you try to stick your whole fist in your mouth. Part of me hopes you discover your thumb one of these days!
Sometimes it is just easier to jot down my thoughts on my phone. That way I can write down exactly what I'm thinking in the moment and won't forget about it later. Motherhood definitely makes you more absentminded. I'm not sure if it is the lack of sleep or what, but I feel like I have done more stupid things in these past 7 weeks than I have ever in my life! For example, for a while I was sterilizing his bottles by boiling them on the stove. Well one afternoon, Matt got home a little early and the weather was gorgeous, so we decided to take Henry and Fisher on a walk. We left and I completely forgot that I had a pot boiling on the stove with his bottles. Luckily, we returned just as the last bit of water completely evaporated from the pan and the melted plastic started to smoke, setting off our smoke detector. It would have been so much worse had we been just a little later. The bottles and the pan were ruined, but that was the worst of it. I never do stuff like that! It was so terrible. Needless to say, I don't sterilize the bottles on the stove anymore. I use these handy steam bags that you put in the microwaves. Much safer and mommy-mind proof.
In other news, we're starting to do a little better with sleep at night. I know it could all change in a minute, but for now he's sleeping about 5-6 hours in a row, so I'll take it. For the first month or so he did most of his nighttime sleeping in his swing and I slept on the couch. He was eating every 3 hours even through the night then, so it really was the best arrangement for us. Plus, he loves to sleep in his swing. I don't know what we'd have done without it. Slowly, I've been trying to transition him to sleep in the Pack 'n Play by our bed. I figured out that he does his long sleep after his 10pm-11pm feeding (depending on where it falls), so now after he eats, I take him upstairs, turn out the lights and lay him in the Pack 'n Play. He doesn't always go right to sleep, but he's learning that this means it is night time and he'll lay there quietly just looking around (and squeaking!) until he falls asleep (usually no later than midnight). I am so proud of him for falling asleep on his own right now. He has been sleeping until around 5am when he wakes up ready to eat. Then I lay him back down and he'll make it three more hours. This is so much more sleep than I've been getting - it feels like heaven! I still really like having him right by our bed. Sometimes he lays so still that for my peace of mind I just need to be able to reach over and feel that he is breathing. Also, it makes the feedings and diaper changes much easier. We'll eventually get to his crib, but I'm pretty happy with the progress we're making so far with the Pack 'n Play. One step at a time right? Plus, it's only been 7 weeks. While it seems like he's been here forever, in the grand scheme of things that is hardly any time.
Hopefully, I'll be able to get back to updating here more frequently. I printed the first part of this blog, up to his birth story, in a photobook, complete with some extra photos from his first few days, and I love how it turned out. It is such an amazing chronicle of my pregnancy and his arrival. I hope I can continue to keep up with this - it is a whole new adventure now!
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