Two and a half weeks in a nutshell

The two and a half weeks since Joshua’s birth have been a seemingly endless cycle of not sleeping, trying not to meltdown emotionally (and there have been a couple of those…), and worrying about whether or not I’m making enough milk to keep this child well-fed. It’s kind of been a blur, actually. A blur punctuated with two nights of good sleep (both of which have involved my mom staying the night with us…I’m considering ripping out some cables in the engine of her Jeep so she’s stuck here for a while…). We do have mostly good days, though, and any day when I can get a shower is a GREAT day, and I have had a few of those!

I’ve been sleeping in either the recliner or the chair in the nursery holding the boy for most of the night(s) which hasn’t been comfortable. But we’re seriously working on getting Joshua to sleep in the pack-n-play or his crib. While I do love holding my sweet, sleeping angel, he needs to sleep in his own space and I really, really love my bed. Yesterday saw the most success with that so far, and we had a good routine last night that I’m hoping we can replicate tonight.

Breastfeeding is also going well. After having the c-section, I’m determined to make this breastfeeding thing work. DETERMINED, I tell you. I did have to supplement for a few days when we got home from the hospital because he’d lost 10% of his birth weight, but after he gained 7 oz. in two days, the pediatrician had me wean him off the supplements, so I did, and at his appointment yesterday he had surpassed his birth weight by 2 oz. Woohoo!!! Success!! (Hey…I’ll take ’em where I can get ’em, people!)

There’s been plenty about this whole parenthood thing that Dan and I have been unprepared for. However, in our defense, I don’t think there’s anything that really can prepare you for becoming a parent aside from actually becoming one. You can read all the books in the world in order to “prepare” yourself, but I almost guarantee that you, too, will find yourself Googling (with one hand, mind you) “why is my baby so fussy?” or “getting newborns to sleep” at 3am.

Since I am starting to get the hang of this whole motherhood thing, I’m going to try and get back into the swing of blogging. For now, I leave you with a picture of my sweet baby who fell asleep after getting his belly full.

We call this “piglet pose”:

Say it with me now….”Awwwwwwwww”