Life with Baby

Okay--James is officially asleep in his swing...time to update the blog!

Unfortunately, it's been like a month or so since I last wrote anything, so we'll see if anyone who originally knew about this blog will ever check back again after a month of nothing new. I sort of had it in my mind that I'd be taking tons of pictures of James and it would be absolutely no problem to simply upload them to the computer now and then. Ha. Ha ha ha ha. That was the same pre-baby woman who also had a picture in her mind of her being some sort of svelte new mommy, striding briskly out every morning behind her baby carriage, ponytail bouncing in the cool morning sunshine to burn off all those extra pregnancy pounds....sigh. That would only be possible in a world where babies ate three times a day like everybody else, and slept the whole time in between. Little did I know that babies eat every 2-3 hours and poop about every 10 minutes. (How come no one ever mentioned that before?....) They also can take upwards of an hour (often longer) to breastfeed. For those of you blissfully ignorant folk, that translates to spending roughly a third of your life sitting in a chair with your shirt off and a babe strapped to your chest. Believe you me, that doesn't much room for...well, much of anything. By the time you factor in a diaper change, a little flirting and cooing with your (finally!) happy baby, the last 10 minutes of Dr. Phil you were unwillingly sucked into, packing up 'the girls,' one MORE diaper change, soothing your now deeply unhappy baby and somehow getting him to go down for a nap, a furtive check of the email, and rummaging the cupboards for something quick to eat....whaddaya know? The baby is awake and needs to eat AGAIN.

I know, I know. All you mothers out there are laughing at the naivity of this new little momma. I knew it beforehand, but like all first-time mommas, I didn't really KNOW it: motherhood is a FULL-TIME JOB!!!!! And as much as you'd like to THINK you can type with one hand and breastfeed with the other, the little guy knows you're not paying attention. And quite frankly, he is not impressed. At least, my little guy makes it abundantly clear that that's how he feels about the situation. Someday I'll write a post about that, but not today.

In the meantime, let me sum up the last few weeks.

1.) Matt went back to the Midwest to help celebrate his sister's high school graduation. Sorry I couldn't be there, Jess! James and I miss you!

2) Matt has begun the Work Schedule From Heck, with usually involves a combination of 10-12 hour day and/or night shifts. Poor guy.

3) Father's Day came and went. Here's Daddy-O, the Lil' Guy, and the cat all passed out together. Unfortunately, I happened to be feeling really terrible that day and we weren't able to do much, so I can only hope that future Father's Days will be much more memorable. Sorry, hon.

4) My own mommy came out to visit for the last week. YEAH! Here we all are visiting the Pittock Mansion.

5) Annnnd....the Lil' Guy has grown a pound heavier and I don't know how many inches longer. He no longer fits into his newborn sized clothes. :( He's also has begun to cry actual tears, smile the most amazing smiles, experiment with sounds, and express himself a LOT more vocally with quite an array of shrieks, wails, wimpers, snorts, coos and gurgles.

So--stay tuned for more updates. I'm sure I'll have time to sit down and write about it all by the time he's, like, fourteen. Right?