Our life is new and improved in many ways. First of all, there's Finch, OBVIOUSLY. While he looks a lot like the Sprout did as a baby, this new baby experience couldn't be more different from my last, or from my experience bringing Small Sun home.
Finch is over two weeks old and I am not sleep deprived. He sleeps stretches of at least four hours at night, and one night even did seven. So if I go to bed early, we are doing 2 or 3 feedings a night and I am getting a total amount of decent sleep. He's nursing like a champion. Really, he's nursing at two weeks like The Sprout was at six weeks. Other than the discomfort of my milk coming in and a few days of him learning to latch correctly, creating a nursing bond with him has been totally easy. Again, completely different from last time.
Even though Finch is tiny tiny and already has a cold, I am completely stress free. At the risk of sounding redundant, so different from the first two times!
Becoming a mother for the first time was challenging and I can remember a lot of panicky, stressed, nervous, fearful feelings mingled in with the pure delight. Then, The Sprout's delivery ended up being quite traumatic and the first weeks of her life are cloaked in a kind of grey stupor of weeping and pain (I kid you not). There are some beautiful moments, but really, I mostly remember the pain.
I am challenged in other ways this time - helping two very bouncy kids adjust their attitudes, while nursing, is not easy - but I am not overwhelmed. We're just kind of coasting along. TV is my friend. Very short to do lists are my friend. Keeping low expectations of what we can do is my friend. Saying "I need help with that" a million times a day is my friend.
I'm breaking my baby rule with this baby. Before I stayed in for a minimum of a couple weeks, or at least avoided crowds and germs fests, to give my babies a chance to build up their immune systems. I told all my friends that I wouldn't be seeing them for awhile because I'd be in baby quarantine...but I didn't do it after all. A few days after we got out of hospital I went to a street festival, then church, lunch at a cafe, family grocery shopping, a trip to the mall, then home group, and today another lunch out. That's how I ended up changing Finch's diaper at the park today. It ended with him doing the extra poo all over the diaper, then switching to the rocket pee as I tried to clean the poo up. And you know what dressing a newborn on your lap is like, right? All floppy head and flailing limbs? Well, doing it on a winter's day, outside, with a baby working up an appetite expressed through a scream...well, not so fun. But the point is, I haven't been able to keep us inside. I want to see people and get out! I think letting myself break that rule is doing a lot to keep the blues at bay.
I can imagine this is an incredibly boring post, but it's one for the record. We had a lovely Saturday taking new family photos with friends. All the kids are still sleeping off the adventure. The Captain is sitting in our new comfy leather chair, reading Dutch magazines. The living room is warm and cozy because of our new super-heater. In fact, this is my second Sydney winter, but I have only felt warm since we bought this heater. Dusk is settling, the fridge is full of yummy leftovers we can call dinner, I just woke up from a two hour nap and ate a yummy muffin, and life is good.