Things that are happening...

In a couple days, Paisley will be five weeks old.  That’s kind of weird, because I feel like she was born about a week and a half ago. 

When I look at pictures, I can see that Paisley looks like she has grown up a lot.*  In some ways that kind of makes me sad. Last week we finished our case of “N” diapers, and we moved on to “1” diapers.  I also started making a pile of “newborn” size clothes, so that I can box them up and put them in the garage.  Paisley still fits the size 0-3 months stuff, but newborn clothes are a little too small.  I guess that means she is a baby instead of a newborn.  I see pictures on Facebook of other new babies, and I feel like Paisley should still be brand new.  I’m not quite as bad as I was when I was pregnant, but I still get kind of emotional about these things. 

It’s funny, though, because at the same time I can’t wait for her to grow up.  I like that she cuddles, and it’s kind of neat to share so many first times with her**, BUT, she’s really very needy and she’s a lot of work.  Jeff and I were talking about it the other day, and I remembered that actually we have never been excited about having a baby.  We have always been excited about having a child, but we were more excited about having a 3 year old, or something; not really a newborn.  So, we’re looking forward to her becoming more of a little person, and less of a noisy loud thing that chews up my nipples and burps up milk all over everything.

 

Here are some of the things that are happening:

I’m reading a whole lot more than I have in a long time.  We’re still not champions at breastfeeding yet, so we can’t do fancy things like nurse while we sleep or nurse while Paisley is in a sling and I’m up and about doing other things.  Instead, every time I feed her, I have to just sit and feed her, which is kind of boring.  I really only have one free hand, so I’ve found that it is a good time for me to read.  Turning pages of a real book is tough, but flicking from page to page on my Android Kindle app on my phone worked perfectly. 

I read Born to Run (about barefoot running) and Beyond the Sling (about attachment parenting), plus another book that a publisher sent me to review on Amazon.  Now I’m reading Superbaby (slowly, since it isn’t digital), Deep Nutrition: Why Your Genes Need Traditional Food (for a real food book club on Facebook!), and Attached at the Heart: 8 Proven Parenting Principles for Raising Connected and Compassionate Children.  I also finally ordered a Kindle Touch last week, and I absolutely love it.

I’m thinking of trying to do another ½ marathon in October.  After reading Born to Run, I am even further convinced that barefoot (or minimalist) running will fix my knee problems.  Some new Utah marathon and ½ marathon are starting up in October and they have started spamming me daily, and that got me thinking that maybe I could do it.  Last week I started a training plan, but I don’t know if I’ll be ready in time.  I’m still recovering from the birth, so I get tired more quickly than I normally would.  I’m trying out barefoot-style running with Moc3s that I ordered earlier this year.  My calves ache!

Things are constantly changing.  Paisley used to always sleep in 4-hour blocks.  After I told my mother-in-law, and Paisley’s pediatrician, then Paisley switched to sleeping in 2-3 hour blocks—tops.  Now, she often sleeps for an hour or so.  Or, she used to do great in her car seat.  She used to fall asleep when we drove places.  Then, I told my mother-in-law about it, and on the way home from my in-laws’ house, she bawled.  Now, about half of the time we go places Paisley cries and cries.  Poor girl.

I’m getting a little better at doing things!  But I still get almost nothing done.  It’s kind of frustrating, because I still have a lot to do. 

I’ve been gradually making a list of things that are different than I expected, but this is already pretty long, so I’ll post that separately.

*  Last weekend I finally went to go have my hair done and my stylist wanted me to show her some pictures of Paisley.  So, I showed her a bunch that were on my phone, including one that I think is really funny, from when she was 6 days old.  I was like “Oh, but this is a really old one.”  And my stylist was like, “Isn’t she only three weeks old?  How is it a really old one?”  And I was like, “It’s from like two weeks ago.”  She thought that was really funny, that a picture that was two weeks old would seem really old to me.  And I guess that does sound kind of funny, but when you’re only a few weeks old, two weeks is a long time!  
**  Yesterday I saw out the window that the trees were really blowing around, so we went outside so that Paisley could experience WIND.  For the first time.  She didn’t know what wind was, because she had never felt it before.  (It surprised her!)  Weird.