A day with a newborn

I always wondered what exactly it would be like to take care of a baby day in and day out. For all my childless friends out there who wonder the same thing, here's how my day usually goes:

12 AM:Change and feed Perrin and attempt to go back to sleep.

3 AM: Change and feed Perrin and attempt to go back to sleep.

6 AM: Change and feed Perrin and attempt to go back to sleep.

7 AM-9 AM: Perrin usually sleeps pretty well through the morning, so I sleep in too. I've always been a morning person and generally never slept past 7 or 7:30. Those days are gone. If Perrin is sleeping in, I'm sleeping in.

9 AM: Time to get out of bed. Hopefully Perrin is still sleeping, which gives me a little time to take a shower before he wakes up ready to eat again.

9:15 AM: It's inevitable: halfway through the shower, Perrin wakes up crying. I rinse off, jump out of the shower, speed dry, and rush into the nursery. He's in desperate need of a diaper change and acts like he hasn't eaten in ages. Oh, and he's managed to leak through his diaper, so I change his clothes too. And his sheets.

10 AM: Perrin is clean and fed. I'd really like to finish getting dressed, brush my teeth, and grab a quick bite to eat for breakfast... or at least a glass of juice if breakfast is out of the question. Perrin is wide awake and not interested in staying in his crib. I attempt to put him in his swing, but he's been alone all night and is ready to be held and cuddled... and what the boss wants, the boss gets.

10 AM-12 PM: I check a few emails, catch up with friends on Facebook,and read the news online. I mostly do it one-handed so I can hold Perrin. This will be easier once he can hold his head up on his own. I take breaks from the computer to change him and feed him again. If he gets fussy, I'll walk around the house with him. That seems to calm him down.

12:30 PM: He's asleep! Praise the Lord! I may or may not have had time for breakfast, but either way, I'm hungry. I grab a quick bite to eat, and since Perrin is still asleep, I also throw together a load of laundry and run the dishwasher. If he's still asleep after all that, I just might sit down to do something mundane and enjoyable, like reading or updating my blog.

2 PM: Perrin wakes up and needs to be changed and fed again.

3 PM: Tummy time! I place Perrin on a blanket on the floor and let him squirm around on his belly. It's good exercise for him and will help him develop the muscles he needs to crawl. He really looks like he's trying to go somewhere. Maybe he'll be an early crawler.

4 PM: Time to feed and change him again.

4:30 PM: Trey is home! Time for some father-son snuggle time while I sort through the mail and do some light housework. If Trey's lucky, I might consider making something for dinner.

6 PM: We try to coax Perrin to sleep so that we can have a quiet dinner together. No such luck. I end up holding him with one hand (awkwardly) and eating with the other (also awkwardly... and trying my hardest not to drop food particles on Perrin's head). Some days he'll let us put him in his swing while we eat. Strange how much I enjoy just being able to savor my food and talk to Trey during dinner time--something I really took for granted before!

6:30 PM: Time to feed and change him again.

7:30 PM: Bath time! Perrin hates baths, but I love when he smells all clean and fresh. Plus he looks super cute bundled up in his hooded towel.

8:30 PM: We try to get Perrin to go to sleep for the night, but he's crying. We swaddle him, carry him around, feed him again, then let him snuggle in our bed with us while we read for a bit. If we're lucky, he'll get nice and sleepy and we can put him down for the night. If we're not lucky, we might end up carrying him around for quite awhile until he's cried enough to wear himself out. At some point, he does fall asleep.

That's my day in a nutshell. Taking care of a newborn is definitely a full-time job!

The unexpected

We've survived a little over a week with a newborn, and we must be doing an okay job as parents--Perrin seems to be a perfectly healthy, happy little baby. And I must say, I'm really enjoying being a mom! It's been a big adjustment though, obviously. And in some ways it's been different from what I expected it to be. Here are just a few examples.

I didn't expect...

1. That Perrin would always wait until we removed his diaper to decide to pee. I'd heard that baby boys would sometimes do this; I just didn't think we'd have to be on constant alert for it. It's a little embarrassing when we take him to the pediatrician for a weight check and he sprays down the entire room (including me and the diaper bag).

2. That I would keep forgetting we have a dog. People say that having a baby will make you love your pets less. But Trey and I talked a lot before Perrin was born about how we would make Molly feel like she's still a part of the family. We vowed we would pay her lots of attention and treat her extra nice while she was getting used to sharing the house with a baby. But I keep waking up in the morning and completely forgetting that there's a dog somewhere that needs to be fed and taken outside occasionally. Poor Molly.

3. That my life would be so consumed with nursing. Babies have to eat about every 2-3 hours.Perrin sometimes eats even more frequently than that, and since it takes a good 30 minutes each time, I feel like I'm feeding him constantly. The boy is going to be an eater...

4. That I would feel worried every time he sleeps for more than a couple hours and wonder if he's okay. Maybe it's just a jittery-new-parent thing, but I sometimes poke him a little until he moves just to make sure he's still alive and breathing. A couple months ago, I probably would have laughed at someone being so paranoid. But I caught Trey doing it today too, so I'm glad it's not just me.

5. That we would be blessed with the cutest, sweetest, most perfect little baby in the whole world! Okay, I might be a teensy bit biased, but seriously--Perrin is pretty special. I was always a little unsure about having kids. But I feel like Perrin is a gift that I never knew I always wanted.