Month: June 2008

Answer: Asleep! (For now, anyway.) And even better, neither he nor I nor the house have caught on fire, fallen into the sea, or anything similarly disastrous.
Today marks a pretty big milestone: Margot had to fly to Seattle for work, and she’s no doubt in the air right now, nearing San Jose. The Squirrelmaster General and I have been kicking it bachelor-style since, oh, 4:40am, ably assisted during the day by Carol.
Tonight I took the small guy on an hour-long walk, bathed him on my own, and got him down to rest (albeit after some false starts and rookie moves by dad; those PJ’s are just *not* gonna go on properly). Who knew that the developmental milestones we’d be celebrating would be mine? 😉

This week marks my second week back at work, and also the passage of my 36th birthday*. The number 36 has been much harder for me to deal with than the mental and emotional challenges of being back at work! I knew I was of “advanced maternal age” while I was pregnant, but somehow, being 36 puts me unequivocally in my Late Thirties. Not something I’m super excited about.
Transitioning back to work has gone relatively smoothly. I was really dreading leaving my little Finn with someone else during the day, and worrying about how he’d deal with the transition. I’m sure this is true for all working moms, and it’s probably harder on the mom than the baby.
The good news is, both he and I are doing really well with it. Our babysitter Carol (not a Nanny, but closer to a surrogate Granny) is terrific, and she and Finn get along like gangbusters. Plus, I get to see Finn at lunchtime, which is nice for the both of us. And knowing that Finn is in really good hands lets my brain focus on work, and I am glad to be back, having just taken on a new, challenging assignment that will demand a lot of my gray matter.
* Meanwhile Finn turned 100–days old, that is.
[PS: Speaking of Carol, here are a pair of shots of the two of them in action. 😉 –J.]

…and hello sleep-deprivation!
Well, it’s official. Finn is now waaaaay too big, even for the Amazing Miracle Blanket we’ve been using to swaddle him for sleep. He keeps busting out of it Incredible Hulk-style, with arms and legs akimbo after only an hour or two in bed. He wakes himself up as he struggles to get untangled, so we’ve decided just to quit swaddling cold turkey.

So the upside is, our little guy is growing up! And the downside is, he probably won’t sleep quite so long or soundly without the confines of the swaddling…with his arms free, he’s more prone to waking himself up or thinking that it’s playtime instead of sleeptime. We got our first taste of this last night, with several wakenings after his 8:30 bedtime (9:30, 10:15, 1:15).

The other factor playing into Mom and Dad’s sleep deprivation is the fact that Finn’s sleeping pattern is evolving, and when he partially wakes in between deep sleep cycles, he’s more awake and often doesn’t resettle very easily. So we SWAT team him with shushing and the pacifier in hopes of getting him back to sleep before he gets a second wind. This is harder during the day/naptime when his room is lighter and there’s more to look at when his eyes open. We had a weekend full of 35-minute naps and unsuccessful attempts to get him to roll over and go back to sleep. So we’re working on it, and believe me, it takes a LOT of patience to try and settle a wakeful, unhappy-about-still-being-in-the-crib baby. For 30 minutes of trying, you may get nowhere, or you may get another 1/2 hour of sleeping. Our babysitter Carol is also doing her part to help get Finn to resettle himself without so much intervention, and we’ll be giving her a Presidential Patience Medal, too!

As a new mom, I have started keeping a mental tally of so-called “losses” related to pregnancy. Some are welcome and expected, others…well, not so much.
Post-pregnancy weight loss? Hooray! I’ll take more of that, please. 35 lbs in one week must be a record, and I have continued to slowly shed the remaining extra 10 lbs of pregnancy weight thanks to breastfeeding.
Losing pregnancy-related constant heartburn? Thank goodness. I was about to become a major shareholder in Gaviscon, but once Finn was born, my heartburn was over.
Losing what seems to be a ton of my hair? No, gracias! This part sucks! Apparently when you’re pregnant, you stop shedding hair. But a few months after you give birth, all that hair you didn’t shed for 9 months starts coming out by the handful. I shed so much I could start my own wig factory! I’m surprised I actually have any hair left, but I guess to the casual observer I look just fine.
Losing sleep? Well, no one’s a big fan of that, but what are you gonna do? Finn’s actually doing really well here, sleeping longer and longer at night, which is a blessing for all of us, so I can’t really complain.