Longish parenthood update
Sep. 15th, 2005 09:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
percivalMy husband has our daughter, so I have some ... time to myself! Yes! Time in which to write a parenting update.
First, I'd like to protocol today, so that I have a reminder of what life was like when she was 5.5 weeks old:
3.30: first waking, after she fell asleep at 11pm. Feed for 15 minutes, then rest.
5.30: She is fussing. I feed her, but she still fusses when my husband tries to put her back to sleep. Ergo, he changes her nappy. Bad idea - her nose was clogged, so she needed some time upright to sneeze it out. As a result, she needs to feed another time, and produces a dirty nappy.
7.00: fuss and feed. my husband gets up and brings me breakfast. mum and daughter eat together :)
9.15: after several more cycles of fussing and feeding while I read Tom Strong's Terrific Tales (an Alan Moore comic), she is settled enough for me to go fetch the car seat and carry her to the bathroom, where i proceed to shower, with two small eyes watching me intently
9.50: set up computer
10.05: post-natal doula arrives & sets to work with laundry and cooking
10.10: daughter is hungry. I send out 15 flickr invites and surf the web one handed while she feeds intermittently
11.30: time for a new nappy
11.40: have a quick hot lunch while the doula plays with the baby. Baby doesn't really like being on her back, and is not really interested in her book or her butterfly (yes, THAT butterfly,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
piperx), even though she played beautifully with her butterfly yesterday. Well, she looked at it with interest and grabbed the rings.
12.10: back to nursing
13.00: get ready to leave the house and see the health visitor to get baby weighed and measured, wiht baby in sling.
13.50: arrive at GP practice and take up seat in the waiting room. Baby decides it's time for another feed, so I let another mum take precedence.
14.20: When it's her turn, she makes a minimal fuss when weighed, but protests at being measured. She howls when I dress her again, and her protests only subside after two minutes walking in the sling. Decide to go to shopping centre to cheer myself up.
15.00: browsing while baby sleeps.
15.50: pop into Marks and Spencer's for bread. As I approach the bread bar, she wakes up and starts to howl. So pitifully that another woman lets me jump the queue at the till with my single loaf of bread. I rush to the family area where I can nurse her and read the magazines I bought at WH Smith in anticipation.
16.10: baby calms down. Too late, we're nearly there. And once she's woken up again, she nurses like a champ. I read the Radio Times.
16.35: nappy change
16.40: howls of protest at being put back in the sling. another nursing session.
17.15: I leave to run my last errand (getting christmas presents for the daughter of friends of ours and our niece) and catch the bus home
18.15: dinner; baby is fast asleep in the sling.
19.30: monty python's flying circus starts on telly. baby needs to nurse.
20.15: nursing session finished. we play on the floor for a bit.
20.25: we need more food!
20.55: I bring baby to my husband to play. COMPUTER TIME!
21.50: baby wants her nightcap
22.00: she falls asleep at the breast
Parenthood is so strange and wonderful. All the bits I dreaded are less bad than I thought. I've been spat, shat, weed and dribbled on, and I didn't mind a bit. I need to clean up after her because she can't do it herself, period. Being on duty 24/7 is much less daunting than I anticipated. The key ingredient here is a husband who will fix dinner when he gets home, look after baby while I do chores or relax, and massage my feet when I give her the last feed of the night. Girls, if you ever get married, that's the kind of man whose babies you want to have. But it also helps that she is just so fascinating. I stare at her a lot, interact with her, talk to her. She is very close to me and close to my heart. Finally, the crying. It is incredibly tiring to hear your child cry. Even so, from a source I can't quite fathom, I usually get enough strength to talk to her and reassure her that I am there for her. When I'm really stretched, I just sit with her and hold her. I figure that if she's already lost it, it won't help if I lose it, too. Poor wee soul is just starting to make sense of the world, after all.
Everything is filtered through the baby lens now. When I'm out and about, I have this sixth sense with which I scan the world around me for potential danger. I worry about things that might happen to her. I am more conscious of the environment, of the heritage I'll leave my daughter. I eat more healthily.
Oh, and routines? My girl doesn't have a routine, but she's predictable in other ways. When I'm out with her in the sling, she will sleep for 1.5-2 hours at a time if I leave her in it. If not in the sling, she'll sleep 1 hour max at home during the day. Her cycles now are eat-activity-eat-sleep, with some more activity-eat thrown in if she's snuffly or awake or cluster-feeding in the evening. When she gets hungry and I'm not at home, I grab the nearest convenient seat and whip out my breast. I hope that I have discreet breastfeeding sorted by now; being able to feed my girl wherever whenever in public is one of the greatest advantages of breastfeeding.
First, I'd like to protocol today, so that I have a reminder of what life was like when she was 5.5 weeks old:
3.30: first waking, after she fell asleep at 11pm. Feed for 15 minutes, then rest.
5.30: She is fussing. I feed her, but she still fusses when my husband tries to put her back to sleep. Ergo, he changes her nappy. Bad idea - her nose was clogged, so she needed some time upright to sneeze it out. As a result, she needs to feed another time, and produces a dirty nappy.
7.00: fuss and feed. my husband gets up and brings me breakfast. mum and daughter eat together :)
9.15: after several more cycles of fussing and feeding while I read Tom Strong's Terrific Tales (an Alan Moore comic), she is settled enough for me to go fetch the car seat and carry her to the bathroom, where i proceed to shower, with two small eyes watching me intently
9.50: set up computer
10.05: post-natal doula arrives & sets to work with laundry and cooking
10.10: daughter is hungry. I send out 15 flickr invites and surf the web one handed while she feeds intermittently
11.30: time for a new nappy
11.40: have a quick hot lunch while the doula plays with the baby. Baby doesn't really like being on her back, and is not really interested in her book or her butterfly (yes, THAT butterfly,
piperx), even though she played beautifully with her butterfly yesterday. Well, she looked at it with interest and grabbed the rings. 12.10: back to nursing
13.00: get ready to leave the house and see the health visitor to get baby weighed and measured, wiht baby in sling.
13.50: arrive at GP practice and take up seat in the waiting room. Baby decides it's time for another feed, so I let another mum take precedence.
14.20: When it's her turn, she makes a minimal fuss when weighed, but protests at being measured. She howls when I dress her again, and her protests only subside after two minutes walking in the sling. Decide to go to shopping centre to cheer myself up.
15.00: browsing while baby sleeps.
15.50: pop into Marks and Spencer's for bread. As I approach the bread bar, she wakes up and starts to howl. So pitifully that another woman lets me jump the queue at the till with my single loaf of bread. I rush to the family area where I can nurse her and read the magazines I bought at WH Smith in anticipation.
16.10: baby calms down. Too late, we're nearly there. And once she's woken up again, she nurses like a champ. I read the Radio Times.
16.35: nappy change
16.40: howls of protest at being put back in the sling. another nursing session.
17.15: I leave to run my last errand (getting christmas presents for the daughter of friends of ours and our niece) and catch the bus home
18.15: dinner; baby is fast asleep in the sling.
19.30: monty python's flying circus starts on telly. baby needs to nurse.
20.15: nursing session finished. we play on the floor for a bit.
20.25: we need more food!
20.55: I bring baby to my husband to play. COMPUTER TIME!
21.50: baby wants her nightcap
22.00: she falls asleep at the breast
Parenthood is so strange and wonderful. All the bits I dreaded are less bad than I thought. I've been spat, shat, weed and dribbled on, and I didn't mind a bit. I need to clean up after her because she can't do it herself, period. Being on duty 24/7 is much less daunting than I anticipated. The key ingredient here is a husband who will fix dinner when he gets home, look after baby while I do chores or relax, and massage my feet when I give her the last feed of the night. Girls, if you ever get married, that's the kind of man whose babies you want to have. But it also helps that she is just so fascinating. I stare at her a lot, interact with her, talk to her. She is very close to me and close to my heart. Finally, the crying. It is incredibly tiring to hear your child cry. Even so, from a source I can't quite fathom, I usually get enough strength to talk to her and reassure her that I am there for her. When I'm really stretched, I just sit with her and hold her. I figure that if she's already lost it, it won't help if I lose it, too. Poor wee soul is just starting to make sense of the world, after all.
Everything is filtered through the baby lens now. When I'm out and about, I have this sixth sense with which I scan the world around me for potential danger. I worry about things that might happen to her. I am more conscious of the environment, of the heritage I'll leave my daughter. I eat more healthily.
Oh, and routines? My girl doesn't have a routine, but she's predictable in other ways. When I'm out with her in the sling, she will sleep for 1.5-2 hours at a time if I leave her in it. If not in the sling, she'll sleep 1 hour max at home during the day. Her cycles now are eat-activity-eat-sleep, with some more activity-eat thrown in if she's snuffly or awake or cluster-feeding in the evening. When she gets hungry and I'm not at home, I grab the nearest convenient seat and whip out my breast. I hope that I have discreet breastfeeding sorted by now; being able to feed my girl wherever whenever in public is one of the greatest advantages of breastfeeding.
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Date: 2005-09-15 09:52 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2005-09-16 12:04 am (UTC)I forgot to answer your last post about pictures - I'd love to see pictures, if you'll show them to me... my email is eline at bifrost dot is.
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Date: 2005-09-16 07:30 am (UTC)Exactly. And this new lens doesn't go away. Well, it doesn't go away for at least *counts* 7½ years, anyway.
*hugs*
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