for those that are keeping track

He slept from 11pm to 6am today. Very exciting.

The Battle for Sleep

It's hard to believe that 3 weeks have past since my last post. The days seem to flow together these days--with the exception from visits and occasional trips out--I don't really remember one day from the other.

Since my last post, Baby P has learned to smile, laugh, coo, and lift his head at a 45 degree angle. I never imagined that a smile could be so breathtaking.

Over here at overanalyzinglife, I have more time than ever to overthink things as I feed the baby. I manage to create issues out of positive things--such as, "do I have an overly perfect baby?" or "should I downplay how great he is as to not make other new moms jealous?"Yes, these are neurotic thoughts....but that is no surprise. With the sleep deprivation, I have turned to watching Friends again. It stops me from dwelling and it is absolutely entertaining. I have watched seasons 5-10--except for season 6 as a neglectful friend still has that--and today I started up season 1. I had to fire it up because of the battle last night.

Baby P went to sleep at 11pm, only to wake up at 2am. Much discussion was had when we "put him down" (I am trying to think of other phrases, because everytime I say that I envision a dog at a pet hospital, and it isn't pretty), as to whether or not he was swaddled tight enough.
At 2am, he confirmed that he was not swaddled tight enough and I went to fix it. I was thankful that he actually went back to sleep.....until 3am.

At 3am, he awoke...again agitated because he was not swaddled tight enough. I finally figured out what was going on with the silly swaddling blanket and then he actually went back to sleep....until 4:30am.

At 4:30am, he awoke...this time I guess he was expecting a little "pick me up" to get him through till 7ish. However, I really want him to start learning how to sleep through the night...so I let him cry. It was not pleasant, but we got through it. After a bit of crying (I won't post the amount of minutes here to avoid judgment), I went in there and gave him his pacifier...which he actually took. That was pretty exciting, as it said to me that he wasn't hungry, he just needed to have his oral fixation satiated (hope that didn't sound too Freudian). So..he dozed..and I stayed up, watching the baby monitor to see when he would wake up. I watched for an hour.

I ended up sleeping from 5:30 to 6:30am...when he awoke, and I took pity on the little man and fed him. He did really well, all things considered (did I mention it was about 75 degrees in our house?). A quick aside--it ended up being a good thing that he was not swaddled tight enough--because it showed me that he can fall back asleep in the middle of the night.

...then I had to have a phone meeting for work at 8:30am. I almost canceled it, but I decided to suck it up and do it anyway. It wasn't so bad. And thankfully, Mike had today off so I was able to sleep a little bit more during the day.

I hope tonight goes better.

It was my intention to write this post with a military theme (hence the title). To make Baby P a "Private P" and myself the Sgt. or whatever...but my brain can't be that creative at the moment to carry it out. So I will just mention the burst of creativity to the reader and hope it is appreciated.

Problem-Solving

My friend told me today that I could call her back and "troubleshoot" some more ideas on how to handle a cranky and fussy Baby P if I wanted. That got me thinking that my new job is quite similar to my other one. With the job I get paid $ for, I have to solve problems everyday. They mostly involve placating customers or researching how an order could have gotten messed up.

One of my sister-in-laws told me that working and managing others was good training for motherhood. I never really believed her until lately....today I worked on placating Baby P and researching how or why he was messed up. Of course, the sleep deprivation and my laryngitis (yes....fun times here) didn't help things and I don't think I have reached any solid conclusions...other than he is just having a tough day. Oh well. There have been plenty of work problems that never reached solid conclusions either.

Tummy Time

Well, it is not a perfectly framed picture, but you get the idea. I was quite nervous for some reason to start this practice of "Tummy Time." For some reason I thought that he would hate it. And he did pretty well for about 10 minutes. I was shooting for 5. Is it possible for a 3 week old person to teach a 30 year old something?
I guess I thought the whole thing was going to be a more complex endeavor than it turned out to be. I am hoping for more of those moments and not vice versa. :)

Babymoon?

Someone recently sent me an e-mail with the advice to "enjoy your babymoon." I had never heard this phrase before. Have you? Although I decided it was definitely one of the most cheesy phrases I have ever heard--it did cause me to stop and reflect on how nice these past 2 weeks of motherhood have been.

I am so thankful that the Lord has been so merciful to me thus far in terms of any kind of postpartum depression. I have had some tough days for sure, but nothing like what I thought it was going to be like. I am really grateful to have an understanding company that will allow me to take some much needed time off to recover from surgery and to just enjoy being a mom.

So...I may not ever wish someone a happy babymoon due to the cheese factor--but I might be thinking it....

DINK Woman Walking and other musings

I felt like Sean Penn in the movie, "Dead Man Walking," except I wasn't headed to a lethal injection.

I was headed to a c-section. For whatever reason, the hospital staff makes you walk to your surgery. I found that funny, as they insist you ride out of the hospital in a wheelchair. I was told at 12 noon on March 5th that I would be needing a c-section, so I had 5 hours to sit and think about my last few moments as a DINK (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DINKY).

When my sister and I arrived at the hospital room, we flicked on the television. She began to channel surf--but the first channel we came to had Little House on the Prairie. A staple in my television viewing, I insisted no further surfing was necessary--this was the channel to view. As it turned out, the plot line centered on Mary Ingalls giving birth. My sister and I found this pretty entertaining. Mary's water broke and she summoned Adam to get a doctor. 2 minutes later they cut to her holding the baby. They didn't even have the labor scenes....maybe those were not allowed in the 70's....

It was strange to sit there and know that there was a known time-line to this big transition in my life. I had not expected to know the "day and hour." I had been prepared for a natural birth and thought that it would happen at any moment. But, God is perfect and His timing is perfect. And so, as 5 o'clock neared, I tried to embrace the last moments of my old self-centered life and looked forward to the new (who are we kidding, the new life will still involves self-centeredness, but there is a huge chunk of myself that will be dedicated to another person).

I trudged into the surgery room, where they make you lie down on a table very similar to the one that Sean Penn spreads his arms on in the movie (at least that is how my dramatic mind remembers it). Your arms are spread wide, the blue sheet comes up, and the doctors go to work.


It feels strange as the drugs do their thing and you try to remain as alert as possible so that you can try to enjoy as much as possible the arrival of the baby. Looking back on the experience, this was the hardest part for me. My hands were numb so when they put our son on my chest, I couldn't feel his body. I do remember thinking, "he is cute." I am not sure what I was expecting--I just remember thinking that he was pretty good looking for a newborn. I wonder if all moms think this?


I watched my husband and my mom look at him and take pictures. And then they whisked him away to give baby P a bath and the other stuff.

It is great to be out of the hospital now and transition into our new phase of life. Baby P is the model baby thus far. He cries, sleeps, and eats when he is supposed to. We are so blessed. I don't deserve such a perfect baby. I am so thankful for God's protective hand on Baby P in the womb.

We have been having a great time studying God's handiwork. M was very excited to see that their hands had the same unusual line on their palms.

I'm already enjoyed my new job even more than I could have imagined. It can be challenging, but I am finally understanding everyone's comments about parenthood.

I feel honored to be Baby P's mother and I hope that I can do all that God has called me to do in raising him.

Speaking of which, today we baptized him at church. It was a wonderful and energy-depleting day all rolled into one. I was so nervous as to how things would go--the feedings, the changing, getting into and out of the car. I tried to enjoy the actual event as much as possible.

It was also really nice to have some of the same people that were at our wedding attend the baptism. They are all such special friends to us.

So, I will try to be more faithful in posting.

A++++++++++++++

I passed my glucose test!! All four of my blood draws were way below the maximum level of 140. I am pretty relieved.