Three weeks at home and over 7 pounds but still a week before his due date. What does that mean? He is just like any full term baby you bring home from the hospital. We've just had a few extra weeks of warm up. And as Miles nears term, he becomes well, less like that sweet little quiet baby we got to know so well. He cries louder, fusses longer, refuses to sleep, and wakes up before the alarm during the night. All this makes it much, much harder to keep to our schedule (thank you for NICU for that!) and reduces our already limited sleep.
This is the first full week Dave has been back at work, leaving me home to care for Miles all day. How hard could that be, really? I should have time to go to the store, organize our finances, put together Miles' baby book, clean the house, and of course, make dinner. And somewhere in there, take a nap to make up for the 4 hours of fractured sleep I get each night.
Ah, you might say, "Welcome to parenthood!" We get it and finally all of those books and pieces of advice make sense. Last night, we watched, The Happiest Baby on the Block, a gift from Susan and Eric West. At the time, they told us of the Five S's and we tried to make sense of it but as they said at the time, watch the DVD after the baby is home and it will be very clear to you. And indeed, they were right. The 5 S's for the record are: Swaddle, Side or Stomach, Shush, Swinging, and Sucking - all meant to mimic the womb environment. After a few days of our previously content baby overcome by screaming, gas, and basic fussiness, he was calm in minutes and slept peacefully during the night, until it was time to feed him. And we had to wake him up!
So, as the week ends, things are looking up. I successfully took Miles to the eye doctor (his eyes are just fine!), visited Day One for a weekly weigh in, and enjoyed a long walk in Golden Gate Park with another new mom I met through Golden Gate Mothers Group, learning the truthfulness of another repeated piece of advice - when all else fails, put him in the car seat!
Still to be done - the cooking, cleaning and organizing.
2 comments:
Congrats on making it through the NICU journey! Gabi has finally found the perfect Piggy-like solution for Miles.
Okay -- that picture of the two of you is precious, but the picture with the dog? OUTSTANDING.
I've moved on from Karp to Weissbluth... about to start keeping a sleep log.
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