All Worth It

I just woke up from a nap...I have never been a good napper - on occasion, yes, but never one to want to nap every day. My husband, on the other hand, is a great napper. I truly believe that he thinks weekends were made for naps. Don't get me wrong, we do a lot on the weekend - take the dogs to the flea market, take them swimming, clean house - It's no wonder he needs a nap after all that activity. But while he naps, I usually surf the internet, organize or just sit and watch TV.

This has all changed. I am a mega-napper now. My co-workers would argue that point since they see me emailing them at various times throughout the day just to make sure that I don't let things fall through the cracks! But, truly, I nap now. In fact, one might say that I no longer "go to bed" at night - I just take a series of 2 and 3 hour naps all evening in between feeding Emily.

During these nap times in the evening from 10:00 pm - 8:00 am, I wake up repeatedly thinking that I have forgotten to put her in her bassinet and I search frantically for her in bed. She is always in her bassinet and I should just learn to look there first! I have heard that I am not the only one who has this feeling. I also wake up thinking that I have just finished feeding her only to realize that I haven't even started yet.

We are a week and a half in and I am not really sure where to begin. Emily is a great sleeper - for two and three hour shifts - perhaps I should say she is also a good "napper." So far she has cried for two reasons: Being naked and being hungry. Dan says that he is going to try to keep her crying every time her clothes come off until she is 25. We'll see how that works out for him. In the evenings, our routine goes something like this:
9:30 eat
10:00 - new diaper
10:00-12:30 - sleep
12:30 - eat (this is usually a long eating period for some reason)
1:15 - new diaper
1:15-1:30 - rocked back to sleep
1:30-4:00 - sleep
4:00 - eat while we listen to daddy snore
4:30 - new diaper
4:30 - 7:30 - sleep
7:30/8:00 - eat

It's not a bad schedule. The first few nights, Dan was getting up with each feeding because it was difficult for me to sit up and get her out of the bassinet. But now that I am moving around a lot better, Dan is sleeping through the feedings better.

So what have I learned in the past week and a half:
1) Always have the new diaper ready before you take the old diaper off - this will prevent having to clean the receiving blanket or the furniture from the unexpected pee or poop.

2) The nipple soreness from breast feeding does eventually get better...

3) Do not weigh yourself the day you get home from the hospital. You will only be disappointed

4) Think very carefully before you come downstairs for the day and make sure you have everything you need for the day so that you don't have to make multiple trips up and down stairs

5) Always have a back up outfit for the day - there will be spit up

6) Along those same lines, don't burp without a burp cloth...it will end badly

7) No matter what, visitors always want to wake up the baby...Why is this? Do they not understand how precious that time is while she is sleeping?

8) I thought I had strange dreams during the pregnancy...now the dreams are borderline insane...perhaps this is part sleep deprivation.

All joking aside, this is awesome. I know that there will be good times with the bad, but this whole experience has been worth it. From all the worry and fretting during the pregnancy to holding her in the wee hours of the morning, waiting for her to shut her eyes again and go to sleep - and then lowering her slowly into the bassinet praying that her eyes don't open again, less we have to start the whole process over again. It is all worth it.