First Week Home

Miles turned one week old yesterday. We've been home with him since Thursday afternoon - the weekend was awesome and felt like one big fun vacation. It was so nice to have Mr. I here with us. When you have two parents at home and nothing to do but take care of baby and try to catch naps, it's pretty easy going, even through the night.

But poor Mr. Ibis had to go back to work Monday morning, so we've tried to get into a bit more of a "routine," such as it is with a newborn. After a bumpy Sunday night, I told Mr. I that it would probably be easier for everyone if I just stay downstairs with baby and let him sleep at night. I'm not very good at nursing yet and I can't really do it in the dark or without a lot of shifting and fussing, plus I'm still drinking so much water that I usually need to pee when I get up with Miles - it's a lot of commotion when one person is trying to sleep. Mr. Ibis drives trucks and does a lot of heavy lifting at work, so it's neither safe nor practical for him to be severely sleep deprived during the day. And yet, we have always valued going to bed together at night. So our new habit is to go up to bed together, often nursing Miles at the time, sleep in bed for the first shift, and then the first time Miles wakes up I move my operation downstairs.

For the most part I am absolutely loving life with the baby. It's a pleasure and a joy to be with him all day. Even the sleep deprivation itself is not a huge deal to me. What's hard about this for me is still the breastfeeding. I read every book you could think of on breastfeeding and even took two breastfeeding classes while pregnant, but knowing the material intellectually only takes you so far. Trial and error is really the only way to get through it. Frustratingly, I would read in one book that it hurts at first, and in other that it's not supposed to if you're doing it right. I've come to the conclusion that both are true... most people don't get it right out of the gate, so it hurts at first. A lot, sometimes. I'll write another post about my learning lessons and tips another time but for now I'll say that's been my biggest challenge.

I have so many other things to write about - hospital bag tips, baby gear & clothing tips, the gory details of the birth & recovery, changes to my body, notes on being both wife and mother, and on and on. I also want to put up a one week post partum photo of myself, hopefully later today. For now I think I've done pretty well just getting this one up. Miles is napping in a baby wrap (highly recommend!!) and I need to take advantage of the hour or two before his next feeding to get a few other things done!