Tuesday, December 1, 2015

4 weeks tomorrow

Oh, man, I've forgotten a bit about what life is like with a newborn.  I realized I never told you his name, so here is a (badly written) acrostic so you know what it is:

Ah, my sweet little boy, so happy
Unless your diaper is being changed or you're hungry
Get lots of hugs and kisses from your brother and sister
Usually spend your time sleeping or eating
So cute and squishy, like a newborn should be
This little baby that has been given to me.

I haven't gotten much done lately - this baby wants to be with me always.  He nurses and falls asleep, and I've finally stopped just holding him all the time and started putting him down so I can do some chores.  He doesn't sleep too long when I do that, but I manage to accomplish a bit.  Then he wakes up and wants to nurse again.  Which is fine, but I would like him to spend some awake time without crying or eating, and I'm not sure how to get him to do that.  This newborn time with the twins is sort of fuzzy for me now.

Tomorrow I'm planning to go to the new parents support group for the first time with Gecko baby.  I'm really looking forward to it.  And next week is my follow-up with the midwife, so I want to find out about exercise.  I'm ready to start getting back into shape soon, which means I'll probably have to work on my diet a bit, too.  The holidays are not really the time to start thinking about that!  He'll be two months old just after New Years, so that might be the best time to set a firm deadline.  It's weird to think that I can finally climb again!  And swim soon, too, although that will be tough with nursing.  I do plan to go to Mamma and Baby yoga, try to do some exercise at home, and aim for daily walks in our greenbelt.

I have turned into the crunchy mama I've always wanted to be.  I'm not doing baby carrying as much as I'd like, since Gecko doesn't seem to really love it.  But I am breastfeeding on demand and co-sleeping (which was unplanned, it just sort of happened to help facilitate the breastfeeding), and I'm generally loving both of those things.  I do hope to move Gecko to the co-sleeper for at least part of the night soon, because after the first 3 or 4 hours I don't sleep that well with him in bed with me.  Our queen bed is a bit small for the three of us.

My goals for the next 4 weeks or so are to start moving towards a better schedule with Gecko baby, start getting regular exercise, start pumping a bit of extra milk for my friend with a special needs baby, work on baby carrying, and a million other chores!  In any case, Gecko baby is sleeping on me right now, but I have plenty of things to be doing and dinner to get on the table soon.  So I'll sign off for now.  But here is a quick picture of little Gecko on his birthday.  Enjoy!