Our baby girl is 3 wks old and filling out fast. She is a nursing machine and refuses all offers of the pacifier as though it was a torture device. Truly she appears horrified by the suggestion. She is thriving though and everyone is as enthralled with her as the day she was born.
We have begun doing errands again – Tess and I. Things are working out in that dept but we still don’t go out much. Sleep is elusive for the same reasons. I can’t always hop into bed when she does and I hate to have the other little ones be babysat for any longer than necessary. It is a baby year! That means that for us it will be spent close to home.
We missed the last mom’s coffee and the more I thought about it will likely miss the next as well. Allen was travelling and that meant leaving the kids with an older sibling. It was also an hr’s drive one way – on the day we already spend with piano and errands. The prospect of starting out the night exhausted is not tempting. I need to be prepared for a night that may be spent doing the baby dance – rocking, walking, singing, sighing, dozing.
I admit that every time we are in a baby year and I hear friends exclaim that they can’t possibly babydance through the night or day, that there is too much to do for that, that baby needs to adjust and self soothe, I DO start to second guess myself. Maybe this isn’t practical anymore. We DO have a lot to do. Does it really make that much difference anyway? We think that while its not terribly practical it is terribly important to us to respond to those baby signals. We put a lot of time into the infant stage but then are rewarded with very independent, content toddlers. Besides, there is a tiny tiny window in life to babydance. Before you know it that warm bundle is off and running and is far too busy for extended rocker time. : /
When I was a newer mom I figured out there was a vicious cycle that ensued when I tried to deny the demands of the baby year and attempted to carry on with the normal activity load. Not only do you miss this blink of time when they have wrinkly ankles and soft spots. But you get TIRED. So, when the baby hits a growth spurt or cuts teeth or whatnot its hard to be responsive. You can’t help but think of the next day’s schedule. By the time the next day’s schedule is finished you are sorely tempted to escape, leaving dad to a houseful of tired cranky kids. That escape brings you home more fatigued to a house that may well be totally offkilter by that time. It was so not worth it.
It has been a far better plan for me to keep our days low key. To spend them passing baby around, keeping house, reading books, and snatching whatever bits of time present themselves for a nap. We can start the night with a bit of reserve so that those fussy times don’t completely take us by surprise or foster resentment. This seems to benefit not just baby and I but the other kids too. They can keep a fairly calm routine and hopefully don’t have to experience "mom meltdown" too often. ; ) So here we stay. This would be why I email even our local friends! It’s a baby year.
These pics of Tess at 3 wks are less than clear but work by way of an update:
Starry Sky Journal 
Oh…what a sweet bundle! 🙂
One homeschooling mom I know refers to that time you call a baby year as “the time when a mom falls of the face of the earth.” I knew what she meant when she said it, because I’m one of those moms. However, she was using that reference in a kind of negative way, as though there is no reason to not continue a high-energy schedule with the arrival of a new family member.
Still, like you, I definitely see the benefit of keeping life low-key for a good time after the birth of a baby. That doesn’t mean, though, that baby doesn’t get worked into the family’s already established rhythm.
There is a time, I think, when these two rhythms–baby’s and family’s–are a bit out of sync. But living low-key helps these two rhythms to get in sync, and a new rhythm emerges.
This sounds so familiar, and so right on! baby dancing gives us opportunity for many things: praying over our family, singing songs to the Lord, and getting to know our little ones without the demands of the day interrupting. I’ve enjoyed 13 baby years so far, and I wouldn’t change them for the world! There are few pleasures on this world so divine–without guilt and with positive consequences.
ooohhhh what a precious bundle– three weeks old. So young, but so alert to her surroundings.
Look at those cheeks! She is adorable.
I’m not complaining as I say this because I am so very truly blessed with my boys…but oh, how I wish that I had had one baby born with nothing wrong with it, where I could have stayed at home, enjoying, immersing myself in family as you are doing now. It sounds so peaceful, divine. smile Praying you get a bit a sleep. love, Dani