Monday, August 31, 2009

A coma would be a welcome relief.

I know. In my last post I said I was going to start blogging regularly again. That was five weeks ago. The truth is- life with a new baby is harder than I thought it would be. I was full of aspirations of all the things I would accomplish once I was a stay-at-home mom. How much time could a newborn consume really? Sleep. Eat. Sleep. Eat. Finally, I was going to have time to do all of the things I couldn’t when I was working full-time. Wait. Let’s stop there. When I was working full-time. Like that was going to change once Drew was born. My job before now seems like an eight-year vacation.

There have been times when I thought I was tired. I thought I was tired during pregnancy. I’d fall asleep at my desk during the day and crash on the couch once I got home. THAT wasn’t tired. That was Tired giving me a little bear hug. Then Drew arrived and Tired bitch-slapped me in the face. Normally I would fight back, but I’ve spent the last two and half months crying in the corner from the red welt on my cheek.

Up until last week, Drew was waking every two hours during the night to be fed. It would take approximately 30 minutes to feed, burp, and change him before putting him back to sleep. I have never claimed to be a math genius, but let me do that equation for you. That leaves an hour and a half of sleep between feedings. Tired stood beside my bed like an abusive pimp. Now, the boy is sleeping in four-hour segments. That may not seem like much- especially when I keep reading on message boards about other babies his age who are sleeping 10 hours at a time- but when you’re so tired you wake up in bed looking for the baby you think you have in your arms and you can’t remember what you did with him, sleeping four hours feels like a mild coma.

All that to say- I am starting to adjust to doing life with a baby. He’s going to bed earlier and I’m finding myself with at least 2-3 hours of non-baby time each night. Granted, I spend most of it doing laundry, dishes, ironing, or scrubbing the bathroom floor, but I’m trying to discipline and balance my time so I can share all of my random babble and much a do about nothing with you, internet.

My goal this week is to post at least two entries in addition to this little update. We’re heading out to MN on Thursday, so that will be an accomplishment in a short week- unless I postdate some entries. But let’s not get crazy. One day at a time. Now, I have to run and jump in bed and savor the hour I have left before the boy should wake.