Newborn Parenting

….because sometimes reality looks like this

  Phew!  What a week.  I usually live for the weekend, but this weekend Alan had to work on Saturday too, leaving me looking like John David does in the photo above!  With Alan gone 11 hours/day and my mom gone, and still in recovery from the c-section, this week was one I will choose to never remember.

   Next week doesn’t look much better, but at least it will end at Friday.

  I have a theory, which I have not researched at all (except for personal experience, 4 times!), that one reason we do not remember these first weeks of the baby’s life is that we are so sleep deprived that our brain can’t convert our short term memories into long term ones.  IF I were an employed psychologist, which I am not, I would want to research that.  They say that there is also a hormone that aids in the forgetting, I don’t know.  I just know that a whole lot of the life I am currently living will soon be hard to recall.

  John David did something to me this week that babies sometimes do.  He suddenly slept a six hour stretch, the next night a 5 hour, and then LAST NIGHT he went back to waking up every two-and-one-half-hours……grrrrr

   Plus Alan left the house for work at 4AM this morning–you can’t make this stuff up–so trust me when I tell you that you would NOT have wanted to run into grouchy postpartum April today.  I just feel sorry for my children, who had no choice.

  We did take a few photos of the good parts of the week:

 This is something that seems to be unique to brothers.  Girls do not do this patting each other on the bottom thing.  Perhaps we’ve let them watch too much football.

 Daniel still adores Bobby.  This is Daniel getting a burp cloth ready to cover Bobby with, like a blanket.  I have so many pictures of Joshua and Caleb at this age that look exactly like this.

 Alan has shared his love of Eggos with all the boys, except Joshua who won’t touch them.

 Every thing Caleb reads or sees on t.v. becomes very inspirational to him.  This is Caleb asking to build a treehouse like Froggy did.

Caleb has spent this whole week in “Toy Story” world.  He has collected every Toy Story toy he has, and he carts them around the house in a box and a garbage bag.  He labeled the box “1st grade”, just as Andy had a box labeled “college” in the third movie.  He kept asking to put his toys in the attic, so finally I showed him a spot in the basement that he can pretend is the attic.

Joshua has informed that there’s a Toy Story 6, where Bonnie goes to college.

 …trying to capture the whole scene with only one hand…kind of impossible

 and precious photos of my 5 week old

Believe it or not, our favorite photographer Christopher came over this week and took JD’s picture, but we haven’t gotten to see those yet.  JD wasn’t very well behaved for that photo shoot.  We would take a picture, pick him up and calm him down, take a picture, pick him up and calm him down….you get the idea.

 This picture could be ANY of my children.  It’s like I keep having this same baby.  ; )  That outfit has been worn by all three of them, I think. I know Joshua wore it anyway.

This morning I turned on Toy Story 3 for the boys (have you noticed that’s the theme this summer?), and I went upstairs to take care of the baby.  I came down to find the camera in the floor.  Caleb and Daniel had taken lots of photos of themselves, the t.v., and the floor.

gee, I wonder who took that photo.

  Sometimes I say, “I know it sounds rough, but don’t worry, we’ll be okay.”

   I’m not saying that today.  Please worry and pray for us.  Ha! ; )  We would have never made it this week without my neighbors bringing those DELICIOUS meals.  We are sooooo thankful.

“Of all the animals, the boy is the most unmanageable.”  –Plato

“Fear thou not; for I am with thee:  be not dismayed; for I am thy God:  I will strengthen thee:  yea, I will help thee.”  Isaiah 41:10