Audrey's First Week

Audrey is now 9 days old, and my mom is leaving today--the nerve! Mom has done wonderfully taking care of us--she has successfully proved herself and will have her Grandma License renewed in full for another year. She has done the yardwork, the laundry, the cooking, the dishes, the breakfast shift, the mending, the window washing, and so much more. I have been able to get naps when I needed it. It has been so nice to have her here. Tomorrow Chris will go to work for 10 hours and I will be the one in charge of all of us! That will be interesting...

The first couple days were impossibly exhausting for me, having had a physically demanding delivery and being expected to feed a hungry baby constantly with...nothing! for 3 days.

Now that the pump works, Audrey is a wonderful baby. She is an excellent nurser, although she thinks that if she is awake, she needs to also be eating. Otherwise she wants to be asleep--we took her with us on some errands to get her to have some awake time, afraid that if she were to sleep all day it would consequently result in being awake all night. She slept completely through all of her public appearances! The store, the baby carrier, the carseat, the park...she slept through it all. I am teaching her from the start that I will not be a human pacifier and that I intend to get sleep at night, thank you very much. When fully fed, she will sleep for 3-4 hours at a time in the night, which is delightful. Should I worry that it won't last? What if I become accustomed to four hour sleep segments, only to have my baby suddenly revert back to nocturnal again? Ahhh!

Audrey has already projectile pooped on me, resulting in a wardrobe change for the both of us. That was gross. And after nursing, she promptly falls into a delirious, drunken partial sleep in which her eyes flutter, she spontaneously smiles, and she drools milk. Priceless.

Having a baby in the Spring has been a dramatic and much needed contrast from my first two winter babies. I have been able to get out of the house--it has been so nice to get sunlight, go on a walk, sit in the grass, not having to worry about wind and snow and bundling up in layers. And I want to get out of the house! Knowing that I am predisposed to depression has also prepared me better--I know what I can handle and what I can't; when to say yes and when to say no; what will help me feel human and what will make me want to hide in a dark cave. (Trying to avoid the urge to hide in a cave this time around...) Even so, with my well-behaved kids and my peaceful baby, and my supportive husband and my mom here to help, I am still exhausted--my entire body hurts and my emotional core is particularly tender. But that's just part of the package.

Here are some photo highlights of Audrey's first week on Earth.