A little quiet time
Well, since I can count on regular naps, I think I can try to keep more frequent journals. I'll even try to keep it more interesting than "Day 182: Still exhausted." (Kierra IS 182 days old today.) :B
Went to meditation last night, for the first time since Kierra was born. It was nice to see the ladies again, and Tom came with me so we could show Kierra off beforehand. Stranger anxiety is definitely beginning to set in. She even cried when Tom's parents tried to hold her too soon after arriving for their last twice-monthly visit. Thankfully, she seems to be okay as long as we keep a little distance between her and new people (aka people who are not Mommy or Daddy) so she can stare sat them from the safety of our arms for 5 to 10 minutes. Once she's started to offer smiles at them, we can get a little closer to make sure she's comfortable with them. After that, we're probably okay to make the hand-off successfully as long as we stay within arms reach for a bit.
Meditation was nice, but rushed a bit between baby things beforehand and me needing to head out by 6:15pm to get Kierra nursed and ready for bed. I haven't had that kind of quiet in, oh, 6 months or so. It was very nice. :D A little difficult, trying to get back to the whole "stillness of mind" place. I did finally get there by envisioning slow waves going in and out on a beach in time with my breath. I'm looking forward to going again soon (hopefully next week!) since Kierra's nap-times are a bit more predictable and her evenings are usually pretty drama-free these days.
I should have the opportunity to borrow some Pema Chödron books next time, which is cool because I've been trying to get my hands on them through the library but even inter-library loan has failed me. On a related note, thanks to the Overdrive e-book library app, I've read about 35 books since February! Most of them were read during countless middle-of-the-night nursing sessions, sleepless nights trying to get Kierra back to sleep, and the innumerable naps that I used to have to hold her through. Now that she's been napping on her own for over a month, my reading time has actually fallen off since I'm using the free time to do artwork again! More on artwork later. Don't want to burn through the entire current naptime by rambling!
Went to meditation last night, for the first time since Kierra was born. It was nice to see the ladies again, and Tom came with me so we could show Kierra off beforehand. Stranger anxiety is definitely beginning to set in. She even cried when Tom's parents tried to hold her too soon after arriving for their last twice-monthly visit. Thankfully, she seems to be okay as long as we keep a little distance between her and new people (aka people who are not Mommy or Daddy) so she can stare sat them from the safety of our arms for 5 to 10 minutes. Once she's started to offer smiles at them, we can get a little closer to make sure she's comfortable with them. After that, we're probably okay to make the hand-off successfully as long as we stay within arms reach for a bit.
Meditation was nice, but rushed a bit between baby things beforehand and me needing to head out by 6:15pm to get Kierra nursed and ready for bed. I haven't had that kind of quiet in, oh, 6 months or so. It was very nice. :D A little difficult, trying to get back to the whole "stillness of mind" place. I did finally get there by envisioning slow waves going in and out on a beach in time with my breath. I'm looking forward to going again soon (hopefully next week!) since Kierra's nap-times are a bit more predictable and her evenings are usually pretty drama-free these days.
I should have the opportunity to borrow some Pema Chödron books next time, which is cool because I've been trying to get my hands on them through the library but even inter-library loan has failed me. On a related note, thanks to the Overdrive e-book library app, I've read about 35 books since February! Most of them were read during countless middle-of-the-night nursing sessions, sleepless nights trying to get Kierra back to sleep, and the innumerable naps that I used to have to hold her through. Now that she's been napping on her own for over a month, my reading time has actually fallen off since I'm using the free time to do artwork again! More on artwork later. Don't want to burn through the entire current naptime by rambling!