Just One Thing

[jssangel]

Here is what I have learned about being a new mother: you can do one thing per day. (I mean in addition to the feeding and diapering and burping and cuddling etc.) Really - in 24 hours there is only time for one non-baby related activity - so you have to chose wisely. Sometimes that One Thing is a shower (please note: applying body lotion is a

Comments

[thepouncer]

But, snuggling! Snuggling is always good, and Tequila Jane will grow up feeling smug and totally loved, which is even better.

(As a practical suggestion, maybe one of the baby sling carriers, so she can be with you, but you can still be at least somewhat mobile?)

[jssangel]

ahh - see - I basically abandoned the computer in favor of the baby. That isn't right! Or is it...

She has now (at 5 months) agreed to sit in her bouncy, or lie on her playmat, so ocasionally our hands are free. But constant snuggling is still the order of the day whenever possible.

[jssangel]

Thank you! She is the best baby in the world - although I think it is clear that she comes between me and the computer keyboard all the time.

The timed feedings were great for that first little bit - she was a day away from being a preemie, frighteningly fragile when she was new - and really needed some hustle to get her weight stabilized.

Now she eats when she is hungry, and also often tricks me into feeding her when she is tired so that she can nurse to sleep. I am easy to trick, of course, because she is so cuddly.

[tingler]

Wait...what? Baby? You had a baby?! A whole *baby*? ::starts to flip back through your posts, but it's the very previous one, which I must have missed whilst out Airstreaming the wilds of Arkansas::

BABY!! How awesome! Okay, some unsolicited advice--sleep whenever the opportunity presents itself. Screw the housework, what is essential is cuddle time, nursing time and *sleep*! (Though the curtains did sound like a Good Idea). I'm not so sure about the timed feedings. After my first child, my philosophy became nurse 'em whenever they want for as long as they want, but that is a longish and different story than yours and I hope it's working out for you and the tyrannical yet adorable Tequila Jane. Somebody mentioned a sling--they are *wonderful* things and if you don't have one, you should get one.

Congratulation on your littlest angel!

[helenish]

I became adept at propping my computer dangerously on various surfaces while I was breastfeeding and I also got a lottttt of practice typing one-handed. Eventually, when they can hold themselves up a little more, it gets easier (although now NB likes to crane his neck around to see what on earth I'm doing on the computer, and will sometimes be too interested in looking to eat, but still be mad that he's hungry.) I swore that for my next baby, I was going to get one of those voice recognition programs

[jssangel]

ahhh - your baby advice posts have been AWESOME!

My two favorite bits were:

a) baths. TJ gets bathed when she is stinky - and you made me feel ok about the way we just couldn't make ourselves get our act together to create an elaborate routine of bath time and story time and blah blah blah to bed every day.

and

b) when you said you were going to a second child experience for NB. That's exactly what we are doing with TJ. Just hang out and be cool and not scrub everything with bleach every day.