This week L and I have finally begun to settle in to our new routine with me home. For a while we were attempting to move closer to my family- but with all the hurdles, the stress, and compromises that would need to be made- we decided now is not the right time. I huge weight has been lifted since we made this decision- I don't do well with uncertainty- it quite literally increases my blood pressure and I get absolutely miserable. Oh and having a child makes it even worse- what better justification for allowing oneself to stress then your child?
So a little about our routine- L takes two naps a day, sometimes I think it should be three- but L doesn't agree with that. He wakes up between 7:00-8:00. He is an absolute angel in the mornings. Maybe it's the amount of sleep he gets at night, or that he is just a "morning person"- whatever it is I'll take it! He nurses, eats some solids, we play, nurses again, and then it's nap time. This is usually about 2 hrs after he has been up. Morning naps are a beautiful thing around here. L goes down fairly easily and stays asleep for 1 1/2 to 2 hrs. During these naps I
get shit done- running, laundry, cleaning, cooking. Again- I
LOVE morning naps. When L wakes up we nurse, play, eat some solids, and then go out- to the park, for an errand, anywhere- just out. We come home, nurse, play- and then do the afternoon nap.
Now afternoon naps and bedtime are just not as wonderful as morning naps. I have a few theories and will probably start to test them. The first theory is- COFFEE. I wasn't a coffee drinking till L came along, but now I absolutely thrive off my morning cup- it helps me run, wake up, and just
get shit done. So the theory (yes I used to be an experimental psych major) is that the caffeine effects L by way of breastmilk. Knowing that it takes a while for drugs (which caffeine is) to enter the system, I assume it takes a little while longer to enter breastmilk. This means that while I already feel the caffeine when L goes down for the morning nap- it may not have come out in my breastmilk yet. So non caffeinated baby makes for an easy nap time. But by the afternoon nap and bedtime- L has been caffeinated. So when I get the guts to test my theory I will blog about it- but we just aren't ready for that yet.
L goes down for his afternoon nap around 2-4 and usually sleeps for 1 hr. Then we play, nurse, eat solids, and either go for a walk or get a bath in the sink (L's new favorite thing). Bedtime happens around 7-9. At this point I start to get burnt out. L has a hard time falling asleep at bedtime. He requires being "worn down" in the ergo. So I walk around the house (we have a circular path through the house thats great for this mind numbing activity) with the lights off for 15-45 min. It's not fun. As I said I start to get burnt out around this time and L is getting heavy- probably over 20 lbs by now. Now if D is home early enough, he helps out with bedtime- oh I love when he is home early.
All in all it's pretty good to be me right now- I have to say I'm happy. And now a super cute pic of L & D- shower time.
