Thursday, June 16, 2011

Settling in and my theories...



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.

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