In Which I Get Along Swimmingly With My Mother

My mom has been here nearly a month now. I was pretty apprehensive about her visit prior to her arrival. But apparently it makes a big difference to not have just had a baby. By the time she arrived, Baby C was just about a month old and therefore I wasn't super hormonal and desperately sleep deprived. We've gotten along just fine. The first week was a bit rough at times - figuring out how to do the dance of two adult women, both used to running their own households. I had to be a little blunt a few times ("Mom, Miss E bugs me for new clothes all the time. Please don't add your voice to that chorus." "You don't have to like how we discipline Ace.") I said these statements in a very nice tone of voice, trust me. Though there might have been one time that I exclaimed, "Don't rearrange my kitchen! You're making me crazy!" accompanied by strangling motions with my hands...thankfully she has kept her hands off my appliances ever since, so no actual strangling has occurred. I freely admit that the one thing I am SUPER ANAL about is my kitchen. Don't touch it. Don't mess it up. Only I get to do that.

What I am now apprehensive about is my mother leaving. Dh is downright scared for her to go. That's right, Dh wishes his mother-in-law could stay longer. He knows his life is going to get a lot harder when she leaves! He is right. She handles the laundry, while I handle the cooking. We take turns dropping Miss E off at kindergarten depending on whether the baby is awake or not. She is perfectly willing to change lots of poopy Baby C diapers, to burp the baby after I nurse her, to hold Baby C while she fusses (she is my first baby with an actual fussy time - 5-7pm) so I can make dinner. All of this is going to change once she leaves. I have a feeling my baby is going to have to cry more often then. Sometimes I will just have to strap her into the carseat screaming so I can take E to kindergarten. Yuck. I hate having to let my baby cry. Oh well. She will be fine, and I will be fine. And really I am so aware of how blessed I am that my mother could come out and was willing to come out for so long. What a giant help and blessing she has been. Dh is getting her a present on his own to show that he is thankful (his idea, smart guy!) and I am going to make her this bag with some nice linen yarn she picked out to thank her for her help.

So a few days before Baby C hit 6 weeks, it was like a switch flipped. Suddenly she is sleeping for a long time at night. She wasn't easy her first 6 weeks. She had day/night confusion, she would only sleep in arms, she woke every two hours at night. Now she sleeps from 8pm -4am. I KNOW. It's awesome. The only down side is when she gets up at 4 she seems to think it's morning and is wide awake for 1-2 hours. Sooo. Not sure what to do about that. Once I finally get her back to sleep, she sleeps for anywhere from 2-5 more hours.

She is a smiley baby and I am just eating her up. She loves to be sung to, so I've been doing tons of that. She smiled at Grandma around the same time she smiled at me (on her 1-month birthday). She gave huge smiles to Ace, who adores her. She smiled at Dh about a week ago. I'm not sure if she has smiled at Miss E. I thought Miss E was going to love having the baby around...not so much. She seems to mostly find Baby C inconvenient. Also she is busy adjusting to kindergarten; that is her focus right now. She doesn't want to hold her usually. Ace is the one who just can't get enough of Baby C. He sings to her when she gets fussy (cutest. thing. ever.) and loves to chat with her and show her toys during diaper changes.

Baby C was blessed at church this past Sunday. It was a beautiful, happy day. Both sets of grandparents were there, and one of Dh's brothers & his family. We had a big luncheon for all the family and EK's family, it was crazy & fun. Dh got a bit stressed beforehand, he was convinced we would not have enough food. If I hadn't been defensive, I would have thought it was cute. Ha ha (We had enough food.)

When I get some free time, I spend it wasting time on the computer (I like shutting off my brain), reading, or watching some tv while I knit. The knitting has become necessary. It's soothing. The down side to the knitting is I keep spending money at the local yarn shop. I swear, I'm singlehandedly keeping that place in business. But really, how was I supposed to resist the merino/cashmere blend in the coolest mix of purple, black & gray that was on clearance? (It's becoming a cowl.)