Waking Up

I read recently that after getting through the first few months with a newborn it's like pulling your head out from under the covers and waking up. I would say that's about right.

I have written several posts the past few weeks about this and that. Blah blah. Just because I felt I should. Obviously I didn't post them. None of them felt right. I love writing but these days I'm finding it such a challenge to balance wanting to write everything down to remember every moment versus living that moment. It seems like every little smile, milky breath, and sweet snuggle and going by me in a flash. All around me I keep hearing, "Enjoy this time, it goes so fast." And so I try to soak up as much squishy baby love as I can, every day and night.

In the beginning, when I was walking around in a cloud of sleepiness and anxiety, my sister in law told me, "The days are long but the years are so short." That struck such a chord in that moment. After she told me that, I try to always keep that in perspective. Sometimes my heart aches at the thought of sweet P being anything other than my little babe, but every day he is growing more into a little person.

These days we are truly coming into our own as a family of three. We wake up every (early) morning to sweet baby giggles and shrieks. Even the sleepiest of us (papa) doesn't mind opening his eyes to see baby boy rolling from side to side, chomping on his hand, and giggling at the light coming in. After Phoenix has his breakfast, we all shuffle to the living room where one of us plays with P while the other makes coffee. We usually have some breakfast together and then papa is off to work, down the hall. P and I are extremely lucky that Scott works from home. Even though he's super busy all day, it's so nice to be able to walk by his office to say hi or ask him to take a 10 minute break so I could shower/clean/eat. We don't take this for granted.

Usually at this point P and I have an outing. We are still getting to know our new neighborhood so we go exploring whenever we can. This also gives S some quiet time to work. Most days we have an errand but if not, we still  go walking. P loves it. For some reason he was never fond of his stroller until we moved to Brooklyn. Go figure. Mostly I wear him on me, but if we are grocery shopping or going for a really long walk, I change it up with the stroller.

After almost two weeks of living here we have been to story time at the library, which he loved, and dined together a few times. Usually I get a coffee and croissant while he people watches. Sometimes I make up stories about the people walking by. I tell him where they are going, who they are, their names. It's like improv story time.

In any case, I feel like I'm finally taking my head out from under the covers. The warm light is shining all over my face and I'm soaking it up. Phoenix has more or less created a schedule for himself. We never forced one on him or made him cry it out. When he was a newborn, he didn't go to "sleep" (ha!) until 11 or midnight, just to wake up in a few hours. Then, magically after a few weeks he was basically sleeping through the night! Oh sweet sleep, how I missed you. But, as it goes with these things, a few weeks ago he began waking up again once around 4. I can't say I mind too much as I know this is pretty good, all things considered. And as a bonus, he is down every night between 7 and 8 so we get a good amount of "adult time" in the evenings. But this said, his schedule definitely makes everyone happier. I've never been a scheduling person and for this reason didn't want to force one on him, but in the magical world of baby he managed to figure out what works best for him. And now we are all waking up together.