Major News

The title of this post has as bit of irony and a bit of truth. Perhaps all irony contains a bit of truth?

So this afternoon, Sean headed of the the veterinarian with Maggie to get her some medications for various doggy diseases. My status upon his leaving was breastfeeding a sleepy but a resistant to sleep newborn.

Until we reach a different developmental stage, I have, been, and will probably continue to be, a little frustrated that my relationship with our child as primarily if not solely food source. Which means she is content in my arms mostly because she is anticipating being fed, is being fed, or has just been fed. So basically I hold her when she is freaking out because she is hungry or when she is unbelievably asleep (which since we have the most alert newborn in the universe is pretty hard to come by).


So here I am with our uber alert newborn who is eating at the rate of digestion but happy to keep sucking on the nip. The pizza Sean took out of the oven before he left is getting cold on the counter. I am hungry, my bladder is fully, and frankly I am pretty sure this baby's belly is full too.

So boldly I go to places I've only imagined since a c-section has limited a fair amount of my imaginings. I put on the sling. Hike it up so my back muscles are doing most of the work (rather than my middle belly muscles) I put our 8 pounder in and start up the vacuum. After several close to perfect endings (baby sleeps for 15 minutes after I take her out of the sling and put her in the swing) and a very clean floor I decide to do something I've been fantasizing about for days. I head outside and water the garden. Though there isn't much white noise the sun is shining and though she fusses at first she inevitably must close her eyes to it. And voila, after 20 minutes of watering I come in and put the baby in the swing. We are approaching 10 minutes. And possibly for the first time I have put our child to sleep without using my breasts.

This is to say that feats and defeats have a new meaning with a newborn (and probably with all children) around. But with Sean going back to work next week I have to take steps to imagine what I am going to do when I am alone with her. This is the start of me imagining managing.