Becoming a Parent

I never thought I would become a mother. Hubby never thought he would become a father. Even during the pregnancy, the idea of us becoming parents just never seemed real. Our minds could not make the jump from pregnancy to parenting. Hubby told me that he thinks about the future with little AC, and he realized that there is a whole future to think about. I know that he will not be a baby forever. But we will get to watch him grow and develop into his own person. I think that is really neat.

Another thing that amazes me is that little AC is a fairly good baby. He gave me so much trouble in utero, that it is nice to have a fairly well behaved baby now. (And I hope I did not just jinx myself by writing that!) So far, he has been relatively easy to calm. Once his immediate needs for food and elimination are met, I find that the baby carrier and the Fisher.Price Rain.forest swing are really helpful. We also have a couple of glider rockers which help to soothe the baby. He really likes the rocking motion. And I went and bought some appliance sounds from i.tunes. It seems to help, and prevents a sleepy father from driving around with a baby in the car.

Breastfeeding is going well. Once he gets latched, for the most part, he does great. We do have some problems with over active letdown, though. Sometimes he does not like the fast letdown and will fuss at the breast after only a couple of minutes. I am trying to lean back farther when I nurse, and position little AC so that he has to work against gravity. I am also putting him back on the same breast for an hour or two so that he is more likely to get the hindmilk. He also seems to prefer a quieter space for nursing. I guess he still has to work really hard to nurse.

I forgot to mention that I got a call from a job I applied for in the fall. Apparently they are hiring now, and they would like to interview me for an adjunct teaching position. Hooray! If benefits come with it, I may jump at it. It may make my other job grumpy, and I may owe them for carrying me during my leave. Teaching would be much better for me right now with the new baby. Especially if it is part time! And there may be a full time position down the road. We will see what happens. Benefits are going to be the sticking point, I think. They should call me in a week or two to set up an interview. (At least that is what they said on the phone.)

Dogs are doing great with the baby. They do not get upset when he cries anymore, and we have let them back into the bedroom. That has made everyone happy. I missed our dogs, but I needed space from them just for a little while. It is really nice to have our family back together. We are still working on walks. Walks are easier with the sleepy wrap, though. When it is not snowing, I sometimes get to walk a dog! I have been doing some training with both Gertrude and Oscar, which I think helps with Gertrude. She likes the face time with me.

In baby development news...
Little AC was awake in his swing for a while today. It was great to see him looking around. He looked at the mobile above the swing, he looked at our dogs as they came up to look at him. He looked all around the room. Both Hubby and I loved watching him. It was better than TV! He is almost three weeks old, so he is not quite ready for play, just yet. He is still trying to understand the world around him. And that is all right.