Today is rainy and windy, so I’m glad I saw so many flowers during my excursion Wednesday to Longwood Gardens (see photo). A few other notes from the week:
Highlights…
The baby is growing. A lot. He weighed 8 lbs 2.75 oz. at his one-month appointment. This is exactly two pounds more than he weighed at his 4-day weight check. Gaining an ounce a day is not bad! He seems big to me now, though I have been pondering that I have actually given birth to a baby (kid #2) weighing more than that.
I discovered a nursing/pumping/multi-tasking hack. This may be obvious to others, but it wasn’t to me. I always thought of nursing and pumping as separate activities. I was getting frustrated by using non-baby time to pump (to keep my supply up, build a freezer stash, and have milk for the occasional times when I am gone). But then I realized I could pump on one side while feeding on the other. I only really do this during the 4/5 a.m. feeding, but this means I don’t have to make time for pumping during the morning routine.
I registered the 5-year-old for kindergarten. In Off the Clock, I mention my every-few-years pilgrimage to our district’s central office as an example of an occasion to celebrate “time dividends.” We bought a house where we did in order to send our children to excellent local public schools. Registering takes about an hour to get there, show the kid’s birth certificate and immunization record, maybe 2 hours tops if you count the time it took to find all my documents proving residency and to fill out a few online forms. This is much less than the time it would take to apply to private school, let alone earn the money to pay tuition. I have never taken the week off after registering a kid for kindergarten, but if I did, I’d still be ahead.
I went for a walk with a friend. She texted to see if I could meet her, and I could! I even managed to fit the walk, and picking the middle schooler up after musical practice, in between baby feedings. Major win.
And some challenges….
I am tired. I mean, I have a newborn, but even with the night nurse service. I’m doing my best to get completely ready for bed before they start at 10 p.m. Then I can dive right into bed and sleep until the 4/5 a.m. feeding. (I pump a bottle for the 1 a.m. one). It’s a bit harder for me to go back to sleep after that, but I’m trying not to run through the mental gymnastics of activity tetris, or work stresses, while in bed. Trying. The lack of sleep is one reason that…
I feel stupid while trying to sing complicated French music. My choir is singing a bunch of Poulenc at an upcoming concert. It’s challenging and not always melodic. So I have to think about the intervals, and practice, and I haven’t been devoting much time to that.
We keep going back and forth on the housing situation. This means I waste time I don’t have looking at online real estate listings. There is no perfect answer here, and every answer is going to require a lot of time and mental bandwidth, which I don’t feel are plentiful at the moment.
My inbox. Oh dear. Let’s just leave it at that.
How’s your week going?
Hang in there! I found the sleep deprivation piece of motherhood to be especially challenging.
Hi Laura,
I’ve read your blog for so long that I feel like I know you! I think you’re very inspiring and a classic “Upholder” with a very practical nature (and a lot of hard-earned perspective). Isn’t it great that your long-term perspective allows you to realize that your Winter 2020 inbox doesn’t matter? 😂 🤷♀️🤞 As a mother of four young daughters (10, 8, 4, 2), I have enjoyed your advice ever since reading I Know How She Does It. Have a great weekend!
Well, I think you can take great delight in creating the phrase “a bunch of Poulenc”. That’s a highlight right there.
Hang in there! The first few months of a baby feel so long in some ways. Sleep deprivation is tough (there is a startling amount of research performed on medical residents proving our faculties really do suffer).
Sorry but most women have neither a day or night nurse.
That means you are up sometimes every 2 hours with NO time to sleep at all.
You are really lucky and rich .
@Finlayson – I have five children, so I experienced this for the first few and that’s why I planned for it this time around. I’m still doing it on my own a few nights per week, but budgeted for help for the other ones.
I just found your blog through Catherine Gillespie a month or two ago and have been enjoying reading old posts and listening to Best of Both Worlds. My 5th baby is 18 months now, my next oldest is 7, and I’m 41, so I was pleasantly surprised to hear about your new baby! I feel like it took me months to adjust after my number 5 was born and the lack of sleep hit me much harder this time around, too. I did find that I appreciated all the little baby milestones more this time and I love seeing my older kids with their new sister. They are much more capable that when their other siblings were born.
@Sarah M – so glad you found me! Yes, the older kids are a lot more capable now – the fact that I’m not also dealing with a toddler somewhat makes up for the fact that I am…old to have a newborn.
Sleep deprivation is the worst!! I have a hack for the going back to sleep thing. It is so hard for me not to allow my brain to turn back on once I wake up. I have an audiobook I have heard a million times (the lion, the witch, and the wardrobe) cued up. I put my earphones on, try to focus in the story which I already know so it’s not keeping me up. I at least get some dozing in with this trick.
Oh, I have done pumping and feeding the baby at the same time but definitely not as a routine. It’s smart to do it regularly though probably just for the reasons your mentioned, haha! And I am sorry about your inbox! Overflowing inboxes makes me anxious as I always thing there is an important to-do item hiding somewhere!
My heart ached for you when you mentioned mental tetris work etc bugging you when in bed.. Dealing with that plus a newborn sounds tough!! Any chance Michael could be in charge of mental tetris for say, the first 3 months? He’s a consultant so should have the requisite organizational skills?