Err-Bear will be six weeks old tomorrow...
My life takes place in 3, 5, and 8 hour increments.
Baby needs to eat every 3 hours.
Most of the time, he wakes himself up to eat. Sometimes every 3 hours. Sometimes two. Sometimes one and a half. He eats as often as he likes, really, he just can't go more than 3 hours between meals. How long he eats also varies. Sometimes, he'll eat off the breast for 15 minutes and pass right out. Other times, he'll eat off the breast for 15 minutes, then take another 3oz. of formula over the course of an hour. SOMETIMES, he eats for several hours straight. I am told these are "growth spurts" and are perfectly normal - not signs that my baby has self-esteem issues.
10-3, 3-8. 5 hours of uninterrupted sleep. Sometimes.
Though the times have changed to accommodate my returning to odd shift work hours, Nick and I try to plan our routine to allow us 5 hours of uninterrupted sleep a night. Now, I say "sometimes" because for him, it's more like 5 1/2 to 6 hours, and for me, more like 3 to 4 1/2 hours. I don't notice my energy level much different than it was when I was pregnant, or even before then, really. Rickey, my shift mate, says that once you reach a certain level of tired, you're pretty much just always there. And that's true. I'm pretty much the same amount of tired all the time, no matter how much sleep I get. Nick has not adjusted to these rotating shifts as well as I have, but he's getting there. Hour by painfully irregular hour.
It's still an 8 hour work day.
Our return to work has been a halfways decent break in routine, I think. Much as I loved spending 24 straight hours with all of my handsome men (George is still the best poopies in the whole complex), it is sort of nice to take a break and spend 8 hours in a place where things make a little more sense. Here, I know what to expect and how to fix things. Most everything that could go wrong is well within my scope of ability. It's sort of a security blanket, being here. Not to mention, I get to poop with the door closed.
As I said at the top, Err-Bear will be 6 weeks old tomorrow. He can raise his head up from the tummy position and hold it for a little bit. His legs are very strong. When he doesn't smell like sweat, he smells like cheese because we don't always do the best job of drying the milk from his many necks. He seems to enjoy bath time and piano concertos. Sometimes he farts when he sneezes. He likes to withhold poop until there's enough to destroy a diaper. I have been fortunate enough to be off duty for the last several blow outs, but I'm certain my time will come. His nails are quite long, but I'm too scared to cut them. They're quite long, yet not long enough to bite comfortably, so I've been scrounging the room like mad for mittens. He doesn't seem to really KNOW me yet. I mean, when he hears my voice, he doesn't seem to respond in a "Hey, you're mom!" kind of way. Which is fair. Considering the substantial detachment I felt from him during my pregnancy, it makes sense that he'd be aloof with me for a while.
Anyways, I'll be wrapping up my 8 hour shift soon and will proceed home to immediately begin my 5 hours of sleep so I can wake up
and get to feeding him every 3.
Goodnight/morning/afternoon/whatever the hell time it is.
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MNO (Wednesday, 28 September 2016 22:08)
He likes to say "ow" if I hold him. Lol if i put him on his chest he headbutts the air so I hold him on his back. He smiled at me when i pretended to eat his fingers.
ToledoBaggins (Wednesday, 28 September 2016)
Officer Blanket. Reporting for Doodie.