It has been a full week of being on my own as a stay-at-home mom and things are going well. I would say that we have settled into a bit of a routine and just yesterday I figured out how to get something (singular, not plural) done during Belén’s afternoon nap. We spend the time when she is asleep during the morning nap on our walk. By about 5pm, Belén gets fussy so luckily Andy comes home soon after this. We have been experimenting with different ways to appease her (pacifier, swaddle, the fussy girl dance that Andy made up, etc.) but it seems to just be a standard part of the day for some reason, which I understand is pretty common. I got a real dose of it last Thursday when Andy had jury duty and did not get home until 9pm. Up until that day, being a stay-at-home mom had pretty much been lavender and roses. By 7pm on Thursday though, I suddenly understood why all of the new mom literature says to put the baby down and take five minutes in another room if you get really frustrated.
Belén continues to grow like crazy. She is getting long and a little chubby, it is cute. There are a couple of times during the day when she is awake, happy and really alert and I look forward to those times. We sometimes listen to music (she likes “Pencil Thin Mustache” by Jimmy Buffett and Bob Marley…okay really she doesn’t react to those songs over others, but I like to play those songs), read books (I am reading a book called “Reading Lolita in Tehran” and generally choose to read that over kids books to her), do tummy time and just chill. Up until now, I chose to think she was advanced because she is doing a great job of holding her head up, but tonight Andy made a comment about how she doesn’t spend a lot of time focusing on faces as the books say infants like to do. This made me worry a bit that maybe she is developmentally challenged in this regard, but I don’t think it is worth worrying for real at this point. I will have to start a list of potential things to be worried about for her two-month well baby check up. Which reminds me, she turned one-month old yesterday! Wow, the time has flown by!
Last week we had a couple of special visitors. Both are great friends who I have had for a long time and each one brought their child. Sage and her daughter Maite and mom Pam came over on Wednesday to see Belén again (first time for Pam.) Both Pam and Sage loved to hold Belén and Maite wanted to hold her as well, so she “helped” Pam by holding her legs while Pam supported (protected) her head and upper body. Maite is two years old now, it is amazing! Sage and I have been very close friends since we were in fifth grade, so it wasn’t surprising that Pam kept looking at us both and saying, “I cannot believe you are both moms!” It was so fun to have them over.
My friend since seventh grade, Ainoa, and her son Ke’akua came over and joined Belén and I for our morning walk/coffee shop visit on Friday. It was great to catch up with her and see how much Ke’akua had grown. These kids really make time passing obvious as they grow so quickly. It is always so nice to be able to chat with close friends who are moms of kids a little older than Belén to hear their experiences with their kids and talk about parenting in general. I truly enjoyed both of these visits last week.
After our walk with Ainoa and Ke’akua, Belén and I went to Grandma Eileen’s to learn how to play mah jong. She was my good luck charm, or maybe it was beginners luck, but I won two games despite asking the rules over and over. It is a complicated game, but a lot of fun.
The big excitement for our weekend was a visit by Andy’s sister, Chrissy and a road trip picnic up to Warm Lake with some of our friends (Becca and Ryan Campbell and their daughter Graycn and Paul and Lindsay Bolick and their boys Owen and Tucker) and Andy’s sisters, Chrissy and Erin. We met up at the Campbell’s and then headed out of town. Less than two hours later, we met up at the Warm Lake Lodge and found a spot near the water to unload our stuff for the picnic. When I say stuff, I mean loads of stuff. We had two “Pack and Plays”, two Baby Bjorns, car seats, coolers, boxes of food, blankets, you name it. We honestly wouldn’t have needed much more (except food) if we were staying for a week. Traveling with a kid means tons of extra stuff!
New family at Warm Lake
Belén slept most of the day but woke up for the first part of the picnic. I was glad that she slept in the car as I was a bit concerned that she would wake up and be hungry and we would have to pull over multiple times. It was fun to get out of town, get into the great outdoors and experience, however briefly a place in Idaho I had never been. Check out the photos tab for “Belén Rose -> Newborn” for photos. It was also great to spend some time with our friends and their kids. We feel fortunate to have so many close friends with young kids. I still find it crazy that we belong to the family demographic now. Who would have thought?
Back to the motherly questions/worries…on Sunday I was a bit concerned about how much Belén slept because she honestly slept the majority of the day. We did spend most of the time slots when she is normally awake in the truck so that knocked her out. Then on Monday, she was awake for almost the entire day until bedtime which made me worry for the complete opposite reason. Don’t worry, I am not one of those completely freaky over-the-top worrier moms but you do wonder what is normal and okay and what you should be concerned about. Andy is a great equalizer in this regards as he more easily dismisses the things I bring up for us to potentially worry about.
I eluded to the fact that I figured out how to get one thing done during the weekdays. To do this, we cannot have visitors in the afternoon and I have to be prepared to accomplish the task right after she falls asleep for the afternoon. Yesterday, we went to Babies R Us, as we desperately needed a Diaper Genie refill and a new swaddle blanket as she has outgrown the small-sized Kiddopotamus. She was more or less asleep for the outing and I was able to stock up on the needed items so the trip was a success! Today I took on the daunting task of going through my clothing and weeding out most of the maternity clothes I no longer need and then mixing the summer clothes into the wardrobe from their previous resting spot in the storage closet. It was a lot of work, but I feel like I have an entire new wardrobe, although a high percentage of the summer clothes probably don’t fit quite yet. Despite my longing for a flat stomach, I still have a little belly that I have to hide by choosing my clothes wisely. I also can tell that even once the belly is gone, the tighter-fitting clothes from last summer will still not fit, making me even more excited to start running and biking again. Since I can still feel my internal incision and it is two weeks until my six-week check up, I will have to be patient and rely on breastfeeding, walking and start cutting down my food intake as I no longer feel absolutely ravenous 24×7.
There are plenty more things I could mention but they are probably only interesting to me so I think I will take this opportunity to stop for the evening. If I start rambling too much, please post a comment and let me know. Now that I don’t have much adult conversation during the day, there is a good possibility that I will make up for it by writing mini-novels that are likely uninteresting to most. 
Cheers!
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