Little Gracie isn’t going to be able to use that “little” adjective for much longer. Today she passed 7 lbs, making her about the same weight as a mini-watermelon. According to Babycenter.com this is what a baby weighs at 39 weeks. Our daughter, at only 37 weeks, is still crushing expectation after expectation. Somehow, I am imagining a certain birth canal that is saying “Phew!” right now.
If the blog has been quiet for the last couple days, that doesn’t mean that everything has been. After two weeks at home learning the ropes of diapers, feedings, laundry and the rest, we felt like we pretty much had a handle on it. Our little Grace was actually pretty easy. She mostly ate, she slept and she went on about her business. A new diaper here, a pacifier there, a swaddle to go to sleep and she was happy…and so were we.
On Wednesday, as I kissed Jenn goodbye and headed back to the office, leaving her to apply each lesson we had learned…simultaneously…on her own…we were both pretty optimistic. Even Lincoln was there to help where he could by furiously announcing the arrival of the mailman, needing to pee from time to time and otherwise wagging his tail in encouragement. After a long Day 1 of “normal life”, we still felt mostly in control and comfortable. Looking back, we might have guessed that we were learning Parenting Lesson #23: if you are feeling comfortable, you are doing it wrong.
If the collection of fused flesh, sweat and formula in the general shape of my wife and daughter, that I found on the couch when I got home Thursday night is any indication, Jenn learned Parenting Lesson #5 on Day 2: when your baby is uncomfortable, everything is a lot harder. Thursday in San Francisco was one of those days that makes babies uncomfortable. The temperature hit 97 that day and no breeze (and no air conditioner) appeared to cool off the night. The “everything” mentioned in the rule included eating, sleeping, grocery shopping and breathing. By the time I got home, the girls were an exhausted mess, too tired to move. I sent Jenn to bed and set about learning Parenting Lesson #47: when you have one tool (the swaddle) that gets a baby to sleep, and that tool is unavailable (because of the heat) YOU don’t get to sleep either.
I know for sure that there are many more sleepless nights ahead of me and many more Parenting Lessons to record. I can only hope that there are stretches of quiet long enough between them for me to forget lesson #23 and believe that it is all under control.