I’ve decided that all parents get baby amnesia.

As Kevin and I have been learning all about Leina, we’ve often turned to friends and family for advice. For example, we asked around about how to get Leina familiar with sleeping in the crib. The reply we recieved from quite a few parents was, “oh, we didn’t have that problem, we just put baby in the crib and he/she fell right to sleep.” Now, I just don’t believe this. No baby is placed in the crib to fall right asleep. This is a classic case of baby amnesia.

I think it’s because these first few weeks are so crazy with the full time job of caring for baby and the lack of sleep and all the visitors it all sort of blurs together and you can’t really remember what you did (or didn’t) do. All this causes the baby amnesia to set in.

I’ve decided to combat this baby amnesia by taking very detailed notes of everything Leina does. Then, when someone asks me, “how much often did she nurse” or “how long did she sleep” or “what did you do with her when she was awake”, I’ll whip out my log book and be able to say, with great accuracy, what exactly I did. Of course, every baby is different, (they’re just like Cabbage Patch Kids), so there’s no guarantee that my advice will work but at least I won’t get that strange stumped expression that I see on so many parents’ faces. Of course, maybe a little amnesia would be a good thing!

But Tutu is back for this week to give my poor arms a rest. She, of course, jumps at every opportunity to snuggle with that little baby and has declared her absolutely perfect! Leina is currently going through her growth spurt and eats and eats and eats and eats. It is actually quite scary. My poor boobies don’t know what has hit them and they are desperately trying to keep up. When they run dry and Leina is still hungry, she rears back and lets out the most pitiful wail you’ve every heard. But, my baby class warned me this would happen and they say that in a few days my body will catch up with her demand. In the meantime, I just pass her off to Tutu who loves her to sleep. We make quite the tag team.

So I’ve caught up on the laundry, packed up my maternity clothes, unpacked my sweaters, finished up the birth announcements, and actually eaten three good meals a day. The kitchen is getting cleaned nightly and the beds are made. It’s quite the treat having an extra set of hands around all day long.

Forget the baby, Tutu is definately a keeper!

Kevin called me into the baby room the other day full of excitement.

“Chrissie! Come quick, you won’t believe what Leina just did!”

Curious, I ran into the baby room expecting to find Leina crawling, laughing or even jumping up and down only to find Kevin seated in the nursing chair with Leina on his lap. They were face to face and she was watching him with her bright blue eyes.

“You won’t believe this game we’re playing,” Kevin enthused. “Watch what she does when I close my eyes.” Kevin leaned forward toward his daughter and slowly closed her eyes.

Leina sat there.

“Wait, wait, she doesn’t always do it….” Kevin hastened to add as he once again leaned forward and slowly closed his eyes.

Leina sat there.

“Oh come on, she just did it!” By now I was getting amused. Again Kevin leaned in and closed his eyes.

“There!” he exclaimed. “Did you see that?”

“Um, no, I think I missed it,” I said, slightly baffled.

“She closed her eyes back at me!” my husband beamed up at me. “See, if I closed my eyes, she’ll close her’s too! How neat is that?!?!’

“Um, Kevin, I hate to break it to you but I think she just blinked.”

Kevin sat there a moment, crestfallen, until his eternal optimism kicked in.

“Well, I think she’s playing. Blinking,” he mumbled as I left the room, “don’t you listen to momma baby Leina, you just keep on playing with your dad.”

As I looked back, Kevin gently leaned forward and slowly closed his eyes.

Leina sat there unblinking but I swear she smiled at him.

My life has taken on this surreal routine.

My day is basically segmented into three hour blocks and I re-live those three hours over and over and over.

It starts with Leina waking up and looking for the boobies. The first hour is the nursing routine. Nurse, burp, poop, change diaper, nurse, burp, diaper check, for about an hour or so.

Next, we get play time. Since Leina is still a wee tot, playtime lasts about 20 minutes and consists of her watching the crib mobile or sitting in bouncy chair while I read to her or make funny faces. Depending on her mood, she may last 5 minutes or 20 in active mode. Most of my daily excitment comes from the suspense of not knowing how long she’ll be active before she starts to fuss and cry. It’s an edge-of-your-seat, nail biting, riviting moment while I wait for her to start yawning and getting grumpy. When that happens, we move into the second half of the hour which is trying to get Leina to sleep. This kid doesn’t like going down for naps so it usually takes about twenty minutes to get her to sleep which rounds out the end of the second hour.

The last hour is nap time. I carefully lower myself into bed and place Leina in my arms and we both nap together. Unfortunately, my idea of a nap is sleeping for a couple hours. Leina’s idea of a nap is sleeping 30-50 minutes so we’re still working out the details.

And then, like clockwork, she wakes up looking for boobie and the cycle begins again. And again. And again. And again.

People often tell me I need to “get out of the house”. I’m sure they think this is sound advice but I really don’t how exactly to do that. I suppose if she slept longer I could take her out with me but she doesn’t. And when she wakes, she wants to eat NOW. I’m all for the natural beauty of breasfeeding but I’m not quite ready to be whiping it out in, oh, say, the produce aisle of Safeway. Maybe later, but not now. Besides, those quick naps are the only chance I have to catch up on my sleep and I’m not about to miss out on any one of them!

And so I’ve come to actually enjoy my groundhog life. I know what’s coming when and I can just go with the flow. This kid has a game plan and I’m just along for the ride really. Once I gave up trying to get her to adjust to me, things really smoothed out. Now, I just follow her cues and we all get along just fine.

Well, the cycle is about to begin again. I’m off the prep the boobies for my little girl. Let the fun begin!

More pics on Ofoto:

She’s so alert now.

Before, she used to nurse and fall off the boob in a milky sleep coma and all you had to do was swoop her up and snuggle her while she slept.

Now, she wants entertainment. The boob isn’t enough for her. She’ll pop off with eyes wide open and look around as if to say, “ok, been there, done that, what’s next.”

I’m always fascinated by what catches her eye… the whirling blades of the ceiling fan, the black rim of the lamp shade, or even the pattern of sunlight on the wall. I wonder what she makes of all this. It clearly fascinates her, at least for a while, and then she starts to fuss and wants to look at something else.

She still loves to move. She adores rocking, swinging, being walked around, and my personal favorite, this kid loves to dance. For whatever reason, holding her and rocking, I get tired and bored fast. Watching her little face and trying to will her to close her eyes and sleep takes years. But turn on some good music and let me dance with her and the time flies. It only takes three or four songs and she’s out like a light. I’ll be in mid-dance, look down, and realize she’s totally sacked out. She particularly likes swing music which just happens to be one of my favorites as well.

So if you want to come visit and hang with Leina bring your dancing shoes. We do a lot of dancing in this house and that’s just fine by me.

Sometimes, while nursing, Leina gets hit by a bolt of baby electricity. I’m not sure why or what causes it but all of a sudden, her arms and legs all shoot out at once. Since she’s on her side, only her top arm and leg fly into the air but this is enough for her to lose her balance and she begins to tip backwards. Her little eyes open in alarm and she starts windmilling her arm and leg to try and keep herself from tipping over. Sort of looks like she’s trying to do the side stroke.

I always grab her before she falls back onto my lap and she gives me this big relieved look like “phew mom, that was close…. That’s almost a half and inch drop there. You should have that fixed, a kid could get hurt.” And then she pops back on and continues snacking until the next baby bolt hits her.

I’m telling you, this kid is cute.