You--Three Weeks, Four Days

You're laying beside me in bed and you're supposed to be sleeping but you're not.
You were but then I put you down and surprise, surprise--you're now wide awake.

Despite this minor setback, you're doing much better sleeping alone, at least today you were.
I managed to sneak away TWICE--once this morning and once this afternoon and the house is much better  for it, let me tell you.

Things are starting to feel...normal now.
I'm up more and able to rejoin my family and you seem to be settling into a routine of sorts.
Or at least you seem less unpredictable to me.
I'm starting to think about things other than finding sleep so I know we're making terrific progress!
(Though I must say, you are a terrific sleeper.  Words can not even describe how wonderful it is to not be up endlessly at night.  You usually go down for the night around midnight and wake some time between 4 and 5am.  Then you're up eating for about 45 minutes and down for another two to three hours.  I'm so sleep deprived from our pregnancy and just the whole new baby bit that I'm still dragging some times but it could be so, so, SO much worse.  Thank you, Chill Baby.)

You're a  whopping seven pounds and two ounces these days!
It's always such a proud feeling when you babies take off and start growing so healthy and strong on MY milk.
The milk I SLAVE over.
Only kidding--really, you're doing me a favor as all that milk making burns off all those stupid ice cream runs you wanted throughout the WHOLE pregnancy.

I took you in to meet our baby doc yesterday because you'd developed a sniffle and it freaked me out.
I'm not a freaker-outer, mind you.
But you're so tiny and I love you so much that you're sudden clogged nose (which made it hard for you to breath) about drove me insane with worry.
I needed to take you in anyway and get the "yeah, she's perfect" from Dr. Carine (which we got) so it worked out.
And in the end, you just had a stuffy nose.
No exotic baby disease like I had imagined.

Like your brother, you will not be receiving any of the routine vaccinations so I currently have no plans to return with you; in fact, I hope that we do not see Dr. Carine for a long time.
We only head in these days if something is bothering someone--if one of you all gets sick or needs something.
Since we don't follow the vax schedule (which is partly why babies are seen so frequently at the beginning) and since I really don't have many questions (which is the other reason why babies are seen so frequently at the beginning) we just roll on along!

You're smiling a lot all of sudden!
You've been smiling all along actually, from right there at the beginning to now though these smiles definitely seem more focused and deliberate.
You'll listen really closely and carefully to who ever is talking to you and then...you'll slowly start to smile until it's a full-on beam.
It's a brief thing but sometimes you'll smile more than once in a "conversation."
The reaction you get from family members is profound adoration.
We're sick with love over here, every one of us.

I think you might be a blondie which might sound surprising considering you have almost a full head of brown hair right now.
But the new stuff growing in is so light and blond and so are your teeny tiny eyelashes.
I'm excited to see who you will grow into.

Creux sings to you every day.
My favorite is "Frinkle, Frinkle, Wit-tle Star."
And "Mary Had A Wit-tle Wamb" which he just repeats over and over again endlessly.
(Along with the line, "And everywhere that Mary went, Mary went, Mary went."  We never learn where exactly Mary goes but she goes and goes and goes, I can say that much.)

You love your baths--Daddy gives them to you as he's done all of your siblings.
Mama doesn't interfere with bath time.
I've always loved that he has something special that he does with you kids all on his own.
He just brings you to me when you're done, all clean and snug and ready for a final nighttime nursing.

You're just a good, good fit with this family and I know I say it a lot but you're such an easy little one.
My plate is a full one and it's not enough to just "get along" here at home.
There are balls I can drop in my life but being a good mama isn't one of them and the fact that you are so "chill" makes my very big job a whole lot easier.

I'm still not sure how I'll do it all but I'm optimistic that we'll get it figured out.
(We have to, right?)
I'm hoping that by the time we add in school and soccer and dance and preschool and co-op and all the other misc. stuff that we do as a family that we'll be in a really good place together.
We've got about a month to go.

But I'm not rushing it along--not at all.
I'm still trying to steal some hours with you in the nest here and there through the day.
We're both really lucky to have had the kind of help that we've had over the last three weeks (because I can honestly say that neither Greer nor Creux had the kind of time with me at the beginning that you've had) and maybe even MORE lucky that there's a super big brother in the house who can kind of hold down the fort so we can snuggle a bit longer or nap together or so that later, when I start running crazy all over the city shuffling your sibs here and there, you can stay back and nap if my errand is short.  
You will not grow up in the car the same way that Greer and Creux have and that makes me really happy.

I'm still trying to write "The Night You Weren't Born" which precedes "The Day You Were" but I have NO time for the kind of writing required for such an important post.  (Nor do I seem to have the brain power needed to construct grammatically correct sentences.)

I'll get it up.  It's just going to take me awhile.

In the time it's taken me to write this (an hour now as I had to stop and settle you because you got tired of staring at the ceiling fan finally and then I put the Littles to bed) you're back to sleep, compliments of Daddy's hallway pacing.

I can't wait to climb in next to you, my sweet little barnacle.
Be there soon.

Love,
Mama