Coming up for air

Holy shit, this mother-of-two gig is HARD. Even with Iain home for the summer. We can just about get it together enough to tag-team the parenting; usually he tackles Owen and Owen-related issues, while I am in the recliner nursing (and nursing. Oh, and nursing).

Cormac appears to have some sort of … “problem.” Flatulence, not to put too fine a point on it. He grunts and groans and twists and bitches quite a lot. I remember Owen having the kind of gas as a newborn that would keep me up nights, but I don’t remember him writhing like this. Of course, I’m finding that I have mentally blocked an awful lot of horrid newborn behavior.

Love the sinner, hate the sin, that’s my attitude to this newborn phase. There are people who would tell me to appreciate every moment, but honestly? I am counting the days until he’s a regular baby. Newbornhood is just too taxing.

As far as Owen is concerned: Well. Here are some new rules we’ve had to implement:

No licking people
No poking people without asking permission
No throwing books
No leaving the house without telling Mom and Dad

I find that when I get more than 3 or 4 hours of sleep he’s much easier to deal with.

OK. Baby’s stirring. What else? I got a haircut. The timing was perfect. The guy was pretty good and I’m going to go back to him for the next cut. He proved his mettle when he fixed the awful stupid hate haircut that the other lady gave me, the lady I had to divorce because she wouldn’t listen. And he convinced me to buy a flat iron with ceramic plates and something called Tourmaline. And he may yet convince me to have my hair colored, by an actual professional, although I’m not sold on that yet. I kind of like the color (it’s finally natural again, a medium brown, nothing so fancy as “chestnut” or “burnt chocolate”) and I’m beginning to really take ownership, to embrace, if you will, the wiry strands of grey that are leaping about.

Other news: We are going to travel to see our parents. If you live in the Ohio-PA-MI tri-state area and would like to get together, possibly at Pollyeye’s next week, let me know. We’re still putting plans together but maybe we can work something out. On the other hand, this may be the sleep deprivation talking. I’m still not sure how traveling 8 hours in a car with a newborn and a toddler is going to end in anything other than misery and heartbreak. But hey, let’s give it a shot.

Um. Anything else? I may not chime in here again for a while. My days are divided into two hour chunks, and somehow I always have my hands full.

June 25, 2007 | Filed Under baby, daily grind, motherhood, toddler

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Comments

5 Responses to “Coming up for air”

juliloquy on June 25th, 2007 12:16 pm

Too bad you’ll be at the other end of PA; you’re always welcome to visit us in Philly!
LetterB on June 25th, 2007 2:19 pm

As much as I love the squishyness of newborns I totally agree about wanting to get that phase over with. I remember being very relieved when Lowell reached 3 months and started resembling a human more than a marsupial.
otter on June 25th, 2007 4:00 pm

1. Don’t you mean the Ohio-PA-MI-TN quad state area? No? Shit.

2. Totally with you on the newborn stage. I’m glad it’s not awful to say that. Or at least I have someone to share my awful-icity. Awful-tini, anyone?

3. I used to swaddle Eric so tight, I thought his eyeballs would pop out and he’d still manage to get loose, until we tried the Miracle Blanket. And the Karp book rocks. (I see that he has one on toddlers now too that I’m going to have to order soon.)

4. How cool are you for taking the time to update us, even though your hands are incredibly full? Very.
Dani on June 25th, 2007 6:55 pm

Well, I’ve got nothing on the newborn v. regular baby thing, but you bet your ass I’ll be at Pollyeye’s next week. Any chance it would be Friday of next week? It doesn’t matter though, I’ll be there!

And on behalf of Owen, I would like to ask what’s wrong with licking people?
LL#2 on July 5th, 2007 8:54 am

It sucks that Ohio never includes the southern portion of the state. glad to hear things are going well and falling into place!