Thanksgiving

iBaby Skype Stream

Our first born Madeline is only 28 days old, and today was Thanksgiving.  Naturally, we have a lot to be thankful for.  She is healthy and we'd like to keep her that way, at least for the first couple months while she's a little fragile.  Consequently I put an iPad in her travel system and we used Skype to bring her to the family gatherings.

Was a moderate success, glad we did it.  I'm still not sure what to report to family and friends about our new life.  Honestly, I think I'm still formulating opinions on the matter. It's our first baby, and like all first time parents we're doin the best we can.  It's such a mixture of joy, relief, thanks,  happiness, terror, confusion, and general locked-down-ness that it's hard to formulate it into cohesive sentences.  I usually reply with...  "It's more than I thought it would be."  And gosh, everybody who's a current parent tells me, "it only gets worse", followed by "but it's SOOO WORTH IT".  I'm sure in retrospect everything will make sense, and everyone will be right about everything they've said... but operating in this new environment on very little sleep makes me less than an amiable receptor of fellow parenting information.  

Don't even try to put the long sleeve on Dad.

That being said here's what I've learned this week.  1.) My baby is adorable and I love her.  2.) My baby pisses and shits a lot and the doctors say I should be very happy about this.  Her shit sounds funny.  Sometimes it sounds like a fancy coffee is being made, like a Frappacino.   3.) If your baby vomits it's worth raising an eyebrow, and checking her temp.  Not worth flipping out and Googling it like she's caught the plague   Turns out she just ate too much.  4.)  If I have enough milk, wipes, and diapers, I can handle the baby for a few hours.  I'm not nearly as good with her as my wife is, but I can hold her at bay for a while.  5.) I am completely hopeless at dressing her.  She just screams in terror as I attempt to gently force her little arms into the sleeve holes.  She is quite strong, and I eventually fail my Fort-Save (DnD term) and give up because my heart can't take any more howling.

Mommy can dress me.

Kelly and I have been able to find time to do some other fun things,  we even played video games and I went for a run.  The baby is now sleeping sounder than before which allows us maybe 3 or 4 hour chunks of sleep at night.