Friday, December 17, 2010

Relativity, mommy-style.

Einstein explained his Theory of Relativity using a woman and a hot stove.

For moms, I think it would be better explained this way: When you're reaching the end of your journey in preggo-land, a week lasts forever. Once your newborn arrives, a week is gone in the blink of an eye.

I cannot fathom that June is already one week old (technically, she's now a week-and-a-half). It's hard to believe that she's already here! Every morning I wake up to see her sweet little face next to mine, and I feel such a sense of awe. I love waking up to a mommy sandwich- June on my right, Lucy on my left. That's 'cause even though Lucy takes naps in her crib and starts out there at night, she generally wakes up around 5 or 6 each morning. Brett retrieves her and brings her to bed, I nurse her, and we all go back to sleep until 8 or so. I know the family bed isn't for everyone, but it works beautifully for us.

Some June developments:
- Like I did with Lucy, I disregarded the hospital's advice to clean June's umbilical stump with rubbing alcohol- recent research shows that alcohol actually increases healing time. For the most part I left it alone, only dabbing on some witch hazel when it was hanging by a thread. And, like Lucy, June lost her umbilical stump within a week of her birth.
- June loves to nurse around the clock. Like Lucy, she seems to be a snacker and prefers to sleep with a boob in her mouth as well. However, unlike Lucy, June is a champion sleeper. She already sleeps for 4+ hours at a stretch at night! June has nursing in the side-laying position down pat, which means I only get up once at night- and that's to change her diaper. Score another point for bedsharing!
- Strangely enough, June loves her swing- something Lucy never really took to. However, when we tried it out yesterday, June wasn't a fan of the Moby- whereas Lucy practically lived in it. I'm really hoping this changes quickly!

Lucy developments:
- Lucy's signing has taken off. It's like something clicked all of a sudden! She picked up 3 new signs yesterday alone- "baby," the grown-up version of "help" (I was having trouble differentiating the babied-down version of help from some other signs), and "cracker." She's still not talking- at least not whole, decipherable words. However, her babble sounds more and more like the real thing, and there's a smattering of words there. It's just a matter of figuring out what she means. Lucy also imitates our vocal inflection, particularly when she "reads" her books out loud.
- She's back to nursing several times a day, mostly in the night and morning. Lucy's doing a great job with sharing, though. She loves to sign "baby" and point to June- it's pretty adorable. We've only had one incident of sister-on-sister abuse so far, and it involved an Eric Carle board book. However, I think it was more of a case of Lucy having terrible aim when she chucked it then an intentional targeting of her baby sister. Still, we had a serious chat about throwing things and being patient. It's a good thing newborns are more tough than they look!

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