Day Four

Geez, you're thinking, why is a woman with a new baby still compulsively blogging?! What is wrong with her? Shouldn't she be doing some nurturing?

Well... I do have a lot to do, what with the Big Project, a small and cluttered apartment now additionally littered with cloth diapers, receiving blankets, and half-empty glasses of water. a preschooler apprehensive about losing her parents' love, an overworked and exhausted husband, and a small pimply parasite to tend. But I kind of just feel like writing about it instead of doing things about it. I also know that when Skipper really starts waking up, I'm not going to have time to sit at the computer and navel-gaze. We're in an uniquely blog-friendly period. I'm not really supposed to be out hiking around doing errands, so I'm sort of house-bound. Skipper is still sleeping an awful lot of the time, and I've got her tied to me, so I've got my hands free.  I can't really do dishes (due to the awkward reach and the banging around), and I can't take a shower, but that's about it. Oh, also, I can't really bend over very well, so there's a lot of detritus on the floor.

So that's my justification. Cook has gone to work, and Dutch to daycare - we decided that prying her out of the home and back into her normal routine would be best, and it sure cheered her up yesterday. She seems to feel a little less worried about being usurped, and she's being very clear about what she's feeling, so I think we'll work through it pretty soon. She told me today that she loves Skipper more than I do. 

Skipper is still arriving in our world - she's been awake a little more , and had a few sweet periods of quiet alertness. She likes to recline in the crook of my arm, her head tipped back a little, and peer at the world through half-open eyes. She looks a little like Charles Grodin, actually. 

I've extrapolated all sorts of ridiculous conclusions about her personality already, based mostlyon the poor kid's squintiness. Dutch was a pretty alert and interactive baby from her very first breath (for a newborn, I mean, which isn't very alert). Skipper seems to be more inclined to let the world come to her. She's also much less piranha-like in her breastfeeding, taking a leisurely, snacky approach to the whole enterprise. (We spent several days worried about how little time Dutch spent breastfeeding, until we discovered she was growing like the proverbial beanstalk, and clearly getting everything she needed in her 5-minute feeding sessions. Skipper prefers a 45-minute feeding session.) Also, more charmingly, she actually does some self-soothing, unlike Dutch, who has always been one to start screaming the instant she wakes up. So she may turn out to be the classically mellow second kid,  calmly eating dustbunnies in the corner while the melodramatic first kid gets all the attention.

In closing, here's a list of things I love:

• My wrap. So handy-dandy, and cuddly, too. 
  
• Cloth diapers. Our service didn't start until yesterday, so we had to put Skipper's wrinkled little butt in disposables for a few days, and I'm so much happier with cloth. Phew.  
  
• Weather warm enough to keep a baby naked. 
  
• Fleece diaper covers. 
  
• Midwifery practices that come and visit you in your home three times after your birth to check on you and your baby.  

I'm feeling pretty good today!