Sunday, October 7, 2007

Expanding into a trio

Adam is now 8 weeks old and weighs a whopping 13 lbs. 3 oz., putting him in the 90th percentile for his age. Too soon to tell if he'll be a quarterback or captain of the chess team, but for now the extra weight is adorable, with most of it concentrated in his cheeks (the ones on his face, not below the belt, in case you were picturing a J-Lo baby with junk in the trunk.)
I never get tired of looking at him and talking to him and taking him for walks and reading him books and singing him songs, and even with nearly two months of 24-7 bonding time, it still seems surreal that he's my son!! I can't get enough of him ... who would've thought I'd become such a baby person (me, the girl who used to have to be seated before holding a newborn so I wouldn't "break" him/her)?? I guess it's true what my mom always said, it's different when the baby is your own. Something almost primal kicks in and you just figure it out.
It's been more difficult than I thought adjusting to the "new normal" ... sleep deprivation, weekends consisting of baby-friendly activities (I haven't had a beer in a bar since November of last year!), and feeling a little isolated and lonely those first few weeks at home. I missed adult conversations and feeling a sense of accomplishment after a particularly busy work day and spur-of-the-moment happy hours and making plans without worrying about breastfeeding or the possibility of a fussy baby experiencing a meltdown in public. It took awhile for me to feel comfortable enough to leave the house and enter the "real world" again, but WOW has it made a world of difference. Go figure that I'm enjoying my maternity leave now, four weeks before I go back to work.