The Move

Moving everything (and setting up to some degree) into our first apartment the week before our wedding was a little difficult, and kept me very busy. It took awhile to settle in. Moving with a six-week-old baby, however, was many times more difficult. I really hope that J.R. and I are able to manage getting our new, larger apartment, with an even greater number of possessions, set up before the holidays (we are raising a newborn here, so no need to set the goal too close and risk complete failure at reaching the goal).

Moving has seemed to mess up Gabriel's sleep schedule. No matter what time Gabriel went to bed at night, I could plan on him waking up for the day at slightly before 7:00 in the morning. Now, however, I am dealing with as early as 5:30 wakings. It has been only a few days though, so I am hopeful that I will be able to shift his schedule so that we can manage no earlier than a 6:30 wake up. Once we can get a little more agreeable sleeping schedule set up, I will try to resume blogging with some coherence and frequency.

One Month of Life with Gabriel

After having completed one month with Gabriel, I am feeling semi-confident about motherhood. Gabriel is growing (though still wearing newborn attire), he is sleeping about as well (at least at night) as the mother of a newborn can hope for, and he reached the developmental milestone of lifting up his head and looking around at less than a week old. We are starting to manage a schedule, and I can manage short errand-running trips without feeling overwhelmed completely.

I credit my ability to feel like I actually accomplish things (albeit not much) most days to two basic reasons:
1. Gabriel is just plain a "good" baby. Sure, he gets fussy when he is hungry or tired (don't we all to some degree?), but he has had a natural tendency to get most of his sleep in during the night since the beginning with short wakings for the most part. He does not usually get much sleep in during the day (and as I result many people, including J.R., perceive him as a rather fussy baby boy), but he and I are getting much better about making sure that he gets more sleep during daylight hours.
2. My reading of The No-Cry Sleep Solution and Secrets of the Baby Whisperer. Obviously, I have not had a chance to apply many principles from these books yet, but both have provided me with valuable insight already.

Again, I would really like to include some photos of Gabriel, but I am waiting on J.R. to convert the files still.