Well, I have decided to put off talking about greed again. Tomorrow, I promise, greed will be discussed. Instead, I would rather reflect back on my son's first week of life seeing as he is now a week and 2 days old. I realize now that no matter how much you might think you are prepared for a newborn, there are always factors that slip by and come back to surprise you. I think that for the most part, my wife and I were prepared. We had the cloth diapers all set, his room was ready, we thought we were good to go. I now realize that one of the biggest factors we didn't take into consideration although we had heard it from everyone is the surprising lack of sleep that each of us gets. At this point, my wife gets less because she is the only one currently able to feed our son. But even sleeping through most of it (I sleep like a rock and need to get physically slapped to wake up), the sleep isn't solid. Good solid sleep, at least for me, has been reduced to about 4 hours a night. Not bad overall, but far less than my body needs. I find myself now floundering a little more, the sleep deprivation muddling my brain and slowing things down, especially when it comes to doing a number of things in a row. I start one, forget, start another, run around the house, and then forget whatever else I had to do. But I guess that it comes with the territory. For the most part, I really can't complain.
Our son definitely teased us with his sleeping habits. The first two days in the hospital, he slept through the night and even upon arriving home, he slept through the first night in his own crib. However, that ended, with feedings every few hours and one night, a tortuous little episode. Tortuous in a funny way looking back, but not when you are trying to sleep. There was one night around 1130 when he started crying, so I went in to check on him and found he needed his diaper changed from excessive peeing. That taken care of, I laid him back down, went back to bed for five minutes, and he started crying again. This time he pooped, quite a bit I might add, and was not happy having it fester in his diaper. So I changed him again, laid him back down and went to bed for another five minutes. Guess what, he started crying again, this time because with nothing left in his bladder or bowels, he was hungry. I got up that time as well, but couldn't solve the issue so I woke up my wife. I find his little antics quite hilarious now and imagine him coming up with this grand scheme to keep me awake although I know it is just bad timing. Since we are on the topic of peeing, I must relay another little antic of his that seems to only happen to me. There have been a couple times so far when I have laid him on my chest and he has fallen fast asleep. Normally when he pees, he wakes up, but either because I am so warm or he just gets really comfortable, he doesn't wake up while sleeping on my chest after peeing. The result, I get up, pull him away from my chest and find a nice wet spot on my shirt from where all his pee has thoroughly saturated his diaper and then saturated a nice large section of my shirt. Even when it happens, I can't help but laugh.
It seems that after a few days of waking up every hour and a half through the night, that he has taken to sleeping for at least four hours through the wee hours of the morning (ha, I said wee). I know, I know, don't expect this too keep up as he is on his own time right now, feeding when he wants and obviously pooping and peeing when he wants. But it is amazing to see him awake during the day, gazing around as if he could see everything (I guess they can only see light and dark right now and can't make out many details). He looks around with his bright blue eyes, absorbing everything. He follows every light that's on, inspects every shadow, and occasionally crosses his eyes and gives us a funny look. His looks are a whole other area of amazement. Perhaps the funniest is his smile, because he only gets a smile right now when he is pooping or about to poop. After eating he lays there, lips pursed, like a little duck man. And if his furrowed brow were any indication of thoughts flowing through his little brain, you would think he was attempting to solve the theory of relativity half the time. Human life is amazing, especially at this early stage when everything is simple. The human body knows what it needs to do and there is nothing superficial about it. Plain and simple, he is the most honest that he can and ever will be right now. When he cries, it is either because he is hungry, pooping, peeing, or uncomfortable. If only my life was that simple.
So looking back, I would have to say we were pretty ready for our son, despite the lack of sleep that we didn't really factor in. I had heard people say that they brought their baby home from the hospital and didn't know what to do. There is only one thing you can do and it wasn't that hard for my wife and I to figure out; love our son. All that is needed is love at this point (and diaper changing of course). But I myself was amazed at how quickly you just get into the rhythm of babyhood. The first day or so of his life, I was nervous, not wanting to hurt him, move him the wrong way, or disturb him too much. Now, it all seems simple and routine. While he is fragile, there is a certain comfort that comes after the first few days, a comfort in knowing that he will be OK, as long as you don't shake him or drop him, etc. I have taken to holding him right now like a loaf of rye bread (as a friend put it). He fits perfectly on my forearm, head cradled in my hand and his legs wrapped around my bicep. I might as well enjoy it now, because I know that even in a few weeks, he won't fit so well and will be too heavy to support for extended periods of time in that position. But for now, it is all about taking it one day at a time, or should I say, one diaper at a time. In fact, as soon as I am done writing this, I have to go change his diaper again (explosive pooping). But as much as people complain about it, I love it. It gives me more time to hold my son, to comfort him, to make sure he is OK, and show him how much I love him.
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