Two-Week Reflections

Lucas is about two weeks old, so let me jot down some bits here about what it's been like in the Allen household since his arrival.

First, BIG kudos to Alyssa's mom, Janet, who is staying with us for three weeks while we adjust. Jan has been a great help to all of us in so many ways. I'm so grateful for her. I only hope her exposure to our home has been positive by and large. We are not accustomed to having long-term guests; I hope she has found our home to be a hospitable place.

Lucas has his days and nights mixed up, so he sleeps all day and is wide awake most of the night. He fusses a bit anywhere between 10PM and 3AM, which meant my being up with him from 1:30 to 3:30 last night (er, morning). When he gets this way, which soothing method will work is a crap shoot, so I go through the list: hold him, hold him a different way, walk while holding him, kiss him all over his face (that's more for me than for him, I think), drop in the Fisher Price swing with New Age music and disco lights, feed him a bottle, swaddle him, change his diaper, and so on. Eventually one or another of these has an effect, at least for a while, and if he starts up again, it's to the list once more.

Nursing has been a challenge mainly because of the vast differences in all the advice you get from doctors, pediatricians, lactation consultants, family, and friends. Everybody has some "secret weapon" to share with us. Everyone is shocked that we're not doing this or that. It really is surprising just how personally invested other people seem to get about how we feed our child. Very strange. And frustrating. Well, actually it's maddening.

So Alyssa and I have more or less resolved to do our own thing. That seems to be working best for us.