Seven Quick Takes with a New Baby (Vol. 12)

We’ve had a new baby in the house for a week and a half now.  I think we’re starting to settle into a new “normal.”  It helps that Jade is a very easy baby.  She’s still eating really well (in fact, she’s gained almost a pound since her birth!) and sleeping really well too.  She’s often awake for a bit during the day, but at night she just eats and goes right back to sleep (unless she has bad gas because my milk is coming so fast).

We were blessed with this new baby by friends and family dropping off meals or food for us.  I haven’t had to cook since Jade’s birth, so that’s been a huge help.  Although now I have a counter full of dishes that need to get returned to their rightful homes… 🙂

Of course, having a third baby girl means that we don’t need any clothes for her… I just have to find them.  I spent an hour in the girls’ closet on Sunday morning, looking for newborn-sized sweaters and hats for Jade.  Success on the sweaters; I have no clue where the hats are.

We’ve been blessed with lots of hand-me-downs from friends and family, so I reorganized the closet while I was there.  Now there’s a big box of clothes for Sunshine to grow into, various bags of clothes for Jade to grow into, and most of Lily’s clothes come straight from Sunshine’s drawer.  Someday, I need a better organizational system, but that will probably have to wait until we have a more permanent house.

Jade was born in the middle of Sunshine’s spring break from preschool, which was both good and bad.  It was good because I didn’t have to run out anywhere that week. My husband picked up any groceries we needed and Jade’s first outing was church on Sunday.  It was bad because Sunshine didn’t have her normal routine and so was a bit bored at home, I think, especially because last week I didn’t have the energy to either take her out anywhere or find extra things for her to do in the house.  We had a couple struggles over things that shouldn’t have become big issues.  This week has been better because she’s back at preschool, so she’s been a much happier girl.

Lily has adjusted more easily to having a new baby, in part, I think, because she’s better at keeping herself entertained than Sunshine is.  While Sunshine is at preschool, Lily is quite content to sit beside my computer chair colouring a picture or to take care of her stuffies with her doctor kit.

She’s had no problem keeping herself busy while I’ve been taking care of Jade, while Sunshine has wanted me to read to her or play board games with her or otherwise be involved.  So while Jade is nursing, we often sit on the couch to read together, as that keeps everyone busy and happy.

On Sunday afternoon, my husband and I rearranged our room to fit in the crib.  Sunshine helped measure all the furniture to make sure that it would fit as we thought it would.  I attempted to dust and vacuum as things were moved.  Jade slept through most of the rearranging, so I was able to help push furniture and build the crib.

I like how our room looks now—maybe just because it’s something new and interesting.  And Jade has actually slept in her crib a few times, too.  (Her older sisters refused to sleep by themselves until they were much older…)  When I put a crib mobile from our neighbours up, my husband asked me, “Where’s the mobile we used to have?”  Um, good question… guess I’ll have to dive back into that closet!

I have two weeks of classes left before the end of semester, and I’m looking forward to that.  I only took the fiction workshop because it was flexible, so I knew I could work my deadlines around Jade’s birth (of course, that would have worked a bit better if she’d shown up closer to her due date!).

My prof allowed us to submit the first two chapters of a novel, instead of two short stories. I tried to get as much of my writing and revisions done as possible before Jade was born.  Jade went with me to class on Tuesday and slept through the whole thing (another blessing of an easy baby!).  This class has given me a good start to my novel, so I’m glad I took it despite wondering how it would work with having a new baby two months into the semester.