no matter how much you try to prepare for bringing your first baby home, there's just no way to really understand what it will be like until you're in the thick of it. your friends try to warn you, the books and blogs give you advice, but ultimately you just have to jump in and hang on. looking back i can see how the days and weeks unfolded, but at the time it was all a blur.
that first month was literally all about survival. i heard this a lot when i was pregnant, but it's hard to comprehend just how true it is until you're in it. aside from my obvious new job of taking care of jack, i had exactly four priorities and the number one priority was sleep. this was by far the most important thing to me and i'd say the pursuit of sleep consumed at least 80% of my thoughts that first month. i was constantly calculating how long it would be until i could sleep again and how long i'd be able to stay in bed once i got there. numbers two and three sometimes switched out of necessity, but generally priority number two was eating and number three was going to the bathroom. while both of these things did obviously happen, they would easily get the boot if sleep was an option. coming in at a distant fourth was taking a shower, and we only made it that far down the list on a few rare occasions.
in the second month small glimpses of normal life started to appear. don't get me wrong, sleep was still very much the number one priority, but i would occasionally have the capacity to think about other things. we made it to church. we'd do something wild and crazy like go out to eat, visit a park, or walk around target. embarking on one of these adventures usually necessitated a day or two of recovery after, but we were beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
we're now in month three and i'd say we're figuring out our new normal. we've emerged from the blur and i usually have enough mental capacity to think about more than just sleeping, eating and pooping. we're making plans to leave the house to see friends and family instead of them having to come to us, and i've even started working on a few house projects. the progress on these projects is slower than slow, but progress is still progress, and life is good.
that first month was literally all about survival. i heard this a lot when i was pregnant, but it's hard to comprehend just how true it is until you're in it. aside from my obvious new job of taking care of jack, i had exactly four priorities and the number one priority was sleep. this was by far the most important thing to me and i'd say the pursuit of sleep consumed at least 80% of my thoughts that first month. i was constantly calculating how long it would be until i could sleep again and how long i'd be able to stay in bed once i got there. numbers two and three sometimes switched out of necessity, but generally priority number two was eating and number three was going to the bathroom. while both of these things did obviously happen, they would easily get the boot if sleep was an option. coming in at a distant fourth was taking a shower, and we only made it that far down the list on a few rare occasions.
in the second month small glimpses of normal life started to appear. don't get me wrong, sleep was still very much the number one priority, but i would occasionally have the capacity to think about other things. we made it to church. we'd do something wild and crazy like go out to eat, visit a park, or walk around target. embarking on one of these adventures usually necessitated a day or two of recovery after, but we were beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
we're now in month three and i'd say we're figuring out our new normal. we've emerged from the blur and i usually have enough mental capacity to think about more than just sleeping, eating and pooping. we're making plans to leave the house to see friends and family instead of them having to come to us, and i've even started working on a few house projects. the progress on these projects is slower than slow, but progress is still progress, and life is good.