This post is just for you Damien!!
So, I don’t know what other parents in the world think but I think having a newborn baby in the house is a bit like having a ticking time bomb. You never know when its going to go off so you are in this constant state of hyper awareness/alertness, just in case. I swear, my ears have become radars listening for any sound from the little man. I hear him in my sleep, I hear Sadie eat a bone and think it might be him, I take the baby monitors with me everywhere I go and our place isn’t that big. You can hear Craig fart from one end of the condo to the next without any assisted listening devices.
Aleck, lucky us, has proven to be a great sleeper during the night (so far, I don’t want to jinx us). Last night he slept until 6:30AM, granted his last feed was at midnight since Craig opted to fall asleep and wake up later instead of waiting the 30 minutes and waking Aleck up to feed before Craig fell asleep(did you follow that?). So as Aleck is peacefully sleeping the night away, dreaming of moving both legs free from splints and casts, I was up at 3:30AM, again at 4, again at 4:45, again at 5, 5:30, 5:45, oh what the hell, why bother going back to sleep at that point. So I get up, do some stuff around the kitchen and prepare everything for the explosion. Medicine droppers cleaned and filled, burp cloth ready, bib ready, warm water waiting (we use warm water instead of wipes to keep the diaper rash at bay), cell phone in pocket, ear piece on and connected. That’s right folks, I’m the Jack Bauer of new moms. Well, I wish I was 😉 Needless to say I’m currently exhausted having wasted that wonderful sleeping opportunity once again. Hopefully there will be a next time.
This week is a full week once again. Aleck has his 5th casting tomorrow so that’s exciting. I’m no longer counting them down since we won’t do the tendon cutting until the 2nd week of January since then he’ll be 3 months old so this cast will probably stay on him for two weeks, as will the next. Honestly, the casts aren’t so bad. He seems to tolerate them well and they don’t give him any pain. Plus he can shake that leg pretty hard even with the casts on, he’s one strong little dude. This week we didn’t decorate the cast. Not sure why, got caught up in other things like building the crib and going on our first outing without him, a matinee of the new Muppet Movie (Thanks Cousins Bill & Beth!!). Today I didn’t even shoot him with the cast as I’ve been doing every Monday. I was just feeling worn down, cranky, and full of ageda(sp?) as my girl Christina would say. I feel a little guilty that I didn’t do these things. It’s like how people keep saying he’s going to be the most photographed baby, is it harder to keep on top of those things when it’s your own? Do you feel bogged down more by the weight of the situation? Exhausted by the schedule? Aaron & Jennifer, if you are reading maybe you can weigh in on this one. I myself thought it would be camera central over here and am already disappointed by my own lack of enthusiasm for my greatest subject. What is that all about?
Anyway, we meet with the social worker from EI on Wednesday, I go to my own dr’s on Thursday, then Aleck is having an upper GI done on his intestinal track on Friday to make sure everything is working properly there. With Arthrogryposis we keep getting this same speech about how it’s a blanket term and we don’t know everything that falls under this term so we are in a constant state of hyper alertness to make sure everything is working in proper order. That’s why we saw a neurologist, that’s why he’s having a GI. Assembling our team and arming them with as much information as possible so that if something else does go wrong we have all our players ready to go. It’s truly exhausting.