Week of Firsts
The week before my last week of maternity leave has actually been a week of exciting firsts! And many of them all took place on the same day! Some first experiences will help us prepare for going back to work. Others were fun surprises or planned events to help us all get the most out of our remaining leave time at home with our little one.
August 15
First afternoon away from Mom and Dad: Though neither Hubby nor I want to leave our son at all, it's important to have our sitters (a.k.a. Baby's many wonderful grandparents) get a chance to practice caring for him in advance. They can begin to learn his patterns, discover any issues we have to deal with before we're less accessible at work, and find out how much milk Baby will need while we're away. We can also find out how much separation anxiety Baby might experience, and hopefully get him used to being apart from his parents for a little while. Spoiler alert: he barely noticed we were gone....Which brings us to:
First afternoon away from Baby: Though I've had a couple of medical appointments during maternity leave where I didn't bring Baby (Hubby stayed watching him at home), they were never more than two hours. That was a little hard at first, but got me used to driving again (I've been pretty home-bound since the c-section), and I realized the break was good for me--I missed having the freedom to even just run simple errands. But now both Hubby and I would be gone from our son, and for more than three hours. We kissed him goodbye as my mother-in-law held him, and then quickly headed out the door so we wouldn't have time to dwell. No tears from Baby, though my husband and I both teared up a little as we drove away. It felt so strange to be without him after all these weeks. So weird to not have him in the backseat of our car. It didn't help that right before we left the house Hubby's phone went off with his new ringtone: the song Baby and I danced to in our living room. But, after a few minutes, and some activity to distract us, it felt like old times again--when Hubby and I used to go on dates just the two of us. We held hands and talked and went to see the new Spider-Man movie in theaters, which I really wanted to see and thoroughly enjoyed! Hubby's parents texted us an update of how much milk Baby ate and that he was sleeping soundly. No trouble at all, which was a great assurance. And at the end of this week, Baby will have his first afternoon being watched by my parents too, which means another date night that we can look forward to instead of worry about.
First family dinner: Because Baby didn't get his shots until he was two months old, and because it's a lot of work to travel with a baby and care for him outside our home, we'd had yet to bring our son to my parents' house for our usual family dinners. But at 10 weeks old and growing bigger and stronger by the day, the time seemed right to bring our son to my parents' house for the first time (his first visit to any relative's home). Plus I could take a picture with him in the same spot we'd posed each week while I was pregnant. Baby stayed pretty calm for most of the visit--except when he got hungry toward the end of the evening--and allowed both his uncles to carry him without crying.
First sleep through the night: Perhaps because of all the activity during the day with all his grandparents, Baby got especially tuckered out by the time bedtime rolled around. We put him asleep in his bassinet at 9:35pm and he didn't wake and cry to come out until 5:29 the next morning! While we know we can't expect such a long sleep every night--and I did worry about him going so long without at least one feeding--I have noticed his stretches of sleep at night have gotten just a little longer over time. What started out at about 3.5 hours of sleep at a time (at the most) grew into almost five hours on August 13 and 14, almost 8 hours on August 15, and almost 6 hours on August 16. I don't want to tempt fate, but I'm hoping to see these longer hours continue so that Hubby and I can get longer stretches of sleep at last too.
August 16
First movement around the playmat: While we know Baby has been learning to scootch himself (using his legs to push forward on his back as a precursor to crawling), we didn't realize just how much he can move on his own until we started to track his playmat positions. I placed Baby on his activity mat and took a photo of that position. Then I watched in awe as he spent the next half hour working his way around the circular mat counter clockwise until he was almost right back where he started (then today, August 17, he did make it right back to where he started!). It was amusing to see his intelligence and strength as he figured out how to push off from the objects around him and arch his back in order to propel his body forward like a caterpillar.
August 25
First family portraits: Though this one hasn't happened yet, we have scheduled to take our first professional portraits as a family (with Baby on the outside instead of on the inside) this next Sunday. It will be my last day of maternity leave, so it will give me something to look forward to on a day I otherwise somewhat dread. It will mark the end of a great experience and the beginning of a new chapter of our lives. Not to mention the fact that these photos will come right before my birthday, making them the perfect present for my first birthday as a mom.
August 15
First afternoon away from Mom and Dad: Though neither Hubby nor I want to leave our son at all, it's important to have our sitters (a.k.a. Baby's many wonderful grandparents) get a chance to practice caring for him in advance. They can begin to learn his patterns, discover any issues we have to deal with before we're less accessible at work, and find out how much milk Baby will need while we're away. We can also find out how much separation anxiety Baby might experience, and hopefully get him used to being apart from his parents for a little while. Spoiler alert: he barely noticed we were gone....Which brings us to:
First afternoon away from Baby: Though I've had a couple of medical appointments during maternity leave where I didn't bring Baby (Hubby stayed watching him at home), they were never more than two hours. That was a little hard at first, but got me used to driving again (I've been pretty home-bound since the c-section), and I realized the break was good for me--I missed having the freedom to even just run simple errands. But now both Hubby and I would be gone from our son, and for more than three hours. We kissed him goodbye as my mother-in-law held him, and then quickly headed out the door so we wouldn't have time to dwell. No tears from Baby, though my husband and I both teared up a little as we drove away. It felt so strange to be without him after all these weeks. So weird to not have him in the backseat of our car. It didn't help that right before we left the house Hubby's phone went off with his new ringtone: the song Baby and I danced to in our living room. But, after a few minutes, and some activity to distract us, it felt like old times again--when Hubby and I used to go on dates just the two of us. We held hands and talked and went to see the new Spider-Man movie in theaters, which I really wanted to see and thoroughly enjoyed! Hubby's parents texted us an update of how much milk Baby ate and that he was sleeping soundly. No trouble at all, which was a great assurance. And at the end of this week, Baby will have his first afternoon being watched by my parents too, which means another date night that we can look forward to instead of worry about.
 |
| First date night in over 2 months! |
First family dinner: Because Baby didn't get his shots until he was two months old, and because it's a lot of work to travel with a baby and care for him outside our home, we'd had yet to bring our son to my parents' house for our usual family dinners. But at 10 weeks old and growing bigger and stronger by the day, the time seemed right to bring our son to my parents' house for the first time (his first visit to any relative's home). Plus I could take a picture with him in the same spot we'd posed each week while I was pregnant. Baby stayed pretty calm for most of the visit--except when he got hungry toward the end of the evening--and allowed both his uncles to carry him without crying.
First sleep through the night: Perhaps because of all the activity during the day with all his grandparents, Baby got especially tuckered out by the time bedtime rolled around. We put him asleep in his bassinet at 9:35pm and he didn't wake and cry to come out until 5:29 the next morning! While we know we can't expect such a long sleep every night--and I did worry about him going so long without at least one feeding--I have noticed his stretches of sleep at night have gotten just a little longer over time. What started out at about 3.5 hours of sleep at a time (at the most) grew into almost five hours on August 13 and 14, almost 8 hours on August 15, and almost 6 hours on August 16. I don't want to tempt fate, but I'm hoping to see these longer hours continue so that Hubby and I can get longer stretches of sleep at last too.
August 16
First movement around the playmat: While we know Baby has been learning to scootch himself (using his legs to push forward on his back as a precursor to crawling), we didn't realize just how much he can move on his own until we started to track his playmat positions. I placed Baby on his activity mat and took a photo of that position. Then I watched in awe as he spent the next half hour working his way around the circular mat counter clockwise until he was almost right back where he started (then today, August 17, he did make it right back to where he started!). It was amusing to see his intelligence and strength as he figured out how to push off from the objects around him and arch his back in order to propel his body forward like a caterpillar.
August 25
First family portraits: Though this one hasn't happened yet, we have scheduled to take our first professional portraits as a family (with Baby on the outside instead of on the inside) this next Sunday. It will be my last day of maternity leave, so it will give me something to look forward to on a day I otherwise somewhat dread. It will mark the end of a great experience and the beginning of a new chapter of our lives. Not to mention the fact that these photos will come right before my birthday, making them the perfect present for my first birthday as a mom.
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