Livin' the Dream

I started this blog because as a new stay-at-home mom, I felt like I wasn't being "productive" enough. I need to be doing something! Making money! Being creative! Not spending 10+ hours a day watching Netflix while trapped on the couch underneath an infant. Now that our darling Nugget has matured to the point that he can continue to eat while I type one-handed, I wanted to do something to keep my brain more alert than re-watching all nine seasons of The Office. 

My time at home with the baby is somewhat different than what I had imagined. I pictured feeding Nugget approximately every three hours, followed by playing and singing with him, followed by him taking uninterrupted naps in his crib. During nap time, I would clean the house, cook simple but nutritious meals, read edifying books, and learn the guitar. I was blessed with a sweet, easygoing baby who smiles, plays, and makes dinosaur noises, my domestic bliss is not what I imagined. 

Nugget's persnickety nap habits make my modest intentions difficult, if not impossible. He rarely submits to napping in the crib, and when he does, the naps are short and inadequate. These first four months, most of Nugget's naps have taken place attached to my boob or lying on my lap. I must always be prepared to sit or lie still for hours at a time, so before each feeding I have to pee, get a drink of water, situate an array of pillows, and arrange my laptop within easy reach so that I will be able to sit in one place for upwards of two hours if Nugget decides he is tired. Occasionally, my baby will pass out in his swing, which does not give me much more freedom as I feel obligated to run over and check his breathing every 5-10 minutes.

Another factor restricting my activities is Nugget's near-constant need to feed. Breastfeeding mothers produce milk at wildly different rates, and mine must not be very high because my baby gets hungry every 90 minutes at least. Before he was born, I thought that feeding intervals meant that a baby would eat for a while, then I would get a couple of hours break, then he would get hungry again. I assume that's true for some mothers, but I spend 20-30 minutes feeding, at least 10 minutes holding Nugget upright so he doesn't spit everything right back up, and then we have maybe 45 minutes until he starts clamoring for the boob again. I average four hours a day of active feeding, not including spit-up prevention time. All this to say I spend a lot of time immobilized under a baby.

The end result is that my house is not clean, we eat more frozen pizzas than we should, and I'm really getting my money's worth on streaming services. I don't read as much as I thought I would because the positioning is awkward and I often find myself stuck under a baby without having brought over any reading material.

And yet - parenting is awesome. Our Nugget has the best primate cackle, gummy grins, and prehensile toes in creation, in my completely unbiased opinion. I intend to try and record some of the joys and frustrations of modern motherhood.