Maija Puddle.com

I can’t believe our little guy is already 5 weeks! wow! Its been surreal settling into our roles as parents. We love our son to bits and a small part of me secretly gets so excited when he wakes us up during the evening; I feel like I already started to miss him.

Looking back I guess I’ve learned alot in 5 weeks with the help of  parenting guides, knowlegable friends and good ole faithful google.  I was so nervous before James was born I watched countless youtube videos on how to  breastfeed, change diapers, bathe newborns and even how to give newborns massages. I still feel like a new parent who needs to get advice on everything new that I’m unsure about, but its just because I want the best for our boy. But I do have to laugh at myself looking back to those first days, you live and learn.  I was so unsure about breastfeeding at first that I didn’t want to do it unless I had to So I let James sleep as long as he wanted the first two nights. Big mistake, he didn’t wake up when he was hungry and by the time he did, he was too weak to eat.

And then there was diaper changing. It wasn’t until the third night I realized his diaper should be changed at night as well as during the day. Embarrassingly it was day 3 of James life, and I still hadn’t changed his diaper myself. So my first diaper change was in the middle of night. I couldn’t clean all of the poo off James, as I was so worried about hurting him. I just put a clean diaper over his messy bum praying the mess would solve itself. In the morning I complained to a nurse that I couldn’t get all the poo off of him, so she (probably humouring me) took my child and cleaned him off. Despite my first failed attempt, I’ve actually grown to enjoy changing diapers. (I know this is probably a premature notion as the novelty might just wear off soon.) I get the same satisfication for changing diapers as I get from throwing trash out, or doing a pile of dirty dishes. James loves having his diaper changed as well. He becomes quite peaceful and relaxed, even though I’m sure he is looking forward to the clean feeling I think he’s really after the milk. We have a routine of diaper change first, and milk after.

So we are both surviving as new parents and even enjoying ourselves. We are tired as most parents of a newborn are. Each night is worthy of a new story, as we wake up to find ourselves  burping or cuddling our pillows  or talking to James in our sleep. Despite our zombie-like state we love being parents and love our son.