Sweet Baby Max

I noticed a huge change once Max turned 3 weeks old. Everything became so much easier. I'm guessing this is a combination of my feeling better along with getting the hang of being a new mommy.

Nothing could have prepared me for the sleep deprivation of taking care of a newborn while trying to recover from surgery. It is really HARD on so many levels. I never get a REM cycle of sleep. Even with the help of others, I still need to get up all the time to express milk. When I sleep a bit longer, my boobs become so full and hard and are leaking all over the place. So no matter what, I am constantly up and down through the night and day. And I never feel rested and rejuvenated. But looking at that tiny face gives me a burst of energy to do what I need to do.

Sweet baby Max has had some new developments in the past couple weeks. His umbilical cord stump fell off when he was 16 days old. The last time I saw it, it was hanging on by a thread. Then the next time I changed his diaper it was just gone. I think the stump just got lost in a dirty outfit when Marc changed him, and I never saw it again. So it probably got thrown in the wash and disintegrated into nothing.

Once his belly button looked all cute and normal, we were allowed to give Max a bath. We didn't really plan when to give him a bath, but the next day he asked for a bath in his own special way. I went to change a poopy diaper and while I was changing him he squirted out a wet, mustard poop that went all over the place. Liquid mustard got all over the bottom of his onesie, so when I took it off his body it looked like he had been playing in burnt yellow paint balls. So, it was a mad rush to the bathtub for him.

Marc helped me with the bath by bringing me towels and washcloths. Max laid on his safer bather and was a good boy. The water seemed to scare him, but he didn't cry. I kept dipping the washcloth into the water and putting it on his body. And I talked to him the whole time and explained what I was doing so he might feel secure. I read that it was soothing for a baby to hear his mommy's voice since that was the main voice he heard for all those months inside the womb.

All in all, I think his first bath went ok. I was really nervous about bathing him for some reason, and was glad Marc stayed close by in case I needed his help. For his second bath, I moved him to the sink and it was much easier. I'm still not an expert, but with the steep learning curve of parenthood, I'm figuring it out fast.