Charlotte: Four weeks in this big world!

Charlotte’s fourth week in this big world was her first full week with just her mommy to care for her during the days…the long 12 hour days with daddy at work…

And…

I am exhausted. I never knew I could be this tired and still “function.” (Although there are moments I really don’t feel as though I am actually functioning….) It’s not that I had unrealistic expectations of how life would be once Charlotte was born… but I suppose I did have expectations. It’s a bad habit of mine- having expectations. I suppose I thought when she would cry, I would be able to fix it: feed her, change her, and rock her to sleep (within 15 minutes of the first cry…). However; while sometimes these things do work to cease her cries, they don’t always. There have been a few days where I spend a few hours trying to figure out what it is that has caused such cries to come forth from my sweet daughter. But I do eventually figure it out (at least I get her to stop crying…. sometimes by the time I do get her to stop crying I don’t even know what it is I have done to have success!).

Perhaps one of the reasons I am exhausted (besides lack of sleep!) is the fact that Charlotte has devised a way to keep her parents in shape. When Charlotte is upset, she wants to be held. The catch is: she wants the person holding her to be standing and moving. Not just walking. She wants her comforter to bounce, do squats, speed walk, rock, dance…. Anything but stand still. Needless to say, she gives me a work out every day despite my doctor’s orders to refrain from exercise for another two weeks! You should see my arms. I don’t think my arm muscles have ever been as defined as they are now.

As I reread the previous paragraph, I realize I stated that when Charlotte is upset, she wants to be held. I must make a correction. When Charlotte is happy, tired, sad, mad, hungry, poopy, gassy, complacent, etc…she wants to be held. Pretty much, Charlotte wants to be held all of the time. (I love holding her! The only issue is I don’t get much done. Even going to the bathroom is a challenge…let alone eating! And laundry? Dream on!)

So, for Charlotte’s fourth week of life, she and I basically worked on figuring each other out. By Friday, I’d say we were doing pretty well. She’d wake up between 6-7am to eat. I’d take care of this need (which usually took about 30-45 minutes), change her and lull her back to sleep. Once my sweet girl was snoozing soundly, I’d grab my breakfast, jump in a quick shower, dress for the day and hop back into bed until she’d stir (usually by 9am). Hungry again, Charlotte would eat her fill; I’d change her diaper, dress her for the day, spend some happy wake time with her, and bounce her back to sleep. By this time, it would usually be closing in on 11am and time for a change of scenery. We’d head downstairs, I’d attempt to lay her in her snuggle nest to sleep (usually without success) and try to take care of a few things around the house. As well as eat lunch. Of course Charlotte has developed the habit of waking up whenever I feel the desire to seek nourishment of my own….so lunch was not ever easy. Charlotte usually desired another meal around noon, then she’d sleep again until 2pm (and I’d try to nap!), she’d wake again for nursing, sleep until around 4-5pm (and I’d watch a movie or some lame TV show), and then spend the remainder of the afternoon in tears as I’d do her required work-out routine to get her to sleep. At around 6:25pm, Charlotte and I would walk outside to the end of the driveway and watch for Daddy to get home…

Dinner each night was kindly delivered by fellow BV wives. And always super delicious! We enjoyed many good meals- so good, it seemed like the wives were in competition for who could cook up the best meal for us! MMM! Of course Ben and I didn’t enjoy these meals together….we had to take turns eating and bouncing Charlotte. Evenings are hands down the most difficult time of day for us thus far!

As soon as we swallowed our last bite of food, we high tailed it upstairs for Charlotte’s bath time. Usually Charlotte would cry each night until we stripped her down and placed her in the tub. She does love bath time! We have upgraded her to the big tub with her special bath chair. Of course she’s still too little to lay in the chair all alone, so Daddy holds her up while we both scrub her down. While Charlotte seems to enjoy all of the extra space provided by the tub, she often ended up in the sink anyway. See, she developed a new trick over the weekend. Pooping in the tub. Oh Charlotte…you are so stinking cute!

We threw off our sweet girl’s budding routine this weekend on accident. Saturday required a trip to the store, Ben’s haircut and Charlotte’s passport photo! We didn’t expect this outing to take long; however, we are in South Africa. Maybe our mistake was attempting to eat lunch while Charlotte was “sleeping”? I ended up standing in the bathroom stall feeding her (apparently South Africans are really offended by mother’s who b-feed their babies in public- even with a blanket cover!) and Ben ended up taking Charlotte to the car to change her diaper (no changing table…). Or maybe the mistake was the car seat. Charlotte hates her car seat. She screams every time we load her up to go anywhere. It is quite stressful…because again, I “expected” Charlotte to love her car seat and going for drives! I don’t know how I will be able to go anywhere just Charlotte and me… I will worry too much about her crying all alone in the back seat. (first time mom syndrome again…)

We barely made it home in time Saturday afternoon to feed Charlotte and dress her for the Halloween “carnival” I previously blogged about.

Sunday morning was a success with our second church attendance post-Charlotte’s birth. We spent the rest of the day lounging at the house. It was necessary.

And so, there you have it…Charlotte’s fourth week in this big world! This Thursday marks Charlotte’s ONE MONTH birthday! We’ll post a photo for you ;)