Sunny 9 for 2007 January 14 (entry 0)

(4) Sun Jan 14 2007 15:54 Some things never change: Today was my first official day back at church after "maternity leave". Maybe I have just gotten to be a better mom or maybe Gunnar is sooo different than Lily. He was so clam today at church. No going in the hall (okay, we were late so we were sitting out in the foyer) but not a peep really the whole 2 hours I had him. I teach the third hour so Aaron had him and he said he was good.

When Gunnar was tired, well he just went to sleep then. Lily at church was a nightmare. She was and is a very social person so of course with all these new faces to look at there was no way she was going to tear her eyes away for a second to go to sleep. No way. How boring?! Unfortunately, Lily was the type of baby that had a schedule of napping and if she missed a nap she remind us that she was still awake and not sleeping by making life miserable for Aaron and me. Not so for Gunnar. He could care less about looking around. As long and he was snug in my arms he slept or laid there quietly.

Now you may be saying to yourself, "that's because he is only six weeks old." This might be true, but for Lily she was the way she was at six weeks old. Wide awake all through church. Never able to sleep unless she was snug in her crib belly down and no one in there to make a noise. She could hear someone lick their lips and wake up, that girl.

So I am not really surprised that lately Lily has been having issues with going to sleep. I mean with all the excitement of having a baby brother, and knowing he is still in the room with mom and dad and she is all alone in her room. She wants to be part of the action. It takes her forever to go to sleep now. Plus kids won't go to sleep with a dirty diaper. Well, Lily calculates when bedtime is and I swear saves it until we leave the room and then lets it all out as punishment to us. We hear her playing, climbing, talking, and singing for half an hour to an hour and finally Aaron or I will go and check on her to smell that indeed, she has a dirty diaper. Her best payback is when she gets naked, diaper and all, and gets poop all over her carpet and wall. Yes, that did happen. A disgusting and horrifying story for another day. Usually though, her diaper is just wet, thank goodness.

Part of the tricks we play to get her to sleep is that we tell her that we are going to sleep to. So as we get up to leave the room she says, "Papa nigh-night too, Mama nigh-night too, Gunnar nigh-night too, Lily nigh-night too, animals nigh-night too". She has a basket full of animals that she sleeps with, and on some nights she makes me kiss every one goodnight including her sippy cup. Anything to get out of going to sleep.

Gunnar is getting the hang of a schedule thank goodness, and hopefully after this week he will be predictable and happy because I will know what he wants. You know what is sad is for the holiday tomorrow, I made Aaron promise me to watch both kids as if I am not home so that I can shut myself in my room and clean it top to bottom. For once and for all, including the bathroom. I have not been able to get at it with Gunnar still in there afraid that if I do anything in there too long while he is sleeping I will lose my precious hands free time. So my life has come to this. Being excited about cleaning by myself with no one to attend to or interrupt me. How sad is that?

24 season 6 is on tonight!! Can't wait.

Comments:

Posted by John at Mon Jan 15 2007 10:50

What's the normal time before returning to church? Our friend had a baby Dec 23 and she showed up for church yesterday.

I was hoping our friend's turnaround time is more normal, as I can't handle playing the organ and teaching primary by myself for 6 weeks.

Posted by Hailey at Mon Jan 15 2007 13:34

I'm not going back with the whole fam until March 4th--dr.'s orders!

Posted by Kristen at Tue Jan 16 2007 10:42

I guess it depends who you ask. I don't believe that it is necessarily the mom's recovery as much as you just don't want the baby around all that stuff too early. I know a crazy woman who had her baby on a Thursday and had him blessed on that Sunday and be back ever since then. I personally think that church is the last place my new babies need to be with all those germs packed into one building.

For example I was holding Gunnar and some random teenage girl from another ward came and touched Gunnar's hair and was saying how cute or whatever. You don't want to be rude, but then again you don't want people touching your newborn especially without washing their hands.

It totally depends on the person though. I know with Lily my recovery was so much slower than with Gunnar too. I could barely sit at all the first month.

Call me paranoid but my sister in law's baby Austin went to the hospital for two days just because he had a small fever of like 100. It is a big deal for newborns to get sick especially since it will still be RSV season when Susie has Beet. I personally wanted to wait that long, but some people feel more comfortable going back earlier.

If I were you John, I would ask for a sub for the first 3 weeks in your primary class, and just go to Sacrament to play the organ. But that's just me.

Posted by Jenni at Fri Jan 19 2007 14:36

I say enjoy the time off!!! Well, hope you did since it's over I suppose! Yah, you can never be too careful--especially when it's colder outside. I thought I was so much safer having a baby in the summer, but it turned out it was just as easy for him to get sick!