C'est la Vie

One month. I can't believe it has been a month since we brought Lola Colette home from the hospital. My days and nights are running together and flying by. Some things are going really well, some aspects of life could use a little improvement.

Six weeks of awful coughing, non-breathing, non-sleeping sickness took its toll around here. And, of course, it was spread out over a long period of time between the three boys and myself, so the sleep deprivation was tough, not to mention there was a newborn baby in the middle of all that. Leif was last, also ending up in urgent care and home with 3 prescriptions including an inhaler. (I'm beyond thankful (and incredulous, to be honest) that Lola managed to escape without getting sick!)

Just as Leif was beginning to mend, Russ lost his job. Needless to say, life has been a tad chaotic. Routine has completely evaded us. It has been nice to have Russ around more often, but he is trying to work (his own consulting business) from home as well as do other home projects. Current family life looks much different from our usual M.O. The boys think it is one long weekend, and I'm completely distracted by Lola.

School is hit and miss. Again, I'm so thankful for Classical Conversations. We've managed to stay on track with classes and review. I feel that the boys have learned (and retained) a large quantity of quality material. All three of them have benefited from (even if not transitioned smoothly and expertly to) the classroom atmosphere, organization, and regulation. Leif, in particular, seems to excel at learning in a social environment. Though it has been a little tough for me to get everything together and get out of the house with all the children on Monday mornings with a smile on my face, I've benefited greatly from the routine and accountability. I'm so thankful that my mom has been there every week to help, and Russ has made it a few weeks, as well.

I wish (as usual) that there were more hours in a day (& night!). I want so badly to document these early days, but time for pictures and posting is swallowed up with other things. I just want to be like Ariana at My Sweet Chaos. She documents her days in detail (with tons of fabulous photos) even with a newborn, three other children (including a toddler!), homeschooling, emergency hospital visits, multiple classes and activities, and no sleep. How does she do it?!

I'm most disappointed in my lack of picture taking. It turns out I'm a newborn-photo-taking failure. Multiple issues are against me:

1. My technical skills. The lighting in particular is killing me.

2. My house. It is fairly clean (no thanks to me, but to my excellent help, Olive), but really little and full of STUFF. The regular stuff of life (boys, laundry, books, paperwork) and the stuff of un-done projects and to-do lists. Even the stuff that is nice and necessary (furniture, decor) feels claustrophobic lately and looks like clutter in photos. I have no creative options, no blank space to work with. It feels like, here, let's take a photo on the couch again. Or let's shake things up and take a photo on my bed. Again. Wahoo.

3. My perfectionist, control-freak tendencies. Let's not dwell on those...

4. The weather. This combined with #1 and 2 (and 3), is a disaster. My best photos are taken with natural, outdoor lighting. It's been dark and cold (and often rainy). Not possible with a newborn, and even the lighting indoors suffers greatly.

5. My dressing-the-newborn-in-adorable-clothing-failure. Really. Cute bracelets, headbands, shoes? Nope. I don't even get her out of hand-me-down jammies. Seriously. She doesn't like to get dressed/undressed, I don't like to go out of the house, and she spends much of the day sleeping. It seems like a waste to get her out of those comfy jammies.

6. Speaking of sleeping, don't you just love those gorgeous photos of sleeping babies in all sorts of creative poses? How do they get the babies to stay peacefully asleep? Especially all naked like that? Lola sleeps in jammies, swaddled in a pea-green blanket (does wonders for her complexion, not), in her black and gray carrier, with a huge WARNING label right by her face. Charming, huh?

I'm sure I could come up with a few other excuses, but we'll leave it at that for now. One of these days I'll document my real life minute by minute with pictures. It'll be riviting and stylish, I'm sure.

But isn't Lola a doll? I'm consumed with love.

I can't imagine life without her. I could spend all day kissing on her. But as I have other children (whom I love) and a few other things on the dreaded to-do list, I am so thankful that she takes at least two really long naps every day.

She also is sleeping well at night. After three non-sleeping boys, my expectations may be very low, but she sleeps 4-5 hours straight for the first half of the night. Last night she slept 6 hours, nursed for a few minutes, and then slept another 3 hours. Considering the fact that Leif didn't nap for 5 minutes without being held, and I co-slept/nursed him all night long just to survive, I'm in heaven.

Nursing is going well. In a perfect world, I would gather my boys around us while they sat peacefully listening to me read aloud. (P.S. Does it surprise you to know I don't live in that world?) In another ideal world, I would have finished off my reading list for 2010. (Nope. Don't live there, either.) In MY world, I've watched 3 seasons of Psych on Netflix Instant Play. It's my personal brand of Prozac. Cracks. Me. Up.

Oh, lookie, there. It's Lola. On my bed. In hand-me-down jammies. Again.

I don't know how much she weighs. It's an hour round-trip to the doctor's to weigh her, so we'll wait for her 2 month appointment because I'm lazy like that.

Her fingers are so long and beautifully thin. My boys had baby paws. I don't know where she got the gorgeous fingers. Certainly not from me. Now, if she can just get Russ's eyelashes, which all 3 of the boys managed to snag, she'll be set.

She is just beginning to do the sweet cooing thing and giving hints of smiles.

I really must go feed a baby and get everyone in bed. The rest of my ramblings will have to wait.