1. Dirty diapers are a good thing.
This goes against every fiber of my being. I was the kid that didn't play in the sand because I hate my hands getting dirty so much. Dirty diapers mean that baby is getting food, though, which is clearly in our best interest. Our little guy needs nutrition to grow and get stronger. It's been over 24 hours since we've had a dirty diaper, and April and I are cheering him on.
Secondly, to this same point... The face my son makes when he's pooping is.... HILARIOUS! It's the most amazing "stankface" ever! It's just the right combination of "This hurts", "This is really hard", and "Look what I did!" I'll try to get a pic of this soon. It's worth it.
2. Breast feeding sucks!
It's pretty excruciating watching my wife and son go through this learning process of figuring out how to get fed. He can't seem to figure out that he has to continue to suck in order to make the milk come out. He'll get a good latch, and suck for a few, but then stop and cry for no reason. This goes on for about 20 minutes or so before we figure it out.
But the whole thing is pretty painful for April. I think she's in more pain with her boobs than she was during her (unusually easy) birthing. I can imagine that would be the case when you grow two cup sizes in 2 days. We're going to stick with it as long as the doc is okay with us doing so. Many people, including a lot of doctors, prefer bottle feeding because you can measure the intake of the child during feedings, instead of waiting for the messy diaper and playing the guessing game like we are. I'm on whichever bandwagon my wife is on, but it's always a concern, and it's super frustrating for everyone involved.
3. The sleep thing is true.
I was the doubter. I told everyone that I was used to little sleep and this wouldn't bother me so much. While my wife is suffering more than me, thanks to breast-feeding, I'm pretty exhausted. The sleep I am getting (which isn't a whole lot) doesn't seem like good sleep. I'm restless in bed, and I don't feel like I've gotten to REM sleep since he was born.
I will say that some of that is my fault. As is typical with me, my mind doesn't really shut down and I'm not making a point to force myself to sleep during the downtime. I'll figure it out soon enough, but in the meantime we'll just have to work through it. The biggest sufferers are all the projects I had planned on completing during my time off. Doesn't look like those are going to get done at all.
4. Time flies.
I know this will only get worse, but it's definitely true. The simplest tasks take forever, and you're so concentrated on them that you don't realize how fast time is flying by. It seems like every five minutes, April is saying it's time to feed Noland, when it's actually been 2 hours or more, sometimes. It's dinner time before lunch comes, and daylight doesn't seem to exist.
Again, I think a lot of this is a perception thing and will get better once we get into a rhythm of tasks. Changing a diaper won't always take ten minutes. One feeding session will take 20 minutes instead of an hour. I can't wait to get a diaper bag and have to mess with that every time we leave the house. I have a feeling the days of being on time (whatever days there were of that, lol) are gone. We'll see.
Many more lessons to come, I'm sure. But right now, I'm hungry... I'm going to make a sandwich.
RG
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