New Baby Life

I've done this new mom thing before. You think I'd remember that I don't sleep well. You'd think it wouldn't be news to me that I'm a little crankier than usual. But no, it always takes me by surprise. All I really want to do is wallow in a baby moon...snuggling, nursing, and changing without all the distractions of real life. But it turns out the other kids still want to be fed, as does my husband. The laundry won't do itself, and the food hasn't started jumping into the crock pot so I can turn it on and go! Crazy, huh?

Now there's so much to do. Reagan and Ciaran have school. And of course Ciaran likes shouting (a sensory thing) and kicking (another sensory and communication thing). Quinn has suddenly decided that he needs to do everything his big brother does. That's so normal, but when the child he's emulating is a child with Autism, it leads to some unusual behavior that I really don't need in stereo. The girls are busy with homeschooling (which I totally need to do my paperwork for this year) and I need to keep up with that as well. We're actually studying Colonial America, as is Reagan. Reagan didn't realize we were studying that particular topic and took one of our materials to school to show his teacher who then asked to borrow it. I've had to ask Reagan to please get it back as we need it for our lesson this week.

I know a lot of families make it look easy to fold a new baby into the routine of the family, but I've always found it a bit challenging. Babies have their own time table, and we have to work around it while still meeting everyone else's needs. Still, somehow it will all work out, and with any luck I won't go all nutty in the process. Not that I don't love it, because I do. But it can be wonderful and challenging at the same time.