This has seemed like a very long six weeks. Matthew is growing quickly, for sure, but it seems like he's been here forever. We are all so totally in love with him and he's been pretty easy as far as newborns go. Maybe that's how fourth children are - he has to go with the flow, and D and I are experienced enough as parents to not get too worked up about handling him. He's a really good boy. The big kids are smitten, and fairly helpful. Caroline is angelic in her treatment of him directly but is very possessive of me now that she has some competition, and that's been a bit challenging. She also needs to lose her afternoon nap, painful as that is to admit. She's tired and sleeps well in the afternoon but bedtime has become abominably late and something has to give.
Oh, and she turned TWO three weeks ago!
We had three super busy school weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas break. Executing that whole show went well enough with the addition of baby. No complaints, really, except for all the rain during that time too. Made all the in-and-out a touch miserable. I do feel someone was watching out for me though, because D was home every night thanks to the bad weather and continued mechanical problems with his ship. Huge blessing.
Matthew's birth? It was the best birth experience of any of them. I've now had babies in each of the four states we've lived in since joining the CG, and it's been interesting having different doctors each time. This time was my first with a midwife, and now I know why everyone waxes on about how wonderful midwives are. Unlike OB's who more or less just show up in time to catch the baby, my midwife was there with me for the last two intense hours of labor - the whole time, rubbing my back, really coaching me way more than any doctor or nurse I've ever had. Made such a difference. And of course I always leave the hospital with such a case of the warm and fuzzies for all the wonderulness of labor and delivery nurses. Such amazing ladies who want nothing more than to care for us moms and our little babies. Angels. And I've come to treasure the hospital time. Peace and quiet with nothing to do besides care for a very sleepy newborn and be taken care of myself. There is a luxury to it that is undervalued, I believe.
What else? Christmas was very nice, once we got to it. We all shared a stomach bug in the days before which was pretty awful but even after feeling better I beat myself up pretty well feeling like I hadn't done enough "Christmas Cheer" things like making cookies or even getting out all the decorations. I cried a lot on Christmas Eve. But Christmas Day was lovely and sunny and relaxed and happy and joyful and things were looking up. Since then we've had a lot of really low-key days at home, and I've been finding time to slowly catch up on little projects here and there.
I'm so pleased that it is the New Year - I'm really ready to do lots of cleaning, sorting, purging and tidying. Time to begin preparing for another move this summer. Exciting things in the year ahead!
Thanks as always for sticking with me on this little blog for another year. I'm planning to get back to a better routine of posting as we return to our regularly scheduled programming here. Wishing you and yours a very Happy New Year!
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