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• I just did my first sensory deprivation float at http://floathq.com/ and liked it a lot – best meditation I've done since the baby was born. #

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• Geneveve is practically crawling. It's a slow process now, but she can scoot herself a foot or so on her belly to grab stuff. #

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• Greyhound has mobile wifi. Pretty cool #

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• We went to the Tolkien celebration at the Kennedy school. I'll have to go again sometime and dress Geneveve as an elf or goblin :-) #
• Stumbled on blues at acme donuts #
• Now I'm giving kim a break and hanging out with geneveve at omsi #
• Went to the zoo today. It was a free day so a bit overcrowded, but the zoo is always fun anyway. Elephants were favorite of the day. #

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• First Bikram yoga class tonight was easier than expected. Mostly just felt good to finally get some exercise since the baby's been born. #
• Can't sleep after the bikram yoga class. I think I'm going to be really sore tomorrow. #

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• I'm back from #puppetcamp and well rested. Talking puppet all day for 2 days is tiring, but not as much as babies' sleep schedules. #
• Visited a pumpkin patch on Sauvie Island: corn maze, carmel apples, roasted corn and pumpkins. And the weather was nice! #

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• Geneveve has begun smiling this week and I finally got some pictures. Smiling makes up for a lot. http://bit.ly/9Eslt3 #

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Where do babies sleep?

Things I don’t know about newborns could fill a book, and indeed, it has filled many. I even read through a quite a few of them before the birth, but there’s a lot of information that just didn’t strike me as important during pregnancy. However, once the baby arrives, there’s a lot of questions about what’s normal and why the baby does things.

• One of my favorite things in the first few days was the Moro reflex. You know that feeling you get when you’re falling asleep and you feel like you’re really falling and startle yourself awake? Babies get that all the time, and it causes them to throw their arms and legs out with an “oh crap!” look on their face.
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  Body hair – Neither Kim nor I are very hairy people, but Geneveve was born with fine hair on her shoulders called lanugo. Weird

• Breastfeeding can be really, really hard – and I’m not even the one doing it. I swear all you read about before birth is how great breastfeeding is. How did I gloss over all the difficulties that can arise?
• Cloth diapering is easy. I thought changing diapers would be difficult. Somehow it’s just not. It sounds way harder than it is. We had disposables in the birth center the first few days, and they’re only marginally easier than cloth. I can’t believe people would spend so much money on something that produces so much disgusting trash when cloth is so easy
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  Sleep really is hard. I heard it probably more than anything else: sleep while you can. Hearing about it doesn’t prepare you for it. I did all nighters in college, but that really doesn’t compare to a baby keeping you up for most of the first few weeks.

• Babies don’t smile for a long time. The first few weeks anyway. They really should, because once they do, it makes up for a LOT
• Sleep sounds. I wasn’t sure the baby slept the first few days because she made little squeaks the whole time she slept.
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  Some bars don’t allow babies. One of our first outings we wanted happy hour nachos from the Night Light. We thought nobody would care about a baby, especially if we sat outdoors. Worked for the dog. What I’ve gathered is that some bars allow babies at certain times or certain areas. So far we’ve had success with the Lucky Lab before 9pm and Hopworks in the restaurant area.

• Bouncing – babies frickin love it. I never heard of my vestibular system before looking into why they love bouncing

These are just a few of the wonders you discover about babies only by experiencing them. Some things are fun to discover, some not so much. There’s more new discoveries happening per day in my life with this baby then has happened in quite some time. It certainly helps me understand the lives of parents better than I ever did before. Thanks parents. It’s hard work.

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• Last night was the first nearly sleepless night. I think it was caused by going too long between feedings during the day. But who knows. #
• Up for the first, big, late night cry. It was quelled much more quickly than last night though. Hopefully that pattern continues tonight. #
• Geneveve's umbilical cord fell off today. She's got a belly button! #

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• We went swimming twice this weekend at the Clackamas River. It was sooo nice to get out of the heat. No baby yet… #
• First of the late night feedings is now past. Sleeping now hopefully. #
• Day 2 with the new baby is better rested than day 1. We'll be going home tonight after dinner. #
• Kim's getting a massage right now while I watch the baby. I'm jealous, but I didn't work nearly as hard as she did. #

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