We've hit the six week mark with wee Simon and in spite of “not being prepared for the work a newborn is” all three of us seem to be mostly intact.

I was prepared for these weeks to be much worse than they have been. Both Evil Scientist and I have managed to get out with and without baby as well as together as a family. We've been to curling, to the observatory, out to dinner, over to the Lido and even Malzac. We survived the trip to Red Deer for Thanksgiving (we had so much stuff that there was no room for Simon's bassinet so I made a bed for him in Evil Scientist's suitcase. Poor little welfare baby!). Admittedly, Simon is a pretty good baby. He tends to sleep in three and four-hour chunks. Occasionally, he gets over-stimulated and then we're in for some sleepless nights. Most of my sleeplessness the past couple of weeks can be attributed to my usual insomnia. We made it two days at home before we rushed him to the Children's Hospital because we thought that his temperature was too low. Of course we were classified into the “older, fretful parents” category (rightfully so). Simon just gazed up at the doctor that night as if to say “sorry, forgive them, they're new.”

I finally understand why my father called me “Stinky” for years and years and am happy to finally pass that moniker on to my son. Formula looks like the blandest stuff on earth and I've yet to completely understand how it goes through something as small as a baby and come out smelling the way it does. Yes...formula. That's right, turn me in to La Leche League so they can send the Gestapo after me. I supplement with formula. I still have no great love of breastfeeding and have had to go on medication to increase my supply. I'm still committed to doing it for six months but I will not stop doing it at that point with any trepidation. As I suspected, so-called “nipple confusion” is not the issue the uber-breast feeders claim that it is. I bought a fancy-schmancy breast pump and I am really not into my life as a jersey cow.

If I wish I'd done one thing differently, it would have been cutting back on my graduate studies. It's not that I don't have the time to work on various projects and papers, it's that when I do work on them my stream of conciousness gets interrupted and it's a lot harder getting back on track than I would have thought. For example, I've been trying to write this blog entry for two weeks. It was originally a four-week report.

All-in-all, parenthood is pretty cool and interesting. Every day is a new experience and I can't believe how much Simon changes from day to day. In a few weeks, grandma and grandpa are taking the baby for a couple of days and Evil Scientist and I will escape to Canmore. He's got a biathlon course and I plan to go skiing. I hope I make it to the slopes at least one day but I fear I might spend the entire weekend sleeping, uninterrupted!

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