Turning a Corner

It's no secret that me and Baby Jett struggled to survive the first few months...especially after my husband went back to work traveling and Baby Jett developed my worst nightmare...colic.

Nighttime sleep notwithstanding, sometime in the last month things got easier.

We've turned a corner.

I can't pinpoint the week it happened exactly, but I think it might have been in London when we were finally able to get him down for naps consistently and Baby Jett started to develop a sleep routine.

Mornings are so predictable now that I can actually PLAN a bit of my day around baby naps.

Before now it's been very very unpredictable when baby would go down for a nap and if I would have to hold him for the duration of the nap or if he would let me set him down, so it was hard to figure out when I would:

Clean the kitchen

Make Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner

Do the Laundry

Pick up my bedroom

Take a shower
Get Dressed
Pee

Put makeup on...

And the list goes on and on.

Basically I was just winging it every day, hoping to get at least something done, but planning on a day of baby holding and little else.

But now...now I can do it all, even with only half hour baby naps I can get shit done...as long as I don't plan too much into my day.

Certain things I do while baby is sleeping like laundry (SO many stairs involved with laundry) and cleaning up the kitchen.

Other things I've figured out are easier to do while baby is awake...he "helps" =)

Like cooking, baby helps cook.  I just keep a running monologue of what I'm doing and make sure he always has his "green beans" handy to shove in his mouth.  If he gets bored here, there's a mat nearby and a vibrating chair, as long as I rotate him every 15-20 minutes he's happy.

Also things like taking a shower is easier when he's awake.  I just plop a blanket down in the hallway outside the bathroom, put baby on the blanket, leave the door open and hop in the shower.  Baby happily plays on the blanket while I take a shower, popping my head out every now and again to make faces and talk to baby so he doesn't get bored.  I also feel like I can take a longer shower when he's awake and I can see him because if he's sleeping in another room I get paranoid that he's woken up and is screaming and I just can't hear him because of the shower.

And then we move on into the bedroom and he goes down on another blanket or the swing and he happily amuses himself while I get myself ready for the day.

I know this will only last another month or two until baby is mobile, so I'm taking advantage now while I can.  Because of course I will have to completely change everything up again when he can roll and crawl.

But for now, at 4 months old, things are easier.

Even now as I type, Baby Jett is hovering nearby happily amusing himself on his play mat.

Dom is even gone...all week...and when I got the news that baby and I would be spending the week on our own there was no dread, no sense of doom, no fear, because I GOT THIS.  I might have taken 4 months but finally, finally I got this motherhood thing down...

At least until the next developmental milestone throws another curveball at me.