Sleep Deprivation

Our baby boy is so sweet. I just love and adore him. Sure, there have been adjustments we have had to make, but the only one that has been really difficult has been the lack of sleep.

I have been really lucky to have my mom to help for two weeks, my mother-in-law to help for one week, and Daniel to help for a whole month before he had to start work. Someone was always there to help during the night or to let me get a nap during the day. Sadly, now the mothers are gone and Daniel has gone back to work.

We have a very hungry boy on our hands! He likes to eat - a lot. We are attempting to get him eating on a more regular schedule, but sometimes he acts like we haven't fed him in days (when it has been 2 hours)! Needless to say, my night is spent feeding him often. And the sleep deprivation has started to show... Take this example from yesterday:

I had just woken up from a nap that Daniel had encouraged me to take when he got home from work. I could hear Daniel talking to Will as he was changing his diaper. He came out of the bathroom and I looked straight at Daniel and said, "Where's Daniel?" I quickly realized what I had just said. I also realized that I had even looked out the window to see if his car was there as I had been listening to him talk to the baby. Daniel looked at me and gently said, "Go back to bed." Which I did. For another hour and a half.

Sadly, I have traded Pregnancy Brain (which is a real affliction!) for something that might be even worse. Good thing he is so cute.

Now, for a funny video (completely unrelated to the story above) of the baby:

Baby Will

We are so excited that baby Will is here. For those of you not on Facebook, I thought I should probably get around to sharing the news. Daniel has done an excellent job of telling the whole story.

Sure, there are definitely some unflattering photos, but at the time, I didn't care. Here are all of the many links, or you could just go to http://alohalarsen.wordpress.com/ and work backwards.

http://alohalarsen.wordpress.com/2012/03/21/were-having-a-baby/

http://alohalarsen.wordpress.com/2012/03/21/all-downhill-from-here/

http://alohalarsen.wordpress.com/2012/03/21/but-they-while-their-companions-slept/

http://alohalarsen.wordpress.com/2012/03/21/new-life/

http://alohalarsen.wordpress.com/2012/03/23/adventures-in-the-mombaby-wing/

http://alohalarsen.wordpress.com/2012/03/23/dan-alexa-will/

http://alohalarsen.wordpress.com/2012/03/27/the-babys-home/

He did such a good job that I probably won't write up the whole birth story myself, but here are a few of my thoughts:

• Labor was so much easier than I thought it would be! I didn't really want to be induced (too many natural childbirth books that I read for fun), but when I had the chance, I took it. And it was so great! The time flew by.
• Epidurals are the greatest thing ever invented. I am not a fan of pain, so I got my epidural after about only an hour or two of hard contractions. It was awesome! They said that it would take 15 or 20 minutes to kick in, but I couldn't feel the very next contraction. It also made me nice and cozy and warm.
• The best surprise of the whole labor process was only having to push for 10 minutes. I had mentally prepared myself for an hour, but I knew it could even be two. But 10 minutes?? I certainly didn't expect that. What a nice surprise!
• The sleep deprivation is so much harder than I thought possible.

Bottom line: I loved it (although I am tired now). It wasn't bad at all, and I got to take home our sweet baby at the end of it.

If you read this far, I will reward you with a few random pictures: