6 weeks

Well, we have hit the magic 6 week mark, as in "Once they hit 6 weeks they...{insert one of the following} sleep 8 hours, only cry ocassionally, make their own bed," and, I have to say, I believe we have been misled. Sure, she is interacting a lot more, gurgling and smiling in a scarily ingratiating fashion -don't worry Juno, no matter how much you howl through the night, we won't send you back- but any sense of us being on easy street and cruising towards adolesence is way off track...

Not that I had put too much faith in it. But when everyone else's baby was an absolute darling by 6 weeks, it does make you wonder about the rose tint of retrospection and perhaps also an absurd element of competitiveness: example, of course Juno is a little angel, look at her gene pool. Frankly, I couldn't care if I don't get another unbroken sleep for the next 10 years, as long as she is healthy, happy and only dates guys I approve of {aside} Is it just the sleeplessness or am I entering a full-blown delusional state?.

Jess and I keep learning however, or at least we keep bumbling forward, not entirely sure that what we are doing is 100% textbook, but -I keep reassuring her- who the hell wrote this stupid book anyway? Feed on demand or not? Don't pick them up straight away when they cry? Jeez, she is six weeks old: give her the benefit of the doubt: if she is crying, I figure she probably does want something to happen, and to happen pretty bloody fast. It's not as if they are born with any reserves of patience or saintly forebearance...

In the world...

Juno is five weeks tomorrow and today was our first trip into town. That's right: Wellington -the throbbing metropolis itself (pop. say 400k). We figured we would scoot into town for lunch, knock over a couple of errands and be back mid afternoon (just writing this reminds me of a previous life when, if this was your plan, the execution thereof required only marginally more effort than the imagination to conceive it - not any more).

We spent more time packing the bag and the buggy, and loading Juno and her accoutrements into the car, than we did in town. Forget sleep deprivation: the real test of parenting is the logistics... Having said that, we did have a very pleasant lunch (read Juno slept through the entire thing) and managed to accomplish some of the mundane tasks that seem like such a mission when you are lugging around a 5 week-old timebomb.

For me, however, the highlight of the week was on tuesday morning. I had picked up a bit of a cold on monday, so had taken a sickie. I was reading the paper, Jess was making breakfast (sounds pretty good already, eh?) and Juno was crashed out on the sofa in front of the fire. Juno stirred and then started to yawp a bit so I went over and picked her up. After a minute or two of her focus fluctuating wildly, and her scowling very impressively all the while, she seemed to get a pretty good fix on my dial. She held the scowl for another five or ten seconds and then the corners of her mouth started to curl mischeviously. She was smiling at me! I reckon I can manage without a weeks sleep on the strength of that moment alone...

She ain't heavy...

Week four has just rolled by and, while it would not be entirely accurate to say that we have settled into a rythm, we are all coming to grips with the whole new family thing. Max, in particular, seems to be taking it in his stride. Of course, it would never occur to him that he has slipped down the pecking order...how could it be about anything or anyone other than him?

Juno was put on the scales at Ann's last visit. Apparently, infants are supposed to put on around 150-odd grams a week in the first month: not this little fiend! She put on 600 grams in the fortnight between weigh-ins. Nice work, eh? No wonder those chops look so chubby...

Week 3

It seems difficult to imagine that we have all been together for only three weeks (must be the sleep deprivation). We had our first family outing today; went over to Mike and Vic's for Isla's first birthday party. Loaded up on cakes and fizzy drinks and then came home a couple of hours later and collapsed (all three of us), completely exhausted. What is it about having a baby that makes the most mundane tasks, such as getting ready to go out and getting in the car, seem like such a mission? No wonder I haven't been posting anything...

I am back at work fulltime this week -and no I am not relieved. In fact, if the couple of days I spent in there last week are any guide, I will be wondering what I am missing at home. Juno has only been here three weeks and it already feels like months, the changes just come that swiftly. And now I am really only going to see her for a couple of hours each day and on the weekends: far from an ideal arrangement.

What have we learnt about her so far? She loves baths - a total water baby. Like her mum, stick her in a warm bath and then your only problem is trying to get her out. Feeds and sleeps like she is in training for some sort of Olympiad (in what? Sloth?)and, to date, hasn't quite taken to dad's singing (who has?)

Aunts, nieces, cousins & Margam