Life with a baby

So, I've been wanting to write on here for some time now. But dagummit, did you know little babies are time-consumin' little critters?!  (that apparently make you talk like Yosemite Sam for some reason..?) But seriously, it's like babies can't do anything for themselves. They're all like 'I'm hungry!' or 'I'm bored!' or 'I'm tired but I refuse to go to sleep and you can't make me!' Well, baby, yes we can, but it's going to take an undetermined amount of pacing and rocking and bouncing and patting and singing and water noise and-- can't you see that it would save us both a lot of time if you would just skip straight to the sleeping part??

I remember a time, when I thought to myself- 'wow, going from working full time to maternity leave, I'm going to have like soo much free time! Think of all the projects I'm gonna get done!' No, the only project-ing I'm doing is when I'm yelling at Sean to come grab me something two feet away because I'm feeding her and I'll be darned if I'm going to break her latch! (get it? 'projecting'? Word play...)

Turns out Everyone is right. Everyone said a newborn is tough. We just thought 'ya, ya..we'll lose some sleep, whatever' but no. We had no idea. Especially with this being baby number one. I am constantly praying-'Please don't make Avery suffer because I don't know exactly what I'm doing!' Oh, and thank goodness for Google. Seriously.

But Everyone was right about another thing- it gets easier. I feel like we're really getting a handle on this whole parenting thing lately. We know the difference between a hungry cry and a tired cry, we can pop her in and out of her car seat with the best of them, and we know to rush her into a diaper post-bath time. Not to mention we totally feel like parents now. The other day we left her at my parents' house for like an hour while we ran to the store, and it felt crazy weird not having her there. She's just a part of our family! And it's pretty strange to think of her not being with us. I mean, there's still a lot we're learning each day and we're not pros by any means but.. we're doing it, we're really doing it.

Oh, and Everyone was right about one more thing: it's all worth it.  The way she looks at me, just completely trusting me to take care of her, melts my heart every time. And each smile and giggle completely erases any less-pleasant memories of crying fits or sleepless nights or spit up-covered clothes. It is so cliche, but I love her more than I knew was possible!

..and with that, she is awake, and it looks like I am out of time. So here's just a couple funny pictures. (I'm posting from my phone so hopefully they'll work) See, tomorrow is her blessing, so we were playing dress up. First we tried the glamorous pilgrim bonnet that came with her dress--she wasn't a fan. (I actually usually like the little bonnet look cuz that's what I wore for my blessing, but this one is admittedly a little odd.) Then we tried this headband she apparently has though I'm not sure from where. Well, she thought about it, and concluded the bow was a bit too big. So, looks like we will be headband hunting this afternoon...

Oh, and p.s.- today marks 6 weeks! Wow.