Adjustments

Well, this is going to have to be very short - but I know I haven't posted in awhile and wanted to get something up. Things here in the Hough House are going well - I think. I've decided that probably the hardest part about this new parent business is that I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing or what's normal. So far it seems like Eden is playing the role of newborn perfectly - lots of sleeping, eating, diaper dirtying, and crying. I guess in a way I am also filling the new parent role to a T in that I spend a big chunk of my time worrying about everything - mostly because everything is new to me, and I have no idea what normal is supposed to be. Is she sleeping too little, too much? Does she eat enough? Is she crying because she's about to die or is she just crying because she's a baby and that's what babies do? That's a pretty broad spectrum of possibilities to choose from and it seems like most of my day is spent trying to make judgment calls about what is normal - and hoping that I'm right or at least right enough to not cause or allow any serious harm to come to her. Anyway, in the end, I think the hardest part of adjusting to my new role as a parent is the mental/emotional energy required in all this constant evaluation and decision-making - the sleep-deprivation and inconsolable crying aren't actually as tiring as the worrying about the crying (or the eating, or sleeping, or whatever). Peter, as always, has been wonderful just in his ability to not worry and to share that sense of calm with me when he comes home from work everyday - otherwise I'd probably be going crazy.

On a side note, the cats seem to have adjusted quickly to Eden. Sheba, as expected, is utterly bored and uninterested unless food is somehow involved. Pudge runs away when Eden cries sometimes, but also often seems very curious about what she's doing - he'll regularly come up and sniff her head or peek in at her when she's in her bassinet or bouncy chair. The most amazing thing is how quickly the cats have realized how much more freedom they have to misbehave now. They definitely know that when I'm holding Eden I'm much less likely to get up and chase them away from doing something bad - so they'll pretend to not hear me yelling at them and go right on trying to chew through the aluminum foil to the plate of brownies or scratching the couch, for example.

One funny story before I go: a few nights ago I woke up in the middle of the night to feed Eden and while I was busy doing so, Pudge decided to see if the side of the bassinet was a nice thing to scratch his claws on. I yelled at him, which he ignored. So to get his attention, I grabbed an empty Kleenex box by my chair and tossed it on to the floor next to him, hoping to startle him and get him to stop. It worked, not because he was startled, but because he immediately became interested in playing with the empty box. Fast-forward 30 seconds, and I'm chasing Pudge around the living room and kitchen with Eden hanging on in one arm as I try to get the Kleenex box unstuck from his head. One of those moments that's funny later.