Already apologizing / Henry's first few months of life.

Well - after a valiant attempt at 4 posts last May..., it's now mid-January and Henry is almost 22 months and I haven't gotten beyond the birth story!  Apologies are in order..., but I'll not make any promises, because I really don't know if I can keep up a blog.  I'll try.

Ok - Henry's first few months...

From the moment of his birth, Henry captivated both Tim and me.  The love that everyone says comes upon the birth of your baby came in huge overwhelming waves.  I'm not a particularly expressive or publicly emotional person - but wow, this little guy had his little hand firmly grasped around my heartstrings from day 1.

I was adamant about breast feeding - and so very lucky/blessed that it went well, basically right from the beginning.  We tried the first time when he was still covered in birth gunk (a technical medical term, I know) and he kinda latched on, but by the end of the first day, he was a pro.

Of course, as control freak mama, I only wanted the lactation consultant/nurse to help me with it, not family, visitors, etc.  So..., when my mother in law's caretaker, of whom I was not a big fan anyway, came in and grabbed my boobs while I was nursing to reposition me the way they do it in Africa..., I lost it a bit.  Pretty sure something like a mama bear growl combined with a "Get away from me and my baby" definitely came out of my mouth.  She got the picture, and Henry and I got some peace.

Coming home from the hospital was scary - as now it was all up to us.  We started off with Henry in a co-sleeper attached to our bed.  This was for easy middle-of-the-night nursing, and was wonderful.  It also caused me to wake up any time he had a little cough, sigh, or any of the 10000s of noises infants make.  Still, better than having him in the next room, his nursery, where I was convinced all sorts of bad things would happen without me by his side.  After 8 weeks, we grew out of all that, and Henry moved to his nursery without a problem, and we all slept much better.

Again - I'm a control freak.  I love being organized and scheduled, so that I know exactly what to expect and when.  Because of this, I loved the babywise book and the schedules it encourages.  It's not for everyone, at all, but it worked for me, and gave me a small semblance of normalcy/comfort (aka, control).

Thankfully, I have some friends who are great mamas, and gave me tons of great advice.  I literally don't know what I would have done without Melissa, who calmly answered every question I had.  And, 2 months after Henry was born, Melissa gave birth to Henry's best friend and my godson, Jake Thomas.  Woohoo!!

After 10 weeks (b/c I spent the first 2 pre-labor), I needed to return to work.  The deal I worked out with my firm was a 60% part-time gig, basically 3 days a week in the office.  We decided that the best thing we could do for Henry's care when I wasn't at home was to get a nanny.  We looked at a few people, contemplated and discarded the scary on-line stranger nanny search, and met Molly.  Lovely, sweet, kind, beautiful Molly.  She met Henry was he was about 2 months, and came to work for us in July after we returned from our beach vacation.  In the middle was a few weeks of help from my mom as I first went to work.  More to come.