No one can ever tell me that this job is easy.
My Hungry Monster still wakes up at least twice, sometimes three times a night. We normally wake up at 1 or 2am, 4 or 5am, and then sometimes at 6am. The last wake-up is usually because my baby is gassy or otherwise uncomfortable. I can’t tell you the last time I slept through the night, because I certainly wasn’t in the last few months of my pregnancy either. So many babies start sleeping through the night by this point, but not Cameron. I know that he is waking up because of hunger though, and because he didn’t gain any weight last week, I’m not eager to try to get him to cut out a feeding.
When night turns into day, the fun only continues.
(Photo: Taken July 5, 17 weeks, 2 days old) Today, Cameron was playing in his jungle excersaucer. It was hot so he was nekked – nekked except for his diaper. Although I’m sure the excersaucer’s instructions warn me to NEVER leave a baby unattended, I had to go to the bathroom. Cam was having fun on his own, so I left him for a couple minutes.
When I got back to my sweet little boy, I smelled something that wasn’t so sweet (and it wasn’t from me, ahem). I was pretty sure it was time for Cameron to get a diaper change.
Now, before I go any further, let me tell you that diaper changes now are so much better than newborn diaper changes. In the newborn stage, you can expect a blowout quite often. Now, diaper changes are more predictable, they happen less often, and they rarely ruin outfits. So, when I picked Cameron up out of the excersaucer, I didn’t expect much more than a full diaper.
Boy, was I wrong.
I had to carry Cameron at arms length as we walked to the change table in the nursery. Before I laid Cameron down, I had to clean off his back. Once he was down, I had to clean off his feet.
Yup, you heard me. HIS FEET. (Now do you know why I carried him at arms length?)
Once thoroughly cleaned and changed, I carried Cameron back to the kitchen to asses the damage to the jungle. Half of the seat was covered in poop, and the other half was covered in pee. Where they met? It dripped onto the floor of the excersaucer (hence the messy feet). I have no idea HOW the diaper failed so hard.
Being a Mom isn’t easy. It is full of sleepless nights and cleaning up bodily fluids.
But, because the excersaucer was getting a serious cleaning, I put Cameron on a quilt on the floor to play. Lately, I always put Cameron on his back, because it usually doesn’t take too long for him to roll onto his belly. Once on his belly, Cameron plays for a while and then gets fussy (he hasn’t wanted to roll back on his own lately, even though rolling from belly to back used to be all he could do).
Today, Cam was playing with one of his favorite toys while on his belly. And then, the toy got pushed just out of reach. My baby started fussing. And I… I just sat there and watched.
Okay, that might have been a little mean of me, I wanted to see what Cameron would do. He reached for it. He fussed. He kicked his legs. He fussed. Nothing was getting him any closer.
Suddenly I notice that Cameron using his legs to push up his bum. He was slowly getting up on his knees so that he could use that momentum to push him towards the toy. And it friggen’ worked!!! (it would have worked better if he could have coordinated his lower body with his arms, which stayed where they were.)
Sure, Cameron ended up landing on his face (babies are resilient, right?), but ohmygosh my baby just almost-crawled! It was so exciting!
And remember how I told you that Cameron’s early morning wake-ups are usually because he is uncomfortable and not because he is hungry? Well, I always pick him up out of his pack n’ play and bring him into bed with the Hubs and I. Every morning is filled with baby snuggles.
Being a Mom isn’t easy. It is full of sleepless nights and cleaning up bodily fluids.
It is also full of snuggles and new adventures.
Being a Mom isn’t easy but it is always joyful!
