We are just coming out of our self-imposed exile. I have cabin fever, and it is bad.
There’s something to be said for holing up in your home when you have a new baby. Sorry, this is gross, but true — you don’t shower as much, you don’t do laundry as much, (unless you’re my wife) and you don’t clean the house as much. So it’s best that you’re not seen by other people.
A lot of people have told me about how we’re at the beck and call (or cry) of our newborn. Well, sorry again, that’s crap. We dictate everything in the baby’s life. We pick out his clothes, change him when his diaper’s soiled, decide when to feed him, and carry him where we want him to go. It’s only been a month but I think he’s getting pissed off about his civil rights. He seems particularly and perpetually pissed off about having to sleep, as if something is going to happen when he’s out that will affect his whole life. It usually happens like this.
1.) Ronan gets agitated.
2.) Ronan cries.
3.) Ronan cries really hard.
4.) Ronan suddenly passes out in my arms and is asleep.
It’s the weirdest thing, he’s absolutely in hulk mode, flailing his arms and screaming at the top of his lungs, and then he’s out. Asleep. At least until we try to put him in his crib. Then he gets really mad.
Ronan likes to cocoon as much as we do this month. Unlike his parents, who have the whole house, he likes to curl up on my chest. At first Terry was worried that she was torso-impaired (“He likes your chest because it’s longer”) but now she’s got the chest-sleeping down too.
We broke down and got a new chair, a glider that rocks and swivels and is attached together by three out of four screws. (Supposedly someone is going to come fix the chair.) It’s a great place to cocoon, and now that Ronan is getting used to it, it’s also where we feed him. Rocking your baby is a great experience.
There’s this one place underneath my chin where Ronan likes to sleep. He will pound his head against my chest until he finds that spot. I’ve tried to place his head there, but he doesn’t want that. He wants to find it himself. Once he gets that spot, with his head cocooned in my neck, he stays there unless he’s hungry. Which is often.
So, sorry that we haven’t come out lately. We’re nesting. It’s a family thing.