If I’ve longed for anything this season, it’s stretches of quiet, space for my thoughts, and hot tea under cozy blankets. I'm making good on these desires, for the most part. All year I anticipated my early weeks of maternity leave, and now that I'm in it, am making efforts to embrace each day for what it offers.
Taking care of a little one is simultaneously exactly what I expected and nothing like I expected, and these are my pearls of wisdom from eight weeks of parenting. I hesitate to say we've found a routine, because each day is slightly different than the next, but we have found some semblance of normalcy. With the exception of a streak of three days when I didn't go outside at all (I didn't even know what day it was or what time it was), most days I make an effort to get dressed. I wash my face and put on tinted moisturizer and mascara and brush my hair, and it feels amazing, luxurious even, to open my closet and put on real clothes after spending the entire first two weeks home in the same few pairs of jogging pants.
In these early weeks there have been some tears and aches. I've oversalted beans, forgotten to turn off the stove, stood outside with the wind on my face, telling myself we will be ok, left clothes to become wrinkled in the dryer. I've stopped and started this post several times because Henry woke up from a nap. You never know how much time you'll get. You have to be nimble, ready, open.
I've learned to do things one handed. I've turned from a light sleeper to a heavy sleeper.
Dinner has become an endeavor I start in the morning and don't finish until Andrew gets home from work. Cooking in small doses is the only way I can manage between the feedings, diaper changes, and taking Emma outside. But we're managing. We've stood in the kitchen eating tacos quickly before Henry wakes up. We've made roast chicken. We've eaten grilled cheese three days in a row.
We've started and finished HBO's The Newsroom. I read back issues of The New Yorker on the couch while nursing. Or browse Instagram. I remind myself constantly that he will never be this small again.
He loves to snuggle. He loves using his limbs. He kicks, he grabs, he lifts his head. I'm planning to enroll him in swimming classes as soon as possible to put his reflexes to good use. He is utterly determined in life. Already this has become apparent.