Day 9

On Saturday, Kalina turned 1 week old. So, how's it going?

Fortunately, we still think she's cute--even her "am I adopted? I sure hope so" faces. And I've been glad to see that taking care of a newborn is, in fact, possible. Like pregnancy, labor and sending a man to the moon. In fact, she's really a very good baby.

The thing is, though, she's a very good baby, which means we've both been spit up on. Nevertheless, here are some benefits of our particular model:

1. She's a good burper. Seriously, she's a pro. She really doesn't need our help much at all, but we go through the motions anyway to be good parents. She's much more likely to burp on her own, though, without our interference.

2. She's had no diaper blowouts. We all knew she'd be the perfect child.

3. She sleeps well. Sometimes too well, which can turn a 1-hour feeding into a 2-hour feeding, but at least we know once it's over with she'll go straight back to dreamland (where she's probably, once again, feeding).

4. She fits our huge stash of newborn diapers. Thanks to friends who stocked up only to produce big babies, we probably won't have to buy a diaper for at least another week! No, we haven't purposefully starved our child just to save a buck.

5. It's possible for her to be awake without crying or eating. About twice a day and it's really cute.

6. She responds well to baby-soothing tricks, thank goodness.

7. She doesn't really fuss much. That's not to say she doesn't demand, it's just all very calculated. So far, this is not a child who's simply moody.

8. She looks a bit like an elf.

One drawback is that the easiest way to wake her up is to put her in her crib for a nap. We've turned it into a benefit, though, as it's a great way to wake her for nighttime feedings.

Matt and I have not yet tried to sell our child or each other on ebay, which essentially means we're hanging in there. It helps that we're getting relatively decent sleep (3-5 hours per night). For me, it rivals some of my pregnancy nights, so I can't complain.

In fact, I think I struck gold in this category. For one, I married someone who enjoys sleeping in recliners. For another, I have a brother who donated a very squishy, massive recliner to us around the time we figured out we were pregnant. Seeing as the thing takes up fully half of the room, I would've vetoed the decision to drag it home, except you should've seen the look on Matt's face: Christmas times ten.

So we now own a beast of a recliner, and it's in the baby's room. Matt seems to enjoy sleeping in the recliner more than in the bed (should I be worried?) so he readily volunteers for nighttime duty: essentially, when she wakes up, he evaluates whether she's really actually hungry and then brings her to me (or me to her) for a meal. So if Matt and the baby are in the nursery sleeping, that leaves an extra-comfy, full-size bed in a quiet room all to myself. I've traded my husband for a few hours of sleep a night (should he be worried?), but considering we spend many hours of the night together bonding over diaper changes, I think we'll be alright.