Our son is 1 month old today. Our Christmas baby, who could not lift his head, who seemed feather-light, can now hold his head up and scan his surroundings, can now weigh down our shoulders. The child who did not seem to focus his eyes can now gather us in with his gaze. The little one who could only flail unfamiliar limbs can now grasp with his hands. And most remarkable of all, the face that before was only able to grimace or register a lack of affect can now express a smile.

We are still short of sleep much of the time, particularly my wife, who must handle the nighttime nursing, while I do the graveyard diaper changes. But then we didn’t have children to make life easier, I’ve thought to myself. We did it because of the rewards they bring, despite the heavy demands.

Those demands include lots of laundry–one, two, or even three loads a day! Unwilling to pile up our landfills with disposable diapers, we use cloth diapers, as we did with our daughter, and they are the first load of laundry every day.

During the first couple of weeks after the birth, I did more housework and child care in order to let my wife rest and heal. She is stronger now and taking up most of the child care duties, since she has taken the semester off from her teaching job, while I need to earn some income doing my test development work.

We’ve experienced a somewhat isolated existence since the baby’s arrival. That is partly a function of the baby, but also a function of the cold weather we’ve been having lately. Yesterday morning the thermometer read 16 below, and we’ve had two other mornings that were just as cold in this long cold snap.

We look forward to warmer weather and more smiles from this wonderful baby.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 25th, 2008 at 5:15 pm and is filed under Autobiography, Family, Uncategorized.