In Anissa’s words:
My how life has changed! Malachi is totally the boss :) Still things have improved greatly from those early days. Although the tiny newness was fun, I am glad the first month has come and went! These first few weeks were rough. I wasn’t expecting my recovery to be as prolonged as it was. It seemed like as soon as one issue was resolved like muscle soreness, another issue would come like not producing enough milk. And of course I had some hormonal adjustments happening at the same time too. Let’s just say I cried as much as the baby did if not more during those first few weeks (even since the last blog when I thought I was on top of things). Jermale will have to write his own experience. I know it was tough for him too, especially when he went back to work. Between Lamar and the church I know he was exhausted. Plus it was hard for him to not be able to help with feeding the baby. He wanted to be able to get up more at night, but since the baby always wanted to eat when he woke up in the night – there wasn’t much he could do. Having friends and family visit and help was very nice, but there were still a lot of overwhelming moments.
So, today Malachi is 5 weeks old and things are calming down. I am feeling really good physically. Although I have not had a full night sleep in 5 weeks, I’m used to it and feel fine. I also nap sometimes when the baby sleeps during the day. I look forward to starting a light work out schedule after my 6wk check up. I’m actually wearing a pair of pre-pregnancy jeans today with the help of a $13 belly slimmer thing from Target LOL. They are still snug, but they are wearable :) I know it will take time to get back to a being physical where I want to be and some things will never be the same (I think these new hips are here to stay) I just have to be patient and not over do it. I am also happy to report that breastfeeding is going much better. I had in my head that I just needed to get past the 1st two rough weeks and I’d be fine, but it was more like 4 rough weeks. I’m glad we stuck with it though.
Malachi is getting more and more alert. He smiles now although he is still mastering that skill so they are not super frequent. When you get one though they are the best! He’s also getting more interested in looking at things which I fun. He has a pretty consistent night schedule that just happened. He goes down for the night around 11pm. Then he wakes up to nurse and be changed around 2 or 3am and again around 5 or 6am. He usually does one more long morning nap until 8 or 9am. During the day we just go with the flow. He has a very loose schedule that incorporates prayer and swing time in the morning, reading and floor play time in the afternoon and daddy bottle time in the evening. There is a lot of sleeping and eating mixed in there too and sometimes a bath. I am also part of a play group that meets on Wed. mornings too, but we have only gone once so far. The group actually has a lot of aspects to it including childbirth and parenting support, sustainable living practices and an art collective. They have asked me to be involved on a leadership level and I am going to help them prepare to seek 501 (c) (3) status.
The church is awesome. Things continue to progress there. As August approaches I will begin to do more administrative work for Impact. I’ll mostly be doing things from home and then in Sept. probably be in the church office a couple mornings a week. Again, Malachi is the boss, so we’ll see what he allows LOL. Tonight, Jermale and I are going to dinner for his birthday and Malachi will have his first babysitter outside of family (my mom kept him while we ran errands a few times when she visited). We’ll start there and see how things go. I’m excited for life to continue to become more settled and for all the fun milestones ahead :)
In Jermale’s words:
Now as a 29 year old Christian father, husband, brother, uncle, nephew, cousin and friend (my birthday is today), I look back at my life and see that God has brought me a long way. It seems that every since Anissa and I have married, our life has been filled with transition; all under the direction of Jesus Christ. Being a father is my latest journey and most challenging so far. I wish I had more time to spend with Malachi. I thought that I would only be working part-time at the Church during this stage in life and that I would be a stay-at-home dad, but with the need of health insurance, I had to also find a full-time job. It’s hard to find a balance between family, work at Lamar University, work at Church, personal prayer time & reflection, alone time w/ Anissa, personal alone time and sleep. I figure if we did not have to get sleep, I would have a little more time available. It has been very frustrating not being able to soothe Malachi when he cries sometimes. Due to the fact that he has a bond & dependence (feeding) with Anissa, most of the time she is the one who has to comfort him. Even at night if I get up to change his diaper, I still have to wake Anissa up to feed him. Since he usually rejects bottles and pacifiers, I just try my best to enjoy all the times where he is totally content with being in my arms and starring in my eyes as if he’s been looking for me and finally found me. Since having the baby, I feel that I have discovered a new love and respect for Anissa. She is doing a great job at a new stage in our lives. I know she needs a break sometimes, but with me working all day with my job and a half, I wish I was more available. I also wanted to enter into a Doctoral program, but thanks to some good advice from Malachi’s god-mother, I decided to wait. I can’t see myself trying to study and take care of Malachi at this point. I praise God everyday for using us to create and love Malachi. If I could send Anissa to a tropical place for vacation, I would b/c she deserves it ALL!
Picture Link:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2614310&id=2247339&l=e415a38650
