The 4th Trimester

I feel like I am trapped on the couch, which was fun for awhile because Dance Moms is THAT good (seriously, watch it on Hulu right now!) (and before you ask, it is nothing like Toddlers and Tiaras-- more like Drop Dead Gorgeous/ Waiting for Guffman). This whole week, though, the couch has been making me twitchy. I am ready to ease back into my old life. And to get out of what Up All Night called sweatpants purgatory.

I have eaten SO MUCH candy corn, and none of my real clothes fit yet, so even though I am looking forward to going to campus for meetings again soon, I may have to go in sweatpants. Wearing the baby.

Sleep. Ah, I remember just 3 short weeks ago when I used to sleep all night long. Sometime in the next 12 months, that should happen again, right? Right? RIGHT??? Cooper does this cute thing where after he eats at 2 or 3 am, he grunts loudly (in his sleep) until around 6 or 7 when he poops loud enough to be heard from the kitchen. I can't sleep through the grunts. For awhile (a couple of days)I thought he was crying during this time, and I would change and burp and try to feed him. This just pissed him off. He is the loudest sleeper I have ever met.

Which brings me to the title of this post. I have been attached to this baby 24/7 since he was born, and I love it. That's why I happily-ish sleep next to his grunts. I think Dr. Sears sucks a little because he makes working women feel so shitty, but I am a baby wearer by nature. As much as I complain, I love feeling his little body snuggled up to my chest as I go throughout my day. I love sitting on the couch holding him until my arms fall asleep and I have seen every episode of a Baby Story at least once. I love sleeping beside his loud, loud, loud noises. (Tonight, I am going to try to get him to sleep in his bouncy chair after his 2-ish am feeding because maybe if he is slightly sitting up, he can poop without so much fanfare?)

Oh! Yes! Pictures? Of course!

Harry hurt this finger at school today when he shut it in the bathroom door:
Cooper hanging out while Harry took a bath the other night. He loves Harry, by the way. LOVES him. Would stare at him for as long as Harry will let him.
Baby wearing-- clearly I needed to tuck in his head a little more.
Jack watching Super Hero Squad on Ben's iPad at football on Saturday (Ben coaches Harry's football team, and it is the cutest thing I have ever seen-- a bunch of 5 and 6 year-olds playing flag football.)
I have been buying Cooper a lot of Halloween-themed outfits. Why not? he;s going to outgrow them in a matter of weeks anyway, so he might as well be seasonal. (And H and J's baby Halloween clothes are WAY too big)
He's starting to not mind hanging out in his bouncer from time to time. And right now? he is going on 1.5 hours in his Rock and Play cradle. (And now that I said that he'll wake up screaming, but in the mean time, we got to eat dinner all together, and I cleaned the kitchen while Ben wrestled with Harry and Jack-- usually Ben is on Cooper duty after dinner, and the big boys have to entertain themselves)
Jack is gathering super heroes for the bath (you would not believe how many toys he bathes with on a daily basis), and that blur beside him is Harry
I keep trying to get a picture of Cooper's super adorable dimple, but no luck so far, just a lot of extreme close ups.
Ben and Harry on the football field

And that's about it. Our days sort of bleed into each other. Cooper is, of course, too little for a routine, but the rest of us crave one, so we are doing our best to fit him into our schedule of school drop offs and pick ups, football and soccer, laundry.

I love rolling out of bed and walking Harry across the street to school. We usually leave when we hear the first bell, and this is a benefit I could enjoy for the next 10 or 11 years depending on when Cooper can start kindergarten. We have some really lovely neighbors, and 2 little boys who each live a block or so away are in Harry's class. The woman across the street from us is due to have a baby any minute, and Jack is in love with a little girl who lives by the park-- all of the kids could have neighborhood friends.

I am not teaching again until spring, but I am getting ready to do the other part of my job on campus. I am slowly building a stash of frozen breast milk (even though I am only going to miss about one feeding a week, it feels good to accumulate little bags of freedom should I ever want to redeem them), and I did buy some dressy stretchy clothes at Old Navy a few days before Cooper was born.

I'd really love to lose weight faster, but I can't stop eating graham crackers and candy corn. And honey crisp apples, but they're healthy at least. I've added in a 30 minute walk most days of the week, but I wear Cooper, so it's not like I am going very fast.

He's a cute baby, and we are all fascinated with him, and things are boring, boring, boring, boring around here.