Getting along without Grandma

My mom headed home to Arlington on Sunday night after staying with us just over six weeks, so the past few days have been my first with just Darrell IV and me. I felt bouts of anxiety during the week leading up to my mom's departure, occasionally crying to Darrell that I'm worried about how I would do after she left. She's been a tremendous help, and I've been incredibly grateful for how long she stayed with us. It makes a world of difference when I can hand her the baby and run a quick errand or take a quick shower or, more often, take a nap. Darrell and my mom both told me I was doing great as a mom, however, and that I'd be fine. That feels nice to hear, but I was anxious nonetheless.

Darrell IV & Grandma Haelle

I guess we were all right. I have been doing okay, though it is difficult without my mom. If I can get one thing done each day, I feel a significant sense of accomplishment and I can relax a bit with little Darrell. Monday, I got the car inspected (yay! it passed!). Tuesday, I got an oil change and exchanged some items at Buy Buy Baby. Yesterday and today, I did a little laundry, and today I bought stamps at the post office. I also managed to squeeze in lunch at Nueva Onda yesterday and lunch at Curra's today. I find I need to do at least one outing a day or else I'll go a little crazy. The rest of the time is sleeping, feeding Darrell, changing diapers, and watching Netflix. I actually managed to watch six episodes in a row of the first season of 24. At that rate, it might actually be possible to get through all eight seasons by the end of the summer!

Now that he's a little over five weeks old, Darrell's alert much more of the day than he used to be. His awake-time is often awkward time too, though, because he's still too young to really play with. He's started to coo and gurgle and make all sorts of other adorable sounds, and the rest of the time just sort of stares off, taking in the world. I've been trying to talk to him as much as possible, but even I - famous for being overly talkative - can only say so much to a baby who gives little to no indication that he knows I'm talking to him. It feels just like talking to myself! I told him what I ordered at Curra's, about the fruit I was making myself for breakfast, about how I'm dressing him... I'm sure I'm not talking the supposed "2100 words an hour" that I've read babies need to hear, but I'm doing the best I can.

Grandma and Darrell again

I've also discovered what my friends mean when they talk about how exhausting the growth spurts are. He definitely went through a growth spurt for the past two days: I was feeding him every 45 minutes to an hour with only a handful of longer stretches. I felt like I might as well strap him to my chest and let him feed all day long. Maybe I've been watching too much True Blood (my mom and I watched all of Season Two in just a few days before she left), but I felt a bit like a human being fed on day and night by a vampire - the kid was literally sucking the life out of me!