6 weeks old already?!

Every time I have children, I experience intense feelings of sadness and loss as my newborns disappear and turn into roly poly babies. The newborn stage only lasts about two weeks and then it's gone forever. Sigh...

We're back in the swing of things at the Freeze household (although I still have a few more dinners coming--thanks to everyone who has made us meals!). Inga has adapted quite well into our family. She's pretty easygoing. When she fusses, it doesn't last long and she can be settled down quickly. She's learned how to sleep on her back and how to nap by herself. She loves the sling and will nap quite soundly in it, so sometimes I leave her in and go about my tasks. Although she has no predictable rhythm yet with her sleeping and awake periods during the day, I usually get at least one good stretch of time every day that allows me to get stuff done. Things like making dinner, sewing slings, or playing outside with the other kids. I'm also resetting my expectations for how much I can accomplish in a day.


We close on the new house at the end of this month. I've started packing for our move, which will probably be in about a month. I'm so excited! We found a renter for our current house, a new tenure-track hire. It's just her and her husband, and she seemed to love the house (and she likes gardening!). We keep walking by our new house, taking surreptitious glances as we go by. I'm trying to plan where my gardens will go, since I hope to transplant many of my plants: asparagus, fruit bushes (honeyberries, juneberries, gooseberries, red currants), rhubarb, strawberries, & raspberries. I also want to plant several dwarf fruit trees at our new house.

Speaking of sleep, I feel SO well rested-ever since I gave birth. A million times better than when I was pregnant. I've never found the newborn stage particularly exhausting. My babies (almost) always wake up to nurse every 2-3 hours at night and then go right back to sleep. Now that Inga will sleep swaddled on her back, things are especially good. She often has a 4-5 hour stretch when she first goes down. I try to take advantage of that and go to bed at the same time.

Inga is super chubby now. Her double chin is so big that it wraps around her head, spills over onto her shoulders, and totally hides her neck! I don't know how much she weighs, but she was 9 lbs 6 oz at 3 weeks old. So she's probably close to 11 lbs now, I'd guess. She's done a total 180 with her cousin who was born 2 days before her. He weighed almost 2 pounds more than her at birth, but now he's a slim baby (it runs in his dad's side of the family) and she is a chunker. Go figure!

I anticipated that Dio would have difficulty adjusting to a new baby in the house, but Zari has had a much rougher time. She's finally found her equilibrium in the past week or two. Dio seems pretty unfazed by Inga. The biggest different is that he asks to nurse more frequently. I don't blame him, now that there's lots of milk! He doesn't nurse all that often, usually once a day.

A friend gave me her old Ameda Purely Yours breast pump (she forgot to send the bottles; they should be arriving soon). I hope to start pumping once a day so I can donate like I did with Zari. It will take dedication, but I really want to do it.