The view from maternity leave....

Alot of people have asked how maternity leave has been going so far.   Here's the scoop.

The first few months have been like a sick day that you really need to take, when you're actually sick and need to stay in bed, drink plenty of fluids and you're actua

lly not feeling or looking so great.  There is no chance you will be sneaking out with your friends that night, or enjoying some day time TV.  You're busy being sick.  

The first few months of mat leave have been kind of like that.  Busy being a Mommy, not exactly relaxing or filled with 'me time'.  I knew it would be work, but I thought I'd have a couple hours a day of peeking in on a slumbering infant while I puttered around, reading alot, sorting photo albums and catching up on organizing some drawers.  HA! 

My baby has other plans for me. 

He is incapable of sleeping on anything but a real live human who themselves is in a really uncomfortable position and needs to pee.  He also doesn't enjoy being put down, and by 'doesn't enjoy', I mean ear splitting screaming worthy of a housecall from social services, not a little infant mewling.  If I actually have time to read, its something like "Baby Whisperer" or "Contented Baby" or "Todays' Parent", not anything impractical or entertaining.

He also hates the car seat.  By hate, I mean he will scream until he foams at the 

mouth and you think he's going to choke.  So driving is a little tricky.  We bought a new carseat, I literally brought him into the store and put him in every single one until we found one he didn't instantly scream in and I didn't care how much it cost.  Sold.  He hates it 50% less than the old one.

Oh, and he won't take a bottle or a pacifier.  Not one, he won't even close his mouth with one near it.  I have pretty much every kind of pacifier on the market.  Nuby, Nuk Nuk, Soothie, even some weird 'kindersukken' (not real name) German one.  We also have 3 kinds of bottles on the go.  5 kinds of nipples.

On the up side, we figure he's smart and a man who knows what he likes and is willing to wait for it.    He's also devastatingly cute, so you can't even get mad at him for being picky and stubborn.

Just one look at this photo and you will see clear evidence of just how smug an infant can be when they have thus far been able to outwit, outlast and outplay the grownups at pretty much every challenge.