Caitlin, this is for you…just 11 months late.

When I first found out that I was pregnant in late March of this year, my friend Caitlin immediately told me to start a blog of the pregnancy so that she would “know what to expect” later on.  It seemed like a great idea for about two weeks, and I even tried to come up with a cute and catchy title (which, as you can see from the url, obviously failed).  Then the morning sickness struck. 

Eight weeks later, I returned to Earth from Pukeland and decided that maybe she didn’t really need to know what she’d be getting herself into in the future. 

When Braeson was born, I immediately thought that I needed a blog to chronicle those first weeks of parenthood—a 2010 version of a baby book.  Now six weeks later I’m returning to Earth from Nosleepsuperstressedoutscreamingbabyland and thinking that maybe Caitlin STILL doesn’t want to know what she’s going to get herself into in the future. 

However, in the last week, there has been a change in our house.  We now sleep again without waking up every hour—if not to feed the baby, then certainly to make sure the baby is still in the bassinet (because obviously he may walk away soon) and still breathing.  Stress levels have returned to moderate levels at worst (a fact which can be testified by our cat, Ash, who spent the last two weeks literally losing his mind—and he’s even now sort of normal again…but more on that later).  The screaming baby has—at what is supposed to be the “fussiest” week of his entire life—quieted, and he now spends these sacred evening hours (mostly) cooing. 

It wasn’t an overnight change; I think it’s been building slowly for at least a couple of weeks.  It’s just that my mind has literally spent the last 11 months reacting just a little slower than normal to things, and so it (and I) are just now realizing that life is, in fact, good, calm, and most importantly, happy (actually, ecstatic would be a better word, but I don’t want to get all gushy hormonal “I love my new baby”). 

So Caitlin, this is for you.  I will (briefly) recount those nine months of torture and even those 24 hours of extreme torture that led to six chaotic weeks of stress…but mostly, I’ll write to remember what’s happening now, and why those 9 months and 24 hours and 6 weeks were all worth it.