Happy Harvills: Happy Holidays! Now what?

We're a little late on Christmas, but we're still figuring out this whole baby thing, so you'll have to bear with us for another couple of weeks. Brice will be four weeks old on Thursday and we've decided to upset the apple cart by heading to Bethesda for New Years. Joel has a couple of days off from work and the cabin fever is starting to set in here. We'll see how it goes managing a 5ish hour car ride with a baby and two dogs, followed by a couple of days at Harvill South, which adds three additional dogs into the mix. I'm sure they'll be ready for us to go as soon as we get there!

Nothing much to update on this week. Brice continues to eat, poop, sleep and cry in normal baby fashion. Unfortunately for us, he has decided that he despises sleeping in his bassinet and will only sleep in bed with us. Joel and I have started taking turns sleeping with him on our chests for a couple of hours. We recognize that this is neither safe nor effective, but let me tell you, there comes a time when you want to sleep so badly that you're willing to accept any solution. He does sleep anyplace that is NOT the bassinet. He's comfy in the boppy, right at home in the swing and narcoleptic in the car seat. For some reason I fear that one day, Brice will end up sleeping in bed with the dogs and Joel and I will be passed out on the floor.

The coolest thing is that the little B-man is really developing a personality these days. He smiles at me and Joel throughout the day, opens his eyes wide when he looks at Shamus and Lucy and makes silly noises whenever he conquers the binkster.

I talked to Kelly today who is now about 6 weeks away from her due date and is starting to think about labor and delivery. We were talking about the do's and don'ts of the hospital and I realized that I should put down some of what I've taken away from my experience now, before I forget it all. So for all you pregnant or to be pregnant ladies, here goes:

1. Don't be afraid to send the baby to sleep in the nursery at night. The few nights you'll sleep in the hospital will be the last nights of calmish sleep you get, so take a break, let the nurses watch the bambino and get some sleep. The nurses will bring the baby back for you to breastfeed or bottle feed, so you'll still get your wake up calls throughout the night.

2. Stay on top of your pain medication because nobody will do it for you. I had a c-section and they were giving me painkillers every 3 hours plus some heavy duty aspirin every 6 hours. The nurses are managing many pregnant ladies so its up to you to remember when you took what and to ask for the meds BEFORE you need them. Easing minor pain is way easier than confronting major pain issues.

3. Let your husband/significant other be your champion. Joel was great at wrangling guests, telling friends and family when to come and go and making sure that I ate and rested. Let your husband be the one to tell people that you aren't up for guests or that they should be prepared to limit their stay to only 30 minutes. Again, its all in the name of you getting your rest.

4. Take ALL of the freebies. Norwalk Hospital was awesome and gave us a bunch of samples of diapers, wipes, formula, bottles, binkies, swaddle blankets and diaper bags. We took them all and initially we thought we wouldn't use most of it. Well, four weeks in and we've pretty much depleted the stash. The little bottles of formula come in handy when our little guy wants more milk than I can produce or if I'm sick and can't pump (the other night I was throwing up and instead of waking up to pump, I got my rest and Brice lived off the formula... we all survived and are happy and healthy).

5. Lastly, relax. There is no handbook to parenting and you and your significant other have to figure out a method to all the madness that works best for you. I found that it was great to get the advice from family and friends and combine it all into a system that works best for us. Oh and the other thing I've learned: as soon as you think you get a system down, the baby's schedule changes and you have to start from scratch. It happens to EVERYONE.

And, here are your photos for the week:

My lame attempt at a Happy New Year photo complete with his festive onesie. This did not make the cut for this year's holiday card.