One month on

Hey, this is kinda fun, originally uploaded by netwert.

Nathan turned one month old yesterday. The milestone was fairly uneventful, as it goes; he was his usual sweet, cute, fussy, overtired self.

To me, the new dad, the progress he's made in just 31 days is remarkable. Nathan is very alert, and can make and hold eye contact; he can hold his head up nicely, and has started to vary his movements; he stares at his plush toys and bats at them with his hands; he has developed a variety of cries that Amy and I kind of, sort of understand. He's even beginning to feel out the basics of crawling, successfully pushing himself forward with his feet and knees when on his stomach. This will probably be much more interesting when the rest of his body moves in synchronicity, but hey, for a month, it's pretty good.

A month of fatherhood has led me to confirm and disprove assorted preconceptions about having a newborn. (Warning, rambling thoughts ahead.) Chief among them is the complete and overwhelming loss of time. Waking up at all hours of the night is no longer startling, showering at 3 in the afternoon no longer the result of laziness, hours consumed by parenting minutiae now standard. The baby sucks up all of a person's free time--two people's free time, even. Life slows down, simple things take longer, delays are inevitable. Taking turns eating dinner at 10 p.m.? Normal.

We've had a day or two of hours-and-hours-long fussy crying periods, which give us intense worry that Nathan will turn colicky. We've also had some trouble getting him to fall, and stay, asleep. But reminding ourselves this is normal is all we need to smile and keep going. When rested and fed he's as sweet and entertaining as any baby can be.

Yes, this parenting thing is hard, and confusing. Baby cries. Why? Why won't he stop? What about this position? Is it gas? Does he want to eat? I thought he did, but why won't he take? He's sound asleep, so how come when I put him down, he wakes up and hangs out for another 45 minutes? What's with all the gas? And the formula regurgitating through the nose? Even with a good night's sleep we'd probably be tired just from the overthinking.

Here's an unexpected new skill: I am rather expert at catching urine with my hand.

Also, this far more expected development: I have taken (or prompted) roughly 94% of the thousand photos we've shot this month, and I've done 100% of the blog posting. So much for sharing. Of course, Amy has done a similar proportion of organizing his clothes, so I guess we're playing to our strengths.

I completely disagree with everyone who's ever said, "It's pretty boring the first few months." Every day is fascinating and fun. Getting Nate into clean diaper and clothes, relaxing him with a good feeding, watching and listening as his sounds and mannerisms and patterns change--I'm having a blast. When he starts interacting it will probably blow my mind.

In short: baby tough. Baby fun. Life different. Intense and wonderful.