Hands-free baby
I recently discovered how great baby carriers are. Our little girl is by far the clingiest one yet. Pacifiers hardly work but I have noticed that attaching her on my body and going about my business as usual seems to get the job done most of the time. It is kind of like getting a hands-free mode on your newborn, which can come in very handy. She even joined me at work this Monday for around two hours.
If you belong to the laptop class like I do, there are a lot of benefits to be grateful for. But few things can beat having your baby sleeping on your chest while you are running your calculations or preparing your drawings in your home office. It has been very painful for me to abstain parental leave, but this is a proper remedy. Just being close to her is the best thing ever. And when the milk alarm goes off, the wife is not far away and can take over. Plus, she got a couple of hours on her own. Win-Win.
This is number three and I can clearly feel an even stronger connection for every time. It is not surprising, as I have grown a couple of years older and hopefully wiser since and between the first two boys. To take a nap together is peak life by any definition. And carrying her around in the carrier is a close second.
Every now and then, the iPhone beeps with some new AI-generated image slideshow with music that it has conjured up. Usually with lots of pictures of my boys growing up. I think everyone says the same thing, but it is absolutely crazy how fast they grow up. Every single picture I look at feels like it was yesterday. It is imperative to not miss it, because you only have one shot at this life and there will not be anything else before or after that can compare.
It is fascinating how she can sleep on my stomach during the cacophonic ordeal that is my life. Two boys are extremely loud, in addition to all the other stuff going on while doing the dishes, cleaning or whatever. She just sleeps. My guess is that it relates to familiarity. She has been bobbing around in the stomach for months and thus, it must feel a bit recognisable to go around in the baby carrier, with shared body heat and everything.
My sleep hours have clearly taken a hit though. I find it very challenging to clock in 7-8 hours without giving up on a lot of things. A house does not take care of itself. But strangely, I still have better energy than I expected. It must have something to do with proper motivation. And besides, one cannot get rid of anything improvement related and strictly focus on upkeep. That is very bad for morale. I think the trade-off is worth it in the long run.
I defined something I called “The three things-rule” some years ago. Very easy. The day before, you must specify three (3) very important things that you must complete the next day, unconditionally. They must be somewhat challenging and not just regular upkeep. Preferably some tasks that you know you should do but have so far only managed to procrastinate. I find that when I follow this three things-rule, I feel very good inside and it increases morale in a way that upkeep can only dream about. A baby is not an excuse to put that habit on ice, honestly.