Loosely defined as the high velocity low density poop that leaves your child at near sonic speeds with no warning, while you’re changing him and he is diaperless.
Time
It has been an eye opening experience how much time you dedicate to raising an infant. People tell you things like, finish all your projects now because you won’t have time once he is born. I appreciated the advice, but I couldn’t appreciate the gravity of what they were telling me, until now! I figured, yea, when it’s my “shift” to watch Jago, I will just watch TV, or read the news, or work on my blog, or wash the car or whatever, while he sleeps. Especially for the first 6 months. I hear they aren’t mobile for the first 6 months or so, so how bad can it be? – Yea so, that’s not working out quite like I expected. And sometimes, he is just sleeping in my arms, or the crib, or whatever. The other times, as it turns out, he is fussing, squirming, crying, making noise, or generally being disruptive to whatever it was I thought I would be doing. I wouldn’t say most, I would go with about 50/50 so far. But, for that 50% of the time, it seems to take both hands and all of my attention to keep him entertained and content, (and sometimes nothing I do keeps him from screaming!). I stopped to think about it, and kind of realized, “Hey, this is your time with your son. You might as well enjoy it and concentrate on him.” Thankfully, I had that epiphany inside the first couple weeks, as the shock of having a baby was wearing off, and we were trying to find a new baseline for normal. I have to say though, that calibration to my thinking has really helped me to keep from getting aggravated. I notice that if I am trying to do something, and he is distracting me from it and I have to divide my attention between some task and him, I tend to get aggravated quick(er). If I am focusing just on him, I generally don’t get aggravated (yet). I realize that I am 5 weeks in, and this could all change. I plan to go back and read this passage (often), to see if this changes with time.