Month 6/ Lesson 6

On December 25, 2012 it was Christmas day... and Cooper's half birthday!  So in month 6 I learned how to handle Christmas with a baby.  While I had already tackled the first major holiday, Thanksgiving, I am usually just a visitor enjoying the food on that day.  During Christmas I am much more involved.

I usually cook a big lunch for about 5 people.  While I do cook during the week, this is no ordinary meal.  Plus, and most importantly, I now had another person to care for and feed.  And to feed this new person I had to sit in one place and that was all I could do.  So this Christmas dinner took much more planning and a lot more time.  Here's my blog about my Christmas meals.

Other than cooking on Christmas day, there were presents to buy and Christmas Eve to survive.  I planned ahead for exactly what gift I wanted to buy the many people on the family Christmas list.  If you count mine and my husbands family there were 20 people we planned to give gifts to, which doesn't include my husband, Cooper, or me.  When I knew what I wanted to get each person I planned where to go and what time... trying to work around Cooper's nap schedule.

Christmas Eve went pretty smoothly.  At the time, I was worried again about his naps.  He got a little nap and still went right to bed as soon as we got home.  Which aloud me to prep for the next day's meals.

Little babies, or maybe just Cooper, can be a lot more flexible with their sleep schedules than I thought. I was slowly learning this and taking more chances when heading out with him.

Month 5/ Lesson 5

In month 5 we had our first major holiday!  And in my family, Thanksgiving is a huge deal.  It is at least a 2 day event.  My two brothers, my dad, and his four brothers and sisters with their multiple kids and their kids' multiple kids and in some cases, their kids.  So that's three generations in one house.

But back to the matter at hand.  In the 5th month of motherhood I learned how to handle the first major holiday.  We have now survived our first trip, however, the drive to our family Thanksgiving is longer.  Cooper did pretty well on the 6 hour drive... but the last hour I think he was tired of being in the car and cried. (And I forgot to mention he cried the last 30 minutes of our first trip... come to find out he pooped!  Whoops.)

Then it was Thanksgiving Day!  Cooper wasn't really interested, but I had the Thanksgiving Day parade on the TV for him to watch.  He took his first nap and things were still on schedule.  We headed to our family Thanksgiving after he woke up.  When I was trying to plan for the day, I was worried about how Cooper would get his other 2 naps he usually takes.  So I thought "he usually sleeps well when he's lying on me."  So I took my Moby wrap and hoped that it would help him sleep... and it kinda worked.  He did nap on me, briefly.  I thought if he could fall asleep while wrapped up, maybe I could walk around some once he was asleep.  Nope.

After the family Thanksgiving lunch, there was dinner with friends too.  Despite Cooper's lack of sleep, he did pretty well and didn't fuss much.  I'm sure that had to do somewhat with my friend's two children being super interested in Cooper.

All in all, they day was good.  However, I was exhausted from being worried about his sleep all day.  So, we all slept great that night!