A Mike Life – The Life of Mike!

Week 2 in the books

// December 7th, 2008 // family

Lyla Grace is now two weeks and almost a day old. It’s really and truly amazing that only two weeks have passed by since she was born because it feels like so long ago that we went to the hospital.

It was a highly emotional week around these parts, involving me going back to work and Jina trying to deal with Lyla’s late night crying.

The week was made a lot easier by the great people who brought us food.

I didn’t realize how hard it would be for me to be gone those first few days and the longing I’d feel to come home and see my girls. The first two days were a bit rough in that regard, but I got to work from home the next two and that really made things a lot more fun.

Jina is such a great wife, sometimes to a fault because of how much she tries to take care of me. It’s something we both strive for in our marriage and isn’t always easy to do. But this week, knowing I needed rest to be able to focus on work, she ended up sleeping on the couch a lot with Lyla to keep her from waking me up.

It was nice, but I felt strange about it and selfish to a degree. I begged her to sleep in our room, and even if she cries and keeps me up, at least we’d all be in there together. Even if I couldn’t be up all night, I definitely wanted to know what was going on, and not sleep through it all. Plus having them right there was important to me.

But as the week went on, and especially this weekend, Lyla started getting a little better. It was good timing too, because Jina had a rough night late in the week when she couldn’t do a single THING to calm her down.

We went back to the Baby Bliss medicine which helps calm down a gassy baby, and that has seemed to work pretty well. Both Friday and Saturday night I stayed up late with her and let Jina go to bed around 9 or 10, and the Baby Bliss actually made the early morning hours a lot easier.

We can also just gradually tell that things are a lot less stressful now. Sure, when she cries and cries and cries, there is a definite frustration that sets in. And that’s normal for everyone from what we’ve been told and read about. But when that isn’t going on, we’re more relaxed and calm with things that crop up.

It’s gotta be that we’re learning what she wants, what might be wrong and what to do to fix it. It’s the “routine” that people ask about and we’re getting there.

Even last night we did a photoshoot with Misty Michelle and it was a breeze. We had so much fun that we even stuck around the place and ate dinner outside on the patio. Lyla just sat in her car seat, sound asleep and let her parents have a nice meal together.

We took her to church for the first time this morning and that went well. She only let out one little scream after the music ended (I think she wanted it to keep going) and Jina held her the rest of the service in the back, where she basically sleep the entire time.

Jina is planning on getting out for lunch tomorrow with some friends, and we are going to a concert on Tuesday night (Snow Patrol!) and have a sitter all lined up already (thanks Kathy!).

Personally, as a dad, I feel like I’ve sort of bonded a little with Lyla this week. Like I mentioned above, I sat up with her both Friday and Saturday night. The second night she was awake for about two hours, but the first night she slept. But either way, my confidence grew as the hours passed. She responds to me, I can do a fairly good job at calming her down and she appears to like staring at me. I play with her, kiss her cheeks and hands, and I’m so very sure that she’s just WAITING to bust out with a giggle or a grin anyday now. I think she’s going to be ticklish too.

I completely love this little girl and cannot wait to see how she changes as she grows up. It’s going to be amazing.

Once again, thanks to everyone out there for helping us with meals, sending us congratulation cards, a few gift certificates and just moral support. Jina’s aunt Marilyn came over a few times in the mornings to give Jina a break, and Kathy did as well on Monday. It’s all been so appreciated.