Maeve has been with us for two (almost three) weeks. (Takes a while for a blog post to go from draft to published lately.) And of course now we can’t imagine life without her!

Overall everything is going really well and Maeve is an easy baby. Or maybe we just have full confidence in what we’re doing! During the day she nurses and sleeps. Mostly I hold or wear Maeve but we’re getting better at anticipating her naps and awake time and I try hand her off to Chris too so he can have time with her too.

It seems like the boys are doing really well with the transition. They both love to come and check on Maeve, give her kisses, and ask to hold her. It really helps that Chris is at home and can give them so much attention. This would be so hard if Chris was working full time especially given that the boys are at home full time. Gah I cannot imagine!

As we had planned, Chris is sleeping in the “daddy den” we set up in my office. The arrangement is working beautifully. I’m up at night with Maeve (still no consistent stretches of sleep) and Chris takes care of just about everything else. Maeve usually wakes between 6 and 7 and I’ll nurse her and then give her to Chris and go back to bed for another hour or so. It makes all the difference! Chris brings her to me when she needs to nurse and I’ll get up and then Chris will bring me iced coffee. So good.

Even though my sleep is disrupted and shorter than I’d prefer I don’t feel stressed about it. I know it’ll get better. I feel like I know better than ever how fast time goes with a baby and how quickly things change. I also love knowing that Chris is getting good sleep. It was terrible when neither of us were sleeping when Dash was a baby. During the night while I'm nursing I've been rewatching episodes of The Office on my phone which feels comforting and indulgent. (Towards the beginning of this stay at home period Chris and I treated ourselves to a Netflix subscription which we'd lived without for a long time.) Sometimes I read on my Kindle too but only when my eyes aren't bleary with sleep.

During the day I hold Maeve a lot but try to find time with the boys every day. Chris tries to do a couple of academic activities with them and otherwise keep them engaged. We try to do a family walk most evenings after dinner. The other night Chris and the boys had the idea for a family picnic so we ordered a pizza, picked up ice cream on the way, and headed to a beautiful neighborhood park. We played music on a speaker, the boys ran around, and I nursed Maeve while eating pizza. Dashiell declared it the best day and it really was.

I’m doing an okay good job accepting this stretch of time when I can’t be as productive or do as much housework. Even though Chris is doing an amazing job managing the boys and the household it's hard for me to not be able to pitch in more and help keep the house clean. The other day Chris had to be on a few conference calls (he's off work but still needs to check in with his team and students every other week until the end of the school year), the boys were being wild, and the house was out of sorts. It felt stressful! But then the next morning Chris cleaned the entire house while Maeve and I slept in. It was so wonderful to wake up to. The cleanliness of the house affects my mental state so much (I wish it didn't!) and knowing this Chris has been working so hard to keep the house clean and the laundry done. It is a true act of love.

I've been trying to draft some blog posts on my phone while I'm nursing. There's so much I want to write but it's hard to find computer time while my hands are always full (even as I savor this time while Maeve is so small and we get to hold her all the time). I also need to figure out how Erica and I will record a podcast from our respective houses and how I'll find the time to edit a podcast. I might have to ask Chris to do it for me.

Besides sleep the other challenging thing right now is that I'm still having some pain while nursing, mostly at latch on. I went to see a lactation consultant who diagnosed Maeve with a tight lip and tongue tie. We had both corrected and it's helped the nursing pain but it still hasn't resolved completely. I had a follow up appointment with the lactation consultant this week plus hopefully as time goes by nursing will become more comfortable. Luckily my milk supply and the amount Maeve is getting is not an issue and she's gaining weight beautifully. She'll be out of newborn dipes and clothes soon!

One slight bummer is that because of the coronavirus we are having to put off the newborn photos that I scheduled. We've had newborn photo sessions done within the first couple weeks after each of the boys were born and I'm sad we can't do this with Maeve. The photos are already paid for however so I'll follow up with the photographer in a couple months when (hopefully) this is behind us.

I think that covers updates from our house! I started this post on my phone and am finishing it while wearing a napping Maeve so I'd better wrap up before she wakes.