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Spending lots of time around infants is exhausting, even if you can't figure out later what you were doing that was so bloody hard. Who knew?
Well, okay, I knew, but it wasn't like actually knowing.
Today, because I was here and Kate could be left in my care, my sister was able to shower. Sing hosanna! And then, because Pru had been able to shower, it was possible for her to leave the house. Oh rapture! Once we left the house, it was possible to buy a week's worth of groceries, because there was one person to push the cart and another to push the stroller. The real rarity was that all these things happened before Zach got home from work. It was even possible to go across town and cook Dad's birthday dinner, though Kate got Fussy and needed to be brought home before the candles made it onto the cake.
You know how newborns can't hold their heads up, and you have to support their necks all the time or risk Terrible Spinal Injury? I think what makes newborns quite so exhausting is that anytime you pick them up, supporting the head is the highest priority. Whatever you thought was so important to do that you picked the kid up in the first place? You have to do that with your imaginary third and fourth hands, because the hands you actually have are completely occupied with the challenge of not breaking the baby's neck. How anybody copes with that while waking up every two hours for feeding is beyond me. It's astonishing any of us live to reach adulthood. It's astonishing our species ever made it past the first fluky generation with floppy-necked offspring. You want an argument against the Intelligent Design Pseudotheory? Try the total lack of muscle strength in the necks of human newborns.
Thanks to everyone who responded to my last post. So far, Kate seems to like the old Three Dog Night songs of my childhood. Jeremiah, bullfrog, etc. And how does the light shine in the halls of Shambala, anyway?
Well, okay, I knew, but it wasn't like actually knowing.
Today, because I was here and Kate could be left in my care, my sister was able to shower. Sing hosanna! And then, because Pru had been able to shower, it was possible for her to leave the house. Oh rapture! Once we left the house, it was possible to buy a week's worth of groceries, because there was one person to push the cart and another to push the stroller. The real rarity was that all these things happened before Zach got home from work. It was even possible to go across town and cook Dad's birthday dinner, though Kate got Fussy and needed to be brought home before the candles made it onto the cake.
You know how newborns can't hold their heads up, and you have to support their necks all the time or risk Terrible Spinal Injury? I think what makes newborns quite so exhausting is that anytime you pick them up, supporting the head is the highest priority. Whatever you thought was so important to do that you picked the kid up in the first place? You have to do that with your imaginary third and fourth hands, because the hands you actually have are completely occupied with the challenge of not breaking the baby's neck. How anybody copes with that while waking up every two hours for feeding is beyond me. It's astonishing any of us live to reach adulthood. It's astonishing our species ever made it past the first fluky generation with floppy-necked offspring. You want an argument against the Intelligent Design Pseudotheory? Try the total lack of muscle strength in the necks of human newborns.
Thanks to everyone who responded to my last post. So far, Kate seems to like the old Three Dog Night songs of my childhood. Jeremiah, bullfrog, etc. And how does the light shine in the halls of Shambala, anyway?
