1 month

One of my friends shared her first real moment of truth about parenting. Vicki said, "You wake up in hospital and have this baby. You spend the first few days amazed at the miracle. The next few days struggling to learn new skills--maybe terrified at doing something wrong. Then you head home, and eventually you begin to feel comfortable. Then comes this shocking revelation--this little visitor is never going home. And what you remember as normal life is never coming back."

My friends we have had that moment. On the evening of Good Friday, we took Grandma Bonnie and Grandma Gretchen to the airport. The MOMS (as our friends called them) were our support crew--providing hot meals, clean clothes, sage advice, welcome distractions, and the occasional reason to leave the house to visit a local attraction (I think I would have stayed in my pajamas the whole month otherwise). As Nathan headed back to work and I struggled from lack of sleep, they took the baby when necessary, but also kept each other entertained when we weren't very entertaining. Although we want them both to come back to enjoy more of Western Australia, we needed their help in making this transition from the hospital to home.

With the MOMS departure, we are making another transition to a new normal. The hard part is we really don't get to decide what the "new normal" is. This normal includes waking up at 6 am to make it to church by 9. It includes managing to type, cook, do laundry with only one hand. This normal now includes weekend entertainment of doing a crossword in bed and going to sleep early. Figuring out that Noah normally wails for 30 minutes in the evening regardless of what anyone does. And starting to see friends for lunch, dinner, and coffee (although we are grateful so many of them are coming to us at the moment!).

We spent much of Easter weekend finding normal again. There were a few challenges but we survived. For example, the choir sang at the front of the church for Easter...this meant breastfeeding and diaper changes in front of the entire congregation (Thanks Karen....the "hooter hider" was a lifesaver!). We figured out who takes the early shift (me!) and the middle of the night shift (me!) but who can put Noah to sleep after 30 min of inconsolable crying (Nathan!) and who gets to take an afternoon nap (me--hurrah!).



here's to the new normal....until next week!