.adjusting.

Parker is now officially a week old and we have settled into a nice little routine. He is eating every 4 hours and has made the night feedings pretty easy! Today we went to the doctor and he weighed 6lbs, 11oz..so not quite back to his birth weight yet but getting there. We have to take him in for a weigh in next week and if he is gaining an ounce a day, then we can let him sleep through the night until he wakes us up to eat! That means more sleep for the both of us :) He has a hard time waking up to eat at his 1:00am feed time and I end up spending about a half hour just trying to wake him to get some food in him, so hopefully that means he will sleep for a good chunk in the night before he wakes up to eat! But with him eating every 4 hours, I am able to get sleep in 3 hour increments and have felt pretty rested this whole time. He is such an easy baby...fingers crossed that he stays this way!!
It is hard to describe how much a baby changes your life. Suddenly all of your priorities are different and I am now aware of things I never really noticed before. I am a much more cautious driver now, I notice what people around me are doing (i.e. smoking, littering, etc) and think about how it is impacting my babies environment, I think twice before buying something knowing that Parker is our first priority, but the biggest thing that has impacted me the most is how much I long to live near family again.
It has always been hard to live away from family, but now that Parker has entered the picture, it is so hard to be away from them. We are extremely blessed to be very close to both sides of our families and to think that they are not going to be able to watch Parker grow up on a daily basis breaks my heart. I want them to be able to see him crawl, walk, talk, etc. I want to be able to drive down the street and go for walks with my mom and meet up for lunches and shopping dates. Having family here with us for an extended amount of time when Parker was born, made me realize just how much I miss having them around.
God has placed us in Seattle for a reason right now and I am trying to stay obedient to why He has us here, but it has been a tough adjustment for me now that Parker is here. Having the time with just the two of us to start off our marriage has been great for Nick and I, and we have tried to make a home for ourselves here...but even with that it still doesn't really feel like home.
Parker has brought so much joy and love to our lives and it's hard to imagine what life was like without him. It has been an easy adjustment having him around and getting on a schedule, but some of the emotional adjustments have been much more difficult to face. I LOVE being a mom and feel truly blessed to have Parker as my son...I cannot wait to watch him grow and reach new milestones :)