Today, Dubya is six months and 10 days old.
Today, the husband and I celebrate six years of marriage.
Today feels like a really good day.
Yesterday was Dubya’s six-month appointment. She’s one healthy baby according to her pediatrician, advanced when it comes to sitting and her mobility. The kid’s probably days away from figuring out crawling. She easily moves from sitting to her hands and knees; if she wants something, she can scoot herself to it with no problem. One lower tooth has erupted, with the second incisor not far behind. She’s light at 14 lbs, 8 0z, but her pediatrician was pleased with how she’s shooting up the growth charts – between her four-month and six-month appointments, she gained three pounds, getting to where she needs to be. Today we were hoping to introduce her to avocados for the first time, but that plan is on hold given that she’s fussy, feverish and sleepy post-vaccinations.
The husband and I are doing well right now. Having a baby is like dropping a bomb in the middle of your marriage; as strong as we are as partners, we still struggled a lot to understand each other post-baby. But I do think we’re stronger than we ever were for it. It’s meant being open and honest about things that didn’t use to rise to the surface. It’s meant lowering our expectations of each other in favor of just doing the best we can. It’s meant being understanding and not making everything into the Tired Olympics. We’re both tired and it’s rough. But we’re trying. And we’re trying to get to a point where we prioritize each other again: finding a date-night babysitter was key to that! But we still have our senses of humor – we make each other smile and laugh, we support each other on rough days, and we remind each other that, in the end, this has been such a wonderful time.
Since Dubya is out of sorts today (she’s just started hour three of her third nap of the day), we’re keeping things low key. I got us some salads for lunch (did I tell you we’re both on Weight Watchers? He got on it to support me), then ran out to get some champagne for to celebrate our anniversary later tonight. The husband is snoozing at the moment while I write. It’s been a good day even if our Dubya isn’t at her best.
As I was walking home from getting the salads, it hit me: I’m really, really happy right now. And it’s all thanks to the two sleepyheads taking up residence in this apartment right now.