The Lucy Diaries

Day One--March 31, 2014--Two and a half months

As I type this my arms are exhausted, my shoulders ache, and my back is all seized up. I can hardly move—all this from day one with Lucy. I forgot how tiring it is to take care of a baby. My youngest will be eight in two short weeks. All I can think is: I am so glad I had my babies when I was younger.

As the sun was coming up, Lucy arrived. All smiles and cooing, I laid her on her play mat, and the girls entertained her for ninety minutes. Then I worked some baby magic, showing the girls how to coax Lucy to sleep. I stroked her head and whispered baby mumbo jumbo. A little da da da and a few strokes down her nose, makes Lucy’s eyelids very heavy. For a while the girls watched Luce sleep, but I then I shooed them off to get ready for school.

Lucy did not like the car pool line. Jill kept her from crying on the way to school. But as soon as they got out of the car, poor Lucy starts wailing. The line was backed up by ten cars because the traffic was busy on the street. She cried the whole seven minutes it took to get moving. Eventually the van rolled steadily down the road, which Lucy was quite fond of. When I finally backed into the driveway and slid the side door open, Luce was hiccoughing. Under each eye was a puddle of tear drops. The most adorable sad thing I have ever seen.

The morning progressed, and I learned that Lucy has about a twenty minute attention span before she wants to do something else. Swing—good—it let me get the laundry folded. She talks and giggles, happy as can be. I have never seen a baby so excited to talk to herself. Oh, but the twenty minutes are up, let’s move on. Play mat again, yes, I did Pilates while Luce wiggled next to me. She worked herself into a short snooze. Again only twenty minutes. But I was able to whip up some banana muffins.

The morning was going smoothly. I was getting some things done. I decided to take a walk with my friend. So Lucy came along. Oye, I forgot how heavy babies are. Lucy slept and bobbled along in the baby carrier strapped to my chest. It was a fine 60 degrees out with a little wind. I huffed and puffed from Lucy’s added weight. I broke a sweat, and by the time we were done our walk, I was done. Yep, that was it for me.

We came home and hung out in the yard for fifteen minutes. Lucy liked the bright sunlight and the pretty grass and blue sky. It was two o’clock now. Two more hours until mommy comes to get Luce.

It was a long two hours.

Lucy didn’t want to go back to sleep just yet. But she was getting tired. We rocked and bounced and swayed in my arms. At this point I was praying that I would be able to make it the next two hours. Oh how my arms did ache and my back pinched. Luckily, at Luce’s three o’clock feeding she drank herself into a drunken stupor. I slumped down in the arm chair with Lucy curled up in my arms for forty minutes. I think I was in a twilight sleep for ten minutes, but baby girl was zonked, in a deep and heavy sleep. I thought, yes, I finally wore her out, but it was Lucy that had worn me out.

I had to wake Lucy Lu to get the girls from school. But we were all smiles when mommy came twenty minutes later, all happy exhausted smiles. Oh wait, that was just me. Lucy was kicking and laughing and talking like she hadn’t worn me out all day.