Baby Wiggles McD

 7 weeks + 6 days. Whew! Time flies when you're caring for an infant. Between snuggles, feedings, burps, diaper changes, more snuggles, more feedings, more diaper changes... well, you get the picture. We no longer experience time like we used to.  Farryn is a blast. In the last two weeks she's showing way more interest in us – smiling and interacting with the cutest "ooohhh's" and "aaahhh's". She'll be chatting away before we know it! She's happiest in the mornings and I relish my time with her. Whether she's kicking furiously on her playmat and gurgling away at the hanging toys, or nuzzled up close to my face trying to make her mouth move like mine when I say "hello", I am on cloud nine. I have the morning shift and Scott usually sleeps on because he's assigned the second night feeding. But, he's caught wind of her awesome mood in the mornings and is getting out of bed earlier and earlier to spend time with her too. We ...

4 weeks + 6 days – since Farryn was born. Since I became a mama. And Scott a papa. Having a newborn is so much more than the birth of the child. It's also our collective birth as parents... a re-birth of our relationship and figuring out who we are individually, and as a family, with these emerging identities. The three of us are in our infancy navigating a whole new understanding of the world. We're enthralled and overwhelmed and tender and vulnerable and deliriously tired and ecstatically happy. It's a trip. family snuggles  I knew the postpartum period would feel vulnerable. But I completely underestimated how tender and exposed I'd feel. I know vulnerability. I've done so much work since losing my mom, paired with years of infertility; to survive, I had to get comfortable with sitting in, and openly sharing, my vulnerability.  But, now, I walk around like my skin has been flayed off. My heart is outside of my body. And everyone is able to gawk at my insides – my...