Eat. Sleep. Poop.

I wish someone would have told me how little there actually is to this beginning phase. Not that it isn't ridiculously complicated, but there are really only three things I've had to work on mastering so far.

The eating phase, the sleeping phase, and the pooping phase.

My time now consists of trying to solve Adelyn's riddle of those three things, and it ebbs and flows with each passing day. Sometimes she wants to sleep for three hours after she eats. And then the next day, I go to put her down after a feeding, ready to have my three hours in the morning to get stuff done. But the second you think you're sensing some sort of pattern, she decides she now doesn't want to nap after that feeding. She wants to feed some more. And some more. And then she might poop. Then sleep for a while, but this time only thirty minutes, and then she wants to eat again. And then poop. Except this time that wasn't a poop, it just sounded like one. And now that you've changed her diaper--which she hates--there's no hope for sleep without at least twenty minutes of shushing and rocking. And the next day it's a brand new riddle. I spend every second trying to anticipate what's coming next.

I'm making it sound like Adelyn is a fussy baby--to be honest, I have it extremely lucky. For now. Knock on wood. I wish I hadn't written that sentence because now it will no longer be true, I know it. But I'm gonna take my chances and tell you all that I lucked out majorly so far.

Adelyn cries when she's hungry; she cries even harder when she's still hungry and you try to stop feeding her after an hour of nursing. She screams bloody murder when you change her diaper, but she doesn't even make a peep when she's sitting in a soiled one. In fact, if her bathroom habits weren't so audible I'd never have any idea when or if to change her diaper. Sometimes she gets sort of fussy when she needs to burp or fart. But most of the time--most of the time--she's content to stare at you and the world around her and look like the most adorable thing alive.

Being a mom is complicated. Because it's so simple--anticipating the very limited needs of this teeny, tiny person. And still it's a trickier equation than any math problem I've ever come across. Eat plus sleep plus poop equals one confused mother.