Grandma's Here

Hey guys

What a CRAZY week. I went back to school this week (only Tuesday/Thursday). My mom came on Monday to stay for the week. This has been surprisingly nice. Normally my mother drives me up a wall after a day or two, but I'm happy to report a nice smooth week. My mom really respects my take on what the baby needs. She doesn't make comments about how I should do things differently. She does exactly what I ask her to, and she's been helping with housework also, but not overdoing it. Sometimes I'm a little controlling about how I want things done around the house, a little type A maybe, so it's difficult to let others help me. She goes home Monday and my husband will start taking care of her Tue/Thur while i'm in class.

I don't know what I was thinking taking on all these responsibilities this semester. I am taking an online class, not difficult, just time consuming, also an advanced GIS class (to help make me more marketable for job searches next summer), TAing a class, and I'm supposed to start writing. AND of course taking care of little Mimi all the other time that I'm not in class. GEESH, note to self, next time you have a one-month-old baby, cut back on the time commitments!

Mimi is plumping up. She's a little porker, she's up to almost 11 lbs. No one can dare say I'm not feeding her enough! The transition to having some bottles during the day from anther person while i'm gone has gone okay. She seems to be more gassy, which I think is from the bottles--she guzzles too quickly even with slow-flow nipples. Also, her sleeping pattern in a little off--I think because she needs the nursing to soothe her sometimes to get a good nap in. This is just what I think, who knows if it is true.

Finally lost 2 lbs after sticking at the same weight for 2 week straight. I think it is because I was so busy this week I didn't' have time to eat. Going to Toys R Us to stock up on diapers armed with my handful of coupons carefully clipped over the past few weeks.

I'll talk about something more substantial later when I have time to sit down and think about it--

Good luck to Courtney--She's having a little baby soon!
Good luck to Rach--She's coming along and buying some cute baby stuff

Check their blogs out too, they do a good job keeping people posted.

Sometimes life is frustrating

Do you ever have days where you need to remind yourself that you love your husband? This makes me sound so terrible, but sometimes I just really get frustrated with my husband. I love him so much, but sometimes I just lose it.

Why is it that....

My husband asks me questions that I've answered 100 times already? Like what are the dates he needs to take off for our trip this fall...or where the bibs are....things I've answered or we've had conversations about 100 times in the past month?

He throws his clothes on the floor next to the hamper....literally next to...but can't seem to make them into the hamper?

He tells me we need toothpaste but can't seem to stop at one of the 10 CVS's or Wallgreen's on his way to work to buy some?

He thinks that because I'm home with the baby I don't have to work as well...oh I don't know, ,like write my dissertation or take classes or teach classes?

Why is it that when he's stressed out, he needs to relax, but for me life just has to go on cause there's too much to do?

What did their mothers do to them to make them so lazy and enabled?

GRRRRRRRRR okay, I have vented about my husband.

Now let me focus on the positive.

My husband takes care of me when I'm sick, like when I had shingles in my face (I know, F'ing crazy to get shingles at 26), or when I had my C section.

My husband takes good care of our baby without me worrying if he's doing a good job or not. I know you are thinking, well shouldn't this be a given? But I've know a lot of other husbands/dads that freak out at the thought of having to take care of a baby all alone for an extended period, with the mothers freaking out the entire time they are gone is their baby is going to be alive when they get home.

My husband works a job that isn't challenging to him but is convenient so that I can stay in this city to finish my graduate education.

My husband is my best friend.

Okay now I don't feel like such a terrible person. Here's my husband hanging out the my daughter Sunday morning. She's naked because she pukes all over herself, sometimes it's just easier to leave her naked until her stomach has settled a little!

Heading out for Supplies...

Mimi is going to be one month old this week and i've officially run out of something baby related. I think I did pretty well preparing if it takes a month before I physically NEED to leave the house for something. Wipes and breast pads..now there's a list for you. My friend with a baby said she never used breast pads and was surprised at how many I went through. Then she saw my freezer full of milk and understood. I guess it's a blessing to have too much milk, but it's also annoying, you leak milk just by smelling your baby's laundry, or hearing her cry. Some nights (when I would forget breast pads at night), I would wake up saturated in my own breastmilk---I know, gross. I use the lansinoh brand and it seems to work for me. The other thing I am almost of out is wipes. I seem to be bad at wipes--I use far too many, hopefully I will improve.

The bills from the doctors are rolling in now which is fun to deal with. I have two insurances and one is in my maiden names and one is in my new married name. So this makes it ultra fun to deal with the hospital billing office, lol. It's crazy, you get a bill for the "room and board" for your baby---except the baby was in the room with me, and I fed her. I also got charged the same fee--does this not make sense to anyone else? That's just the begining of the fun.

This week will be the first week where I am ALL ALONE with no houseguests (see previous post for my feeelings on this) and my husband will be back at work. We'll see how it goes. The week after that my mom will be here. I'm kind of excited for her to see the baby though, I think it'll be nice.

Mimi is doing great, the last two nights she slept 5-6 hours, woke up, ate and slept another 2-3 hours. AWESOME. I actually woke up before her, 1. wondering why she hadn't cried yet 2. my boobs were going to spray breastmilk everywhere. I pumped 8 oz!!! and went back to bed until she woke up. The women's body is an amazing thing.

I'm sure i'll post later this week. Thanks to everyone who commented. Feel free to comment and say hi, or complain about my parenting, or offer suggestions, ask questions, whatever.

Packing up the Maternity Clothes

Photos--Me at 4 weeks, me at 40 weeks, and my beautiful fat baby :-)

Well today I cleaned out my closet and packed up all of my tent-like clothing that I loathed by the end of my pregnancy. I have 10 more lbs to lose until I reach my pre-pregnancy weight, but all my pre-prego shirts now fit. Pants---HAHAHAHA, not quite yet, but hopefully in the next month or so I can squeeze my butt back into those. After I have my 6 week post partum apt. I will be signing back up for the Total Fitness Challenge at my gym with my old trainer Erin. I think I just have to be careful of abdominal exercises for awhile longer, other than that I think I'll be cleared to get my butt in shape again. You got to love when your husband says (3 weeks after you've just had his baby), "Oh, you're still wearing maternity pants?" HELLO, I gained 31 lbs and have lost 21 of them in 3 weeks, cut me some slack dear! He also told me my eyebrows look a little bushy, lol. In the 6 years I've dated him he has never noticed my eyebrows....ever....and believe me they've been in worse shape than this. I'll admit I really need to visit my friendly japanese waxing lady who always says "you want lip too?" even though i really don't feel as though I have any hair, let alone dark hair on my lip. When does he think I have time to go get my brows waxed? I haven't even been allowed to drive for the past 3 weeks. Technically I'm still not supposed to drive..I think.

So we took Mimi to her 3 week apt, she was 21 1/2 inches, 9lbs 4 oz, and her head was 37.5 cm. What's with our pediatrician mixing metric with standard? Kind of strange..anyway, she was in the 75th percentile for head and ht. and 50th for weight. Go Mimi, gaining 1 lbs 4 oz in the last 2 1/2 weeks. Guess we know you're eating well! I have to go back to work and school 1/2 time starting next week. My mom will be here the first week, then my husband will be taking two 1/2 days a week so I can go to work and class. We'll see how this all goes! Mimi has been sleeping for the last 4 hours, why can't she do that at night? This crazy lack of sleep is wearing on me! Again....she's worth it!

One Week Postpartum

Well our little Mimi is one week old. It has been a crazy week. We had her last Wednesday at 12:50 pm, so she's officially one week now I guess.

The C section itself was not all that bad. I went to the chiropractor one last time Wednesday morning before we checked into the hospital at 10am. The Chiro thought maybe the baby had moved but I had my doubts. I still felt her little head camped out behind my belly button. Sure enough, the sonogram showed her still camped out in complete breech position. They put in my hep lock---one of the worst parts of the c section, and drew some blood from the other arm for some reason. I hadn't had anything to eat or drink, so the hole putting in IV's taking blood thing made me a little sweaty and sick feeling. Before we knew it, they wheeled me into the OR, put in my spinal, which was the second least pleasand experience, the spinal sent a lighting bolt of pain down my left leg and I got really scared and of course was crying. The guy was teasing me, which I didn't find very funny. They put up drapes so that I couldn't see anything and my body began to tingle and go numb from my chest down. My asthma was pretty bad that day and I was coughing, but with my diaphram numb, it was very difficult to cough. It felt so strange. They brought in my husband decked out in scrubs with his camera and began to cut. It actually felt like tickles. Within in minutes they held the baby over the drape and said "it's a girl!" She was crying and pinked right up. They cleaned her up and suctioned her mouth and nose and gave her to F, he brought her over to see me and I of course began to cry. So surreal to see your baby, to love something so much instantly without ever having seen it. By this time, they take the baby to the nursery and my husband followed and they give you some morphine while they stitch you back up. I had staples instead of stitches in my incision, which the doctor says heals better. They brought me into recovery for an hour before the baby came back to the room. I felt awesome. I was relaxed and calm and pain free. I felt this way for the next several hours. They keep you hooked up to several monitors, Iv's and such for the first night, which was really uncomfortable. You have cuffs on your legs to prevent clots, a blood pressure cuff that takes your pressure every 10 mins, and and IV and catheter. About 6 hours after the surgery the nurses help you up to the bathroom to get cleaned up and get you on your feet. This was a little crazy, I felt weak and sick. They gave me some anti-nausea medication after I was back in bed. I also felt very itchy, still no pain though. I don't remember much of the first night. I know I nursed the baby a bunch, and F changed her 8 poopy diapers. The next day I was in pain but the pain medication helped. I was able to get up to the bathroom and sit in a chair and hold the baby. I began to eat solid foods also. The next 2 days we had vistors, we slept, we fed the baby, and that's about it. The nurses come in almost every hour to massage your uterus, check your bleeding, and give you all sorts of drugs--some for nausea, some for itching, some for swelling, some for pain, some stool softeners, etc. etc. The doctors and midwives came in every day and checked on us as well. We opted to stay one extra day because I was in a lot of pain and discomfort and I knew once I got home I wouldn't get to relax as much, which is exactly what happened!

We got discharged Saturday afternoon. It was really exciting to take her home, but really painful to sit up in the car on the way home! lol. Mimi slept the entire way, I winced ever bump my husband hit in the road.

Since we got home, we've just been relaxing and getting used to having her around. People have come to visit and brought food which is so nice. It's really nice to not have to cook. We just heat up what people brought and voila, dinner! F has been somewhat helpful, he's great with the baby and does things when I ask, but he does let me do a little too much. I'll be doing dishes and be almost done and he'll be lack, oh honey dont' do those. I'm not very good at relaxing so it's not his fault. By the end of the day I can tell i've done too much. I get emotional and cranky and weepy and irrational, and I know it's time for a hot shower and some sleep.

My pain is getting easier to deal with and the incision is healing nicely. Breastfeeding is going great, I actually have too much milk--which is annoying because it leaks and she has trouble latching, but it's nice because I already have a couple of bottles frozen for later. I've been using my Medela pump after eat feeding, and sometimes before.

It's been really hard adjusting to pain and hormones and sleep deprivation but so worth it. I watch my husband hold her and kiss her and whisper little sweet things to her, and in the middle of the night I'll nurse her and she puts her little hand on me and I know it's all worth it.

I still feel brain dead and tired and like a train wreck, but everyday things get a little easier.