How it's going - Week 3

Hi, gang. I know you guys want to hear in great detail the ins and outs of newborn baby-wrangling. Sorry to disappoint! It's all I can do just to *read* messages in my inbox, let alone respond to them or blog about our daily activities.


I want to give a shout-out to my rock star husband Steve. He will do anything for us (case in point, he's letting me borrow his boxer briefs) and is incredibly encouraging and supportive. He has literally been my shoulder to lean and cry on, and I love him so.



Our parents and friends have likewise been so helpful, from my mother-in-law driving down from upstate NY for the first three nights we were home to my mom scrubbing our kitchen floor on hands and knees to all the people who have provided food, flowers, and veteran baby-wrangling advice.


So anyway, we are doing well. Yes, we're sleep deprived, frustrated at times, grieving our life BC (before children), and unable to fully flush the smell of poo from our nostrils, but doing well.



Olivia is very sweet and good, has been sleeping in 3-4 hour chunks this week. (Weeks 1 & 2 were 5-6 hour stretches but not starting until midnight so I'll take the smaller stretches if I can go to bed earlier.) She can hold her head up and has been opening her eyes more lately; in the swing they open and close like a doll. She is and having more "awake" time and is quiet and happy until she gets hungry. She sneezes a lot (in multiples like Mama) and has the uncanny ability to poo immediately after a diaper change no matter when it is. I can't believe how many diapers we have already used, and she's already out of size N and into 1's. We're still waiting for the umbilical stump to fall off so she can have a big-girl bath in the tub. She had her first sickness-requiring-a-prescription this week, a plugged tear duct with erythromycin ointment. We also had our first solo-outing-involving-leaving-the-car: going for a walk at my parents' house. (A drive-through or going somewhere with Steve is one thing, working by myself with the stroller & carrier is a whole new level for me!) This week Steve had his first overnight business trip, which I think was hardest on him due to the lack of sleep.

My staples and Percocet were around for Week 1 and I took ibuprofen through Week 2 (now I'm done). Today I finally read my discharge instructions which brought up a good point: Ladies On Pain Meds, it's important to take your Colace. Just trust me. Breastfeeding is going okay, but it makes me hungry all the time. More on BF later maybe. In other Anne news, I'm having wardrobe challenges as I'm not *quite* my old size but too small for maternity stuff. Things that looked good stretched over my "rock hard" pregnant abs do not look good on my postpartum belly. (I don't think I mentioned the part of the birth story where, despite my being in the middle of a painful contraction, the image of the readout on the scale got burned in my memory. Bah!) My cankles reached an all-time hugeness in the days following my surgery but I'm finally finished retaining fluids. That being said, my feet are still longer than they were pre-pregnancy so my shoes still don't fit. I'm going to give it a few more weeks to see if anything changes, and then Mama is going shoe shopping!

A lot of people have asked how Riley is handling being second fiddle. She is very curious about the baby and sniffs her a lot, but in general Riley keeps her distance. She is a little more clingy with Steve and me than before and needs to have her ears scratched a little more, but otherwise she's great. Thankfully she's not one of those dogs who wants to kiss the baby all the time.

So anyway, life is going well and I hope to keep you posted on the highlights when I have the time. That whole thing about "sleep when the baby sleeps"? It's actually sleep, shower, clean, do laundry, fill orders, write thank-you notes, *or* blog while the baby sleeps. I'm getting nothing done.