One Whole Month

Time flies when you're having fun.  And not sleeping much.  And hooked up to a newborn constantly.  And wrangling an unending stream of family.  And training a stubborn dog. 

Holycrap the last month has been nuts.  It's also been all kinds of awesome.


We had so much help in the way of family in town.  Both my parents, both Matt's parents and my Stepmother were here at different and sometimes overlapping times.  There were moments it was totally overwhelming to have that many people here but mostly it was just amazingly helpful to have people cooking or cleaning or just holding the baby when I needed a break. 

Watson was a bit traumatized by the combination of us leaving him overnight for the first time, the new baby coming home and taking our attention, a horrible rash/infection he's had that required steroids making him NUTS and then mostly the people coming and going.  He didn't want to miss a thing so he was a lot crazy for a couple of weeks there.  Things have calmed down now and he's better being back in his normal routine, but still on steroids so we're dealing with what my husband calls a "performance enhanced version of Watson."  We're also working much harder on training...specifically establishing who the boss is around here.  Watson is understandably upset to find out it's not him. 

On to the main event.  Sawyer is quite possibly the best baby ever.  I thought maybe it would wear off as he got bigger/older, but it hasn't.  He's radical.  While he does wake up about three times a night to eat, he never screams or cries for long periods of time or stays awake wanting to play.  He just kindly lets me know he'd like some boob, please, then latches on and eats until he falls asleep.  I've also been lucky that I can nurse lying down so I get to snooze while he does it so I don't feel too sleep deprived and thanks to the puppy and the pregnancy I'm already used to interrupted sleep so it's kind of already par for the course here and I feel pretty great most of the time.  I do better when I get a nap in the afternoon but I survive without it. 

Until two nights ago he hadn't had a single blow out, just some bad gas.  The other night I was bicycling his legs trying to help him get the bubbles out and we had our first blow out.  In the middle of my bed.  I was so tired I wiped it up best I could then covered it with a swaddling blanket and went back to sleep.  Three hours later, same thing happened, but this time on the side of the bed.  I no longer had the option of being lazy so I had to get up.  We went and snuggled up in the recliner.  Two hours later, same thing happened but this time all over his blanket and my legs.  I have now learned that if I'm going to help him with the bubbles, we need reinforcements under his back because with the gas comes the poop and it shoots up, not down. 

I feel almost 100% healed up from the delivery.  I still have weird pulling pains every once in a while on my uterus but overall no pain, no discomfort and I really feel like myself most of the time.  It's been a breezy, comfortable recovery for me and I feel very lucky to not be someone who has a really rough time after a c-section.  At least not this time. 

Nursing is going really well.  I have plenty of milk, Sawyer eats really well and my extra special nursing bonus is that I am losing tons of weight.  I prayed that I'd be one of those people that got super skinny while nursing and it seems (so far) that I got my wish.  I'm down to 15lbs below my pre-pregnancy weight.  Now, before you all gasp and tell me to stop, we need to remember that I gained a lovely 10-12lbs with each miscarriage and when I got pregnant with Sawyer I was the heaviest I've ever been.  This means I still have about 15lbs to go before I'm at what I consider my REAL pre-pregnancy weight which is still about 10lbs heavier than I was aiming for back when I was working out and eating healthy.  With some more luck I may end up right where I want to be.  Keeping it off once I stop nursing will be the hard part I'm sure. 

Motherhood so far is pretty fantastic but of course not without it's challenges.  My carpal tunnel seems to have decided to stick around and get even worse some days.  This means I'm struggling to nurse and do other things with completely numb hands and dysfunctional thumbs.  BOO.  Of course there are days when my hormones are all over the place.  I'm not depressed or anything, but if Matt isn't home right at the moment he said he would be, I can guarantee a melt down, even if the day has gone really well.  Other days I cry for no reason and a few times I get raging mad because my food is too hot or we're out of Diet Coke.  Fun times.  My house cleaning has obviously struggled but I'm trying to get back on schedule there.  I have tons of frozen meals so I haven't had to cook dinner yet but I'm working my way up to that.  We'll see how it goes.  I am already dreading the day when we have two kids because I have NO IDEA how anyone handles a newborn and an older child.  And I'll throw in a dog too.  If I didn't want to try for a girl so badly I would probably call it quits right now!

We got lucky with great friends and family who supplied us with everything we need and more to help out with the baby and I'm currently working on a post about my most favorite baby things so that I can share my WEALTH (sarcasm font) of knowledge.  As expected There are things that have been even greater than I expected them to be and things I've returned or have gone unused because I overestimated how much I would need them.  I'll try to include pictures and links and things so that any of you having babies soon can check out the stuff on your own.

I've also started another blog to talk about Sawyer specifics and will try to do at least a monthly, but hopefully weekly post.  It's going to be private so I can post pictures and names and all that stuff.  If you'd like to read it I'm happy to send you an invite as long as you can prove to me you're not a creeper.  Ha!  Just leave me a comment that you'd like an invite and when I actually have it up and running I'll make sure you can come see. 

Walking Kateastrophe is still broken.  Sigh.  I'm trying to figure out how to fix it but I need help and help is busy right now so it might be a while.  We'll see how long it really takes!

Baby just fell over in his swing and is pretty traumatized by the whole thing so I'm off to save him.