New Hotness

I am thinking I may have used this blog title before, and for probably about the exact same topic. Behold, the new hotness ...

I was hoping to get out tonight once baby girl went to sleep. But I ended up watching Marley and Me for the first time, so I opted to spend my evening taking the dog for a long walk instead. He also got to eat a whole mess of leftover ravioli tonight too.

***This should have posted last Wednesday, but it didn't for some reason. Dog has been on lots of long walks, but no runs yet!

exhale

I feel as though I made that last post two years ago instead of two weeks ago. It's been a busy time here, and (thankfully) the baby is changing quite a bit. She's actually smiling now and being as social as 8 week old babies can be. Whatever it is that she's doing, it's working. I've stopped resenting (and sometimes worse emotions) her. Slowly I came to like her, and today, in my jubilation at the fact that she was napping in her crib FOR TWO WHOLE HOURS, I realized that I had just been staring at her sleeping for a good five minutes. Some mothers feel that bond the minute their new baby is placed on their chest. I am content and will sleep well tonight knowing that my daughter and I are getting there, slowly but surely.

Thank you, Doctor

Not only have I been given the green light to resume running, I have actually had it given to me in prescription form as a combatant to the lingering baby blues. I wonder if I can somehow apply my insurance/co-pay to that new pair of shoes I tried on the other day?

Things that are making me happy right now

1. My daughter has been napping in her crib for 40 whole minutes. I love this.

2. The other night when I took the dog out for I walk I accidentally ended up running about a half mile. I can't even explain how good it made me feel.

3. My doctor approved me to take a very small dosage of Ambien at night. It's safe to take while breastfeeding and it means that I will actually be able to sleep when the little one does.

4. The weather is starting to get a teeny bit cooler.

5. My post-partum follow-up appointment is on Monday morning. On Monday afternoon I will purchasing new running shoes. YAY!

28 days

Wow, we have survived the first four weeks. And I'll be one of those folks that says "OMG time has flown by, I can't believe it's been 4 weeks." Baby girl is doing well. She's only getting up two times a night, and she even gives me a nice 4-hour stretch of sleep during the first part of the night. According to the kitchen scale, she's up to 6 lbs, 15 oz. That's up 20 oz. from her birth weight - good job boobies! And now that she's grown a bit, she finally fits into all some of all those wicked cute baby clothes. Good for baby fashion, bad for my wallet!

Takin' what they're giving ...

... cause I'm workin' for a living.

As a freelancer/contract employee, I don't really technically get maternity leave. I'll get paid the same for the year no matter what. It's nice, but at the same time I don't want to completely leave my employers out to dry, especially at this uber-busy time of the year. So when boss man called me up 14 days post-partum and asked if I felt up to editing some stuff for the first football game, I said okay. In retrospect, I have a feeling I agreed more in an attempt to get some normalcy in my day. It was also a good justification for the purchasing of the MacDaddy computer last spring. This is why we got they computer - I can work at home. As my deadline was approaching and my baby cried all afternoon yesterday I was very much regretting my decision to take on anything other than my full dance card of diaper changing and boob-offering. But Hubs came in last night and took over baby girl and I got some work done. And it did exactly what I had hoped: I felt so normal. I enjoyed my work. I still had a bit to finish up this morning, and baby girl wanted to be held - like every parent in the history of the world has done, we figured it out.

We finished up, headed over to the stadium and did a little more work. In related news, I love our Baby Bjorn.

Fun for baby AND dog!

Day 18

We may have some colic. Or perhaps our baby turned into a howler monkey between 6 pm and midnight last night. I also discovered that the combination of laying her on my shoulder while I sob (not so) quietly will put Megan to sleep in about 5 minutes. Either way, she hasn't started up yet tonight, but we are still bracing a repeat performance. Once she calmed down last night though, we had some pretty good stretches of sleep and it was the pain of my overly full breast ready to explode that woke me up at 9 this morning, not my child who was peacefully headed into her fourth consecutive hour of sleep.

Per my husbands orders, I left the house today and got my brows waxed. That always helps me feel like a new woman and today was no different. Post-dinner I took the dog out for a long long walk. That combo makes me feel ready for tonight. Ask me again how I feel at 1:30 and I may have a different answer.

The Moby in action

So a few weeks ago I practiced using my Moby Wrap with my 25 year old stuffed Wicket the Ewok. It is much more satisfying using your very own baby!


notice the awesome framing job of the PhotoBooth photo, which cuts off my eyes and my sweet under-eye circles. Pro-fessional!

Megan Hamil is here!

Okay, so about 24 hours after that last post I was admitted to the hospital, getting ready to birth a baby. The whole process was actually a great experience, and I am quite thankful to have had the good time that we did. And in all honesty, I felt worse after I ran the half marathon than I did after I gave birth. I will say that drugs do help though.

Our great experience in the hospital kind of makes up for how shitty things can be at home with an 11-day-old baby that you have no idea what to do with. But seriously though, our little girl is great and we love her to death.

The temp was down today and the humidity was low so we all ventured out for a walk today. Loved being outside again, and depending on the night we have tonight, we are shooting for a longer walk tomorrow morning.

Here's our girl (sleeping in a laundry basket)!
and now for her close-up!