2 months, 5 days old

Oh my, my baby has gone from being a newborn to being a baby :) He's all smiles and coos nowadays, and he gets so excited when he sees someone he knows.  We're also sleeping at least 4 hours at a stretch at night, sometimes more like 5-6, which is amazing!

Baby John had his first plane trip this past week... we went up to NY to visit family.  He did really well, though I was so anxious about his behavior on the plane that I couldn't sleep the night before we left (typical me, I know.)

Nursing has become a whole lot easier, to the point where I'm not really sure why people would rather formula feed than nurse.  I mean, there are pros and cons to nursing, but still.  I think the most annoying thing about nursing is that any deviation in baby John's schedule -- like sleeping longer at night or me pumping an extra bottle here or there -- wreaks havoc on my milk supply.  And not in a "oh crap I don't have enough" way... more like a "I'm nursing triplets" kind of way.  I'm not sure why my body thinks that my son consumes 52323 gallons of milk a day, but it does and it's annoying.  Supposedly my body will figure this out soon, but just as it seems to be normal, something changes and they're back to being bricks on my chest. 

Apparently I wasn't supposed to have a baby with blue eyes and very light complexion... I received many comments this past week about how light the baby is and how he must have John's eyes because they're blue (this is after I've repeatedly told these people that I had blue eyes until I was three.) I do think the lighter hair is a little strange, but seriously, was my baby supposed to be born with a tan? Gotta love people ;)

1 month, 2 days old

So here we are, alive and well, albeit pretty sleep deprived.  Things I've learned or observed so far:

-- After living on 1.5 hour blocks of sleep, a random 3 hour block makes you feel amazing (relatively speaking.)
-- I had no idea how bothersome newborn hands are.  All they do is wake and startle baby John.
-- Vomit isn't the only thing that can be projected out of the baby.  (We've had a few incidents.)
-- Babies can burp and fart at the same time.  In fact, they spend a good chunk of time farting... at least, my baby does :)
-- People don't care if the baby is sleeping or needs to eat.  The only thing that is important to some of them is that they can carry the baby.  Poor baby was exhausted and nearly asleep in my arms when one of my aunts just took him from me and proceeded to tell me that "crying is his way of talking" when he started to cry. Sigh.
-- Everyone asks me how he's sleeping and when I tell them that he has a (somewhat) regular 3 hour cycle of eat, play, and sleep, they look shocked that he's not sleeping more.  Granted, I haven't had more than one baby, but everything I read says that he's normal.  He won't be sleeping 8 hours a night for a while.  I think people forget that.
-- This child does not like slow driving.  He's perfectly happy when we're on the highway, but the moment we're in a drive-thru (such as Starbucks lol), he starts wailing.  I already have a dog that has this behavior problem, I didn't realize I'd have a child with it, too.
-- Nursing is tough. It doesn't help when people tell you to deal with the problems by putting the baby on formula.  I have nothing against those who choose to supplement with formula or use it exclusively, but if my choice is to exclusively breastfeed at this point, perhaps the advice could be geared towards that goal.  Just sayin'... ;)
-- Finding clothes that fit is hard work.  I look ridiculous most of the time.
-- I still love my dogs.  They are not going to become "just dogs" anytime soon.  :)

I've been a mom for 3.5 weeks

The first week is a blur of people coming to visit, me being horrified at the yuckiness that is the female body post-birth, and an overall sense of awe at the fact that the little person hanging out with us all day long previously resided in my body. 

Now, almost a month later, we're falling into a routine and getting more used to each other :) I had a bout of the baby blues early on, but luckily they've passed and I'm feeling more confident in my new -- and permanent -- role as mom. 

It's amazing that even though the lack of sleep gets to both John and I, and it can be frustrating when you're the baby's only source of food and other people are pressuring you to start using formula so I "can rest", I can't imagine life without baby John.  When I get super tired or overwhelmed, I think of how I would feel if I didn't have him, and that feeling is sooo sad and awful, it makes whatever problem I'm having seem completely worth it. 

I'm looking forward to the newborn phase passing and being able to interact more fully with baby John.  He's already starting to make little cooing noises and he spends a good deal of time awake and alert after he eats.  I can't believe how much he's going to change in the next year. 

So here we are, alive and well, if not a little worn around the edges from the lack of sleep.  I went shopping for some clothes to fit my new body -- that was pretty depressing.  The main problem is the giant boobs that I have now.  I think finding some better nursing bras will make life a little better... right now the ones I have give me a huge uniboob, which is unflattering and unnatural ;)

...guess the last post worked!

Baby John was born Sunday, April 11th! When I woke up with contractions, I was so annoyed that I would be spending my Sunday in prelabor again.  However, a couple of hours later I found myself having to time them to see if they were real or not.  My midwife didn't believe me that I was in as much "discomfort" as I claimed because I was still talking through the contractions, so she made me stay at home for another hour or so.  When we finally talked again, she agreed to let me come in and get checked, but sounded like she doubted that I was very far along.  When we got there, you could tell that she still wasn't convinced that I was actually in real labor, and I was so scared that this wasn't real and I was just in a cycle of neverending painful prelabor.  Thankfully I was found to be 5-6cm, so we were allowed to stay.  I've never been so relieved to be told that I could stay in a medical facility in my life ;)

Early in labor I was moving around a lot and fairly peaceful -- I made use of the big tub in the room, lots of hands and knees positions, etc.  But after a few hours, I'd progressed to 8cm and really wasn't sure how I was going to manage the next two plus pushing.  The rest of the night is kind of a blur, with me moving around the room and bracing myself in a variety of positions.  My contractions finally turned from "retractive" to "expulsive" and I pushed for an hour.  The midwives were (weirdly) surprised that I was able to push him out in under an hour (54 min to be exact lol.)  They were also impressed that I was so relaxed through the vast majority of the labor -- though I was making a lot of noise during the last part.  I didn't scream though, and I'm proud of that :) I know I don't get a medal or anything, but it was definitely a personal goal of mine and I'm really happy that I was able to prepare for a natural birth and go through it.

John (the husband lol) was absolutely amazing and critical to my ability to get through everything.  He was so calm and patient... couldn't have had a better coach :)  It's pretty interesting that he and I have such different experiences of my labor, since he experienced it in an entirely different way. 

It took about four days after baby John's birth for me to say that I could imagine going through it again.  Of course, that won't be for a loooong time ;)

40 weeks, 2 days -- this is NOT happening, friends.

This is how 99% of my conversations with people other than John are going now:
-- Yes, I'm still pregnant.  No, I don't know when he's coming.  No, I'm not really worried that my due date has passed.  No, there aren't twins in there.  No, I'm not very comfortable nowadays.  No, he doesn't seem to care if being born would have gotten you a day off from work this week.  Yes, I promise to call when he's born.  Yes, I'll let you know if I need anything. I'm very sorry that you're on pins and needles and it's all you can think about.  UGH. --

I don't get why people think it's perfectly acceptable to harass pregnant women who are full term about when the baby is coming.  Modern science has yet to figure out a truly precise way to figure out when these little miracles are going to occur, so why on earth would you think that I have that kind of info? I'm not trying to hide his birth from you, and I'm sorry that my failure to "deliver the goods" leaves you on "pins and needles" so you can't sleep.  Ugh.

As you can tell, I'm frustrated.  Mostly because I've been in "prelabor" since Easter Sunday and having several hours of unfun contractions each night that don't lead to anything is maddening, but also because people have lost all of their self-control when it comes to this baby.  And I can't really vent to anyone except John because everyone means well and would be so offended if I told them to leave me alone and that if I don't answer the house phone, that doesn't mean you should call my cell and text me or John over and over until you get an answer from us.

Please, dear child, come soon.  Mommy's losing her sanity. 

Thanks to those who do call and text and email about things unrelated to the fact that I've got a watermelon wedged in my pelvis.  You are lifesavers and I promise to be equally nice to you whenever you get into this position ;)

39 weeks, 5 days

So I made *some* progress over the last few weeks, and I've been in "pre-labor" for a few days now... I'm really hoping this turns into active labor soon, because these prelabor contractions are tiring and I really need to rest now, not waste time feeling crummy.  Oooh well.

I went to Motherhood Maternity yesterday to buy a few nursing bras and such.  That was pretty unfun... I haven't worn non-underwire bras in probably 15 years, and being forced to do so (at least for a few weeks while my size is stabilized post-baby) is going to be so weird.  I won't get into the crazy details of trying them on, but let's just say that the models on the tags and online are either blessed with very light "parts" or those "parts" are delightfully airbrushed.  Yikes.  I went with the most coverage possible :)

38.5 weeks -- we're still a "we"

Despite lots of "practice" contractions and a variety of other early labor signs, I'm still pregnant.  I haven't grown much in the last week or so, which is normal, and I'm hoping I just stay this size.  I've learned to manage at this size... any larger of a watermelon belly and I may fall over.

I've been trying to figure out what will be the best way to get the news out of his birth once he does arrive.  While I know that there are people in my life who would be really annoyed to hear the news secondhand (or thirdhand, or whatever), I can't imagine being in a position to remember who requires a phone call and who would be okay with just a text or an email.  So I think people will hear as they hear. :)

I think I may be asked to be checked tomorrow at my appointment.  While some women moan and groan about these checks, I've only had one, it didn't really hurt or anything, and I'm just curious to see if I've made any progress over the last three weeks.  I know that it doesn't really mean anything either way, since I could go from no progress to newborn baby in the same evening, but I just like to know things ;)