Lurking...
I know my presence online the last month has been really limited. But I am lurking, and I do read posts and such when I have free time (which has been rather loosely defined these last few weeks).
I've had a really slow recovery here. It probably didn't help that I went through the physical trauma of having an almost vaginal birth and then a c-section on top of it. :p My mom likened it to me having the baby twice, because after 14 hours of labor, I pretty much wrecked my mid-section anyway. My mom was here the last 2 weeks helping with the baby, but she was also busy putting me back together. -_-; Because, let's be honest here... the baby is not the problem, it's my body which has been uncooperative in this whole situation.
So, this is pretty much what I felt like when I got home from the hospital.
I was a mess physically and emotionally the last few weeks. I was supposed to be on bed rest for the first week or so. Mother-in-law (MIL) did not help me relax the first 5 days, because I was constantly worried about what she was doing when I was supposed to be napping. Like for example, when the baby starts to choke while feeding, you would normally sit her upright, pat her on the back and help her catch her breath, right? Well, MIL's solution was to stroke the middle of her forehead with her thumb instead of... ya know... helping her try to cough the junk out?
It also didn't help that she would talk to the baby in Turkish and for all I know she could have been saying, "You love grandma better than you love mommy, right?" I mean, I guess that's being a bit paranoid... but I only know about 200 words in Turkish and there was about a 2-3 day period where I felt like I never got to hold my own baby :( Or when I was holding her, MIL would get in my personal space and try to interfere ... so, yeah call me paranoid if you want, but the woman kept joking about taking the baby away with her, and I started to get tired of the joke.
Knowing that she criticized everything my husband would try to do for the baby didn't help matters either. This led him to be more hands off, because she made him second-guess his own parenting abilities. I kinda need him to be hands on, here. He's only recently regained some of his confidence. (It took him 2 weeks to get over her nagging. She still nags him on Skype, telling him he's feeding the baby wrong 9_9 If he was feeding her wrong, the baby would let him know :p).
The good news is once I was rid of MIL, my mom stepped in and took time off work to help me with the baby and let me heal.
( Ignore EMO whining and TMI if you like. )
So some of the good things:
- My daughter is gaining weight and has been really sweet.
- I lost most of the baby/water weight. I'm now down to 156 lbs. (I was 180 the last few weeks of the pregnancy).
- We went shopping together as a family for the first time this Saturday and she was really good.
- She will be one month old already this week.
- Her umbilical cord finally fell off and we gave her her first real bath.
Some of the not so good things:
- My poor little girl has had killer gas which really makes her uncomfortable. I had to watch her suffer for about 3-4 days before she turned 3 weeks old. (Once she was 3 weeks old we were given the ok by her doctor to give her simethocone drops which fixed the problem almost immediately).
- She has gotten into this weird habit of saving up all her poops for 2-3 days and then having one giant poop all at once. I don't mind the 4-diaper-alarm poops so much, as the constant worry that she might be constipated because she hasn't gone for a while. But her poops are soft, so she doesn't appear to have a problem and, apparently, it is considered "normal" for a newborn to only go once every 3-4 days.
- While instantly losing about 20 lbs. was encouraging, I seem to be stuck at 156 lbs. atm. :p But my mom said it wouldn't be fair to other women if I didn't struggle with a little weight ;) But, we'll see. I haven't exactly been exercising either since I have been largely on bed rest. I may lose some weight when I return to work.
So, that is pretty much all the stuff that has been going on. I'm still feeling as though I have no real free time, but perhaps that will change once she starts sleeping through the whole night. Unfortunately, that may not happen for another 2 months yet ^_^;
I've had a really slow recovery here. It probably didn't help that I went through the physical trauma of having an almost vaginal birth and then a c-section on top of it. :p My mom likened it to me having the baby twice, because after 14 hours of labor, I pretty much wrecked my mid-section anyway. My mom was here the last 2 weeks helping with the baby, but she was also busy putting me back together. -_-; Because, let's be honest here... the baby is not the problem, it's my body which has been uncooperative in this whole situation.
I was a mess physically and emotionally the last few weeks. I was supposed to be on bed rest for the first week or so. Mother-in-law (MIL) did not help me relax the first 5 days, because I was constantly worried about what she was doing when I was supposed to be napping. Like for example, when the baby starts to choke while feeding, you would normally sit her upright, pat her on the back and help her catch her breath, right? Well, MIL's solution was to stroke the middle of her forehead with her thumb instead of... ya know... helping her try to cough the junk out?
It also didn't help that she would talk to the baby in Turkish and for all I know she could have been saying, "You love grandma better than you love mommy, right?" I mean, I guess that's being a bit paranoid... but I only know about 200 words in Turkish and there was about a 2-3 day period where I felt like I never got to hold my own baby :( Or when I was holding her, MIL would get in my personal space and try to interfere ... so, yeah call me paranoid if you want, but the woman kept joking about taking the baby away with her, and I started to get tired of the joke.
Knowing that she criticized everything my husband would try to do for the baby didn't help matters either. This led him to be more hands off, because she made him second-guess his own parenting abilities. I kinda need him to be hands on, here. He's only recently regained some of his confidence. (It took him 2 weeks to get over her nagging. She still nags him on Skype, telling him he's feeding the baby wrong 9_9 If he was feeding her wrong, the baby would let him know :p).
The good news is once I was rid of MIL, my mom stepped in and took time off work to help me with the baby and let me heal.
( Ignore EMO whining and TMI if you like. )
So some of the good things:
- My daughter is gaining weight and has been really sweet.
- I lost most of the baby/water weight. I'm now down to 156 lbs. (I was 180 the last few weeks of the pregnancy).
- We went shopping together as a family for the first time this Saturday and she was really good.
- She will be one month old already this week.
- Her umbilical cord finally fell off and we gave her her first real bath.
Some of the not so good things:
- My poor little girl has had killer gas which really makes her uncomfortable. I had to watch her suffer for about 3-4 days before she turned 3 weeks old. (Once she was 3 weeks old we were given the ok by her doctor to give her simethocone drops which fixed the problem almost immediately).
- She has gotten into this weird habit of saving up all her poops for 2-3 days and then having one giant poop all at once. I don't mind the 4-diaper-alarm poops so much, as the constant worry that she might be constipated because she hasn't gone for a while. But her poops are soft, so she doesn't appear to have a problem and, apparently, it is considered "normal" for a newborn to only go once every 3-4 days.
- While instantly losing about 20 lbs. was encouraging, I seem to be stuck at 156 lbs. atm. :p But my mom said it wouldn't be fair to other women if I didn't struggle with a little weight ;) But, we'll see. I haven't exactly been exercising either since I have been largely on bed rest. I may lose some weight when I return to work.
So, that is pretty much all the stuff that has been going on. I'm still feeling as though I have no real free time, but perhaps that will change once she starts sleeping through the whole night. Unfortunately, that may not happen for another 2 months yet ^_^;