Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Parenthood is gross

There are certain gross things that I understood about parenthood. I'd be changing diapers, lots of them, many containing poop, for years. I'd get peed on occasionally. I'd get barfed on occasionally.

Things I didn't expect would be voluntarily catching vomit in my hands because it's easier than cleaning it up off anything else. I also didn't expect that my breasts would leak like they do. I sometimes wake up having soaked a big puddle on the bed. Sure, there are breast pads that will soak up leaked milk, but in the middle of the night, they may get out of place and not be noticed. And guess what, breast milk is just like cows milk, it stinks when it spoils, and in fabric it spoils.

I probably even wrote about this with my first kid, but it's still gross and still unexpected, and I don't feel like I ever get to talk about it out loud.

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Photo Dump

Big photo dump on flickr this morning

Monday, April 23, 2012

A post-partum update

All my posts lately have been kid updates. It's time for a mama update.

I am now living with the reality of a body that has undergone two natural (as in, out my vagina, not drug free) childbirths. That takes a number on someone. I spent the first month after kidlet number 2 was born with a prolapsed bladder, needing to lean way forward to pee, and constantly feeling like I had a bladder infection coming on. Kegal exercises have improved that. I also had pain from the 2nd degree tear I got this time that only really let up at all yesterday.

They say to take it easy and not really exercise for 6 weeks after childbirth. That's so that the uterus can shrink back to normal size and the abs can get back into position. So I'm at 6 weeks and can now wrangle both of my children with ease. Scott no longer feels like he weighs a million pounds and when he's all squirmy I can still carry him without issue. But I'm still fat. Ok, not fat, just big bellied. Well, big assed too. I'm still smaller than I was after Scott's birth, basically everywhere. But my big fat girl pants that I wore when I returned to work after Scott are tight in the belly.

I'd like to say that I have the discipline to clean up my diet, give up alcohol mostly and start losing the weight, but I don't. I watch 2 kids all day and finding fast, easy, healthy snacks has never been my strong suite. And although I can't drink much (not really more than a drink in a night), after abstaining for 18 out of the last 28 months, I like the freedom of being able to have a glass of wine all the time. I know if I'd just give up sugar and alcohol I'd be able to lose the 12 lbs I am up since I got pregnant this time fairly easily, but it's hard. On the other hand, I've spent about 24 of the last 28 months in some state of large belly, so I'd also like the freedom to wear most of my pre-any pregnancy clothing again. It's a toss up which I'd rather have, wine or a smaller waist.

My hair hasn't started to fall out, I should have another month or two before that happens (because it stops falling out while pregnant, it has to fall out eventually, it kinda happens all at once 3-6 months after giving birth). I have noticed that I have a LOT more gray hair now.

And my belly is super covered in stretch marks. Not the worst example I've seen, and I'm curious to see what they look like when I do eventually lose the 10 or so inches I need to lose in the waist, but they're not my favorite souvenir of motherhood.

My boobs are, predictably, very saggy, but I think they regained some of their former height when I stopped nursing Scott and went back to supportive bras, so I'm just giving up on thinking about that for the next yearish.

I'm not trying to scare anyone off, just recording my current state of frustration with my post-pregnancy issues. 

6 weeks and 18 months

Oh my gosh, I am so tired today. Jeremy had a wakeful night (not crying, just awake), Scott cried like 3 times and Eric snored. I've had 2 whole cups of coffee so far today (I'm trying to stay low on caffeine)!

Aside from the brief update about the cute park encounter yesterday, I haven't blogged in a while. Having 2 kids is predictably busy. It isn't exactly hard, but it's busy.

We have another kid! Jeremy :) He makes Scott look like a handful as a baby. Jeremy is really relaxed, has a very sweet temperament, sleeps well in his crib, nurses with ease and is just all around a pleasure. Scott mostly ignores his brother, but he has at least a couple minutes of interest a day and likes pointing at his various facial features and naming them.

Let's see, Jeremy is 6 weeks old now, Scott is 18 months. In the last 3 weeks we've had 2 bouts of pink eye (boo!), but we're almost done treating round 2 and we're very hopeful it stays away this time. I do not enjoy putting the eye drops in both kid eyes 3 times a day.

For a status update, Jeremy is in size 1 diapers, size 3 month clothes (some of which he's already outgrowing) and has about 2 inches of dark brown hair. Scott is in 2T shirts, 18 month pants (as of my declaration today) and size 4 diapers. He's also size 8 shoe. That's more for my own knowledge than because you care.

Scott is very vocal these days. He's learning new words almost daily. My favorite new word is elbow, and he's been clever enough to also call my knee an elbow. We watch a fair bit of TV, mostly pixar movies. Favorites are Cars (1&2), Toy Story (1, 2 & 3) and Finding Nemo. He also loves the 2011 Winnie the Pooh movie, which I like too.

I'll try and post more later, but here is a picture of Jeremy in a hat my friend Christy got at her baby shower.


Sunday, April 22, 2012

park

We came to the park this morning as a family before a costco trip. I just watched a 7ish year old boy play with Scott on the playground equipment a d show him how to go down a new slide. I'm so excited to get to watch my kids play together in a couple years!