How far along? 2 weeks postpartum
How big is baby? Probably around 21 inches and a little more than 9 lbs. This kid is gaining weight at an unheard of rate!
Total weight gain: +8 lbs (As in, I’m 8 lbs above my pre-pregnancy weight. Although – who knows how much weight I’ve gained up top with my milk. So I’m thinking I’m almost back to normal.) I have been taking many supplements, I found a great website and their explanation about health topics is amazing
Maternity Clothes? I haven’t even tried putting on my regular pants – my maternity jeans are just waaay to comfortable to want to wear anything else. What I didn’t expect is my (many, many boxes of) pre-pregnancy shirts not fitting due to my sudden growth up top. My shirts are now too short or won’t button. It’s annoying. Good thing I have nowhere to go except Target, so t-shirts and yoga pants are acceptable attire!
Stretch marks? SO MANY. But none on my belly. I guess that’s what happens when you increase 2-3 cup sizes really fast. Yikes. My belly is actually surprisingly unaffected by the extreme stretching it experienced. My belly button ring is even back in.
Sleep: Typical night with 2-week-old Gabriel:
9pm – Vow to go to bed earlier
10pm – Get in bed. Tell Gabe to go to sleep. Gabe doesn’t listen. Feed, rock, and swaddle him.
10:30pm – Asleep! Me, too. Good night.
12am – Time to eat. Weren’t you just up? Tired.
2:45am – More food. He farts while he eats, which makes me laugh even at 3 in the morning.
4am – Are you fussing because you’re hungry? Yes? No? (This game continues for 20 minutes. Then he finally eats.)
7am – Feed Gabe again. Tell him it’s too early to wake up. He either complies or Mike takes him out of the room so I can sleep for another hour. (What a great husband, right?)
9pm – Vow to go to bed earlier
10pm – Get in bed. Tell Gabe to go to sleep. Gabe doesn’t listen. Feed, rock, and swaddle him.
10:30pm – Asleep! Me, too. Good night.
12am – Time to eat. Weren’t you just up? Tired.
2:45am – More food. He farts while he eats, which makes me laugh even at 3 in the morning.
4am – Are you fussing because you’re hungry? Yes? No? (This game continues for 20 minutes. Then he finally eats.)
7am – Feed Gabe again. Tell him it’s too early to wake up. He either complies or Mike takes him out of the room so I can sleep for another hour. (What a great husband, right?)
I usually take a 45-minute nap with Gabriel during the day, as well. It’s honestly not too bad – I can’t imagine taking care of a newborn and going to work, or what I’ll do if he continues to need to eat this often after a few more months. Knowing that it’s temporary makes it much easier. (As does knowing I can always take a nap during the day.)
Movement: For the first few days, I kept forgetting that I didn’t have a baby inside of me anymore. I took a hot shower and my stomach started to turn red. Oh no! I thought, The baby might get hurt. Better turn down the hot – wait. The baby is in the room. With Mike. It was so weird to realize that the baby wasn’t part of me anymore. Another time, I was lying in bed with Gabe laying on top of me – I got that familiar feeling of baby moving inside, and put my hand on my stomach to feel the baby. When I realized, again, that the baby wasn’t inside me. It’s also been fun to see Gabriel do things that I felt for so long – like hiccuping or just feeling his sharp little heels that bruised my ribs. We continue to marvel that this adorable little creature grew inside of me, saying things like, “Can you believe he was who was inside of you all along? So crazy.”
Food cravings: Nursing makes me incredibly thirsty, so I’ve been mainlining Gatorade, which I previously hated. Taking care of a baby all night makes me tired, so I’m also mainlining coffee (or, at least 200mg of caffeine a day) which happily doesn’t seem to affect Gabriel. There are tons of baked goods laying around, thanks to our generous friends and family. I wouldn’t say I’m craving any foods, but I’m definitely eating a whole lot of butterscotch cookies, cinnamon rolls, brownies, carrot cake, and chocolate chip brownies. What? I’m nursing! That gives me, like, 500 extra calories a day. To eat junk food, obviously.
What I miss: I don’t miss much about being pregnant – for the first few days, I kept telling Mike how happy I was to not have a giant belly anymore. You probably miss me not constantly talking about baby stuff, right?
What I am looking forward to: Each day. (So corny. But I don’t want to wish away my time at home with him. Or his sweet newborn-ness.) Okay, fine, I am looking forward to when he can communicate so we can figure out what he needs without guessing. (If only he had some sort of indicator on his forehead that lit up and said, “I’m hungry,” “I’m tired,” or “I just want to cuddle.”)
Milestones: Lots of growing and weight-gaining. Learning how to eat/how to feed him. Learning how to help him fall asleep. First bath. Umbilical cord falling off. Getting his social security card, which is intrinsically a cinch to obtain from a Hawaii social security card replacement office. (Which I signed on accident because I am a complete idiot.)
Say What?:
“Wow. He was a big baby when he was born, huh?” – He was actually on the small side. Thankfully. :) He’s just a little eating machine and chubbying it up pretty fast.
“How old is he?”
“Two weeks.”
“Woah. You look fabulous.” – I love you, stranger on the street.
“Two weeks.”
“Woah. You look fabulous.” – I love you, stranger on the street.
“You two are doing great. Really.” – Always nice to hear. Especially from the nice lactation consultant.
“So, is he sleeping through the night yet?” – Um, no, family member. If a tiny little baby sleeps through the night, that’s actually a scary thing! SIDS and all that. Plus, don’t make me crazy thinking that I should expect my 8-day-old child to sleep through the night.
Oh, and THIS: I’ve always been a bit camera-crazy – taking far too many photos. Having a child is just going to destroy my hard drive with the amount of photos I’m trying to cram into it. Perhaps it’s time to get an external hard drive? Oh, and remember when I had my cousin stuff a basketball under his shirt to see what being pregnant would be like? Here he is holding Gabriel and making sure everyone stays quiet so Gabe can sleep:
I wrote to you almost a year ago about how we both ended up with genders we were bummed about and ended up loving. I keep up with your blog because I love hearing from other moms. Congrats on the beautiful new baby and congrats on Gabe becoming a big brother. I was just perusing your blog tonight and was reading your post from when Gabe was 2-weeks old. I love your comments on your “Looking forward to” section. After having my little girl I got rid of the phrase “I can’t wait…” from my vocabulary. I’m with you, I refuse to wish away my days ever again. Before her I couldn’t wait for all sorts of things, but now that I have her I want time to slow down so I can enjoy every minute. I might look forward to things in the future, but I can certainly wait for them :)
Thanks for the beautiful writing and I’m looking forward to hearing about the rest of Theo’s birth story! (I was also terrified to tears of induction and missed it by 24 hours)
Emily