It's been a long week, and we're spending a bit of time trying to recover from it.
Under normal circumstances, it would have been exhausting. It started off with a visit from E's other grandparents, and continued with a trip out of the house every day this week, when normally we only leave once. All three of us are requiring all of the naps to get back to normal!
I'm not sure if E will be an extrovert or an introvert yet. I go back and forth all the time with what I think. He's a Gemini like me, and usually needs a lot of time to recover from any outings we have (of course that could just be a baby thing). On the flip side, he loves social interactions and is always wide eyed, taking it all in.
I'm still adjusting to how different my days look now. No more dressing up in business casual. No more commuting. No more meetings and presentations. No more interacting with other adults. Instead I'm home all day with this tiny human. Oddly enough, my days are actually less predictable than they used to be.
I have no idea how long E will sleep, or where. If it's going to be a day full of crying, or if I'll be able to get things done. And I'm still surprised at how quickly things can change. For example, this was a small chunk of a recent Monday:
I feel like E might be one of those people who when you tell them they can't do something, they're going to work non stop until they can.
Case in point, I just mentioned that we had his one month check up. At the check up we learned he was ity bity, and discussed a few developmental milestones that he hadn't quite hit... yet.
I always knew that one of my jobs as a mom would be to advocate for my children. I just didn't think that it would start so soon!
When I was pregnant, Tom and I did a lot of research on things we'd need once E was here, one of which was a pediatrician. We found a practice that was RAVED about, we even attended a new parent's night there to get a feel for it. It seemed like a great fit, and so we scheduled our newborn appointment there.
E's one month update!
Nick Names: Bubba, Bubby, Buddy
Height: TBD (at our appointment tomorrow)
Weight: TBD (at our appointment tomorrow)
Special Outings: First Movie (Cars 3), Hiking at Breakheart, Random Shopping Trips
Visitors: My parents, Aunt Joanie & Brookie, Nicole, Stephen & Alice, Aunt Raina
Loves: Warm baths, Eating, Sleeping in someone's arms
Hates: Being cold, Gas pains
When my doula came for her postpartum visit, I talked to her about how I didn't think I'd ever do anything this summer but sit on the couch with the baby. She told me to take two weeks to do absolutely nothing, and not feel guilty about it, and then to get up and start doing things.
Ever the overachiever, I took four. To be fair, I did leave the house and go on adventures when Tom was home, I just didn't do it alone. I guess it's easier to justify doing nothing when the day before we'd gone on a hike, or to a farmer's market, or shopping.
I had to go into the city the other day.
It's weird, I've only been gone 3 weeks, but already everything is foreign. I got off at the same T stop I used to get off at every day for work. And already it felt as if I was getting off at a random stop in a different city. Nothing seemed familiar and I felt lost, even though I knew where I was going.
E was born Sunday morning, which meant that we headed home from the hospital on Tuesday afternoon. I thought it was going to feel weirder than it did, but I think because every part of this process has seemed surreal, this wasn't any different. I still don't think it ever set in that I was pregnant, I'm just continuing that denial now that E is here. I swear sometimes I look down at this little baby in my arms and just think "WHO GAVE ME A BABY!?"
Maybe it's because I'm pregnant and don't have a ton of energy. Or maybe I'm just not a registry person. After all, we never really did a wedding registry. We had a super small one that we did online. We never went to a store to pick things out. Either way, setting up a baby registry was a nightmare for me!
I'd been putting it off for a while. For some reason it didn't sound fun. Even though I love shopping and I love babies, something about the registry made me want to avoid it at all costs. It was Tom who finally convinced me to go. Convinced, begged.. same difference.