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!?"
When baby E arrived, all I could think about was how hot I was (I was still fighting an infection and fever), and as they put him on me, my first thought was "WHY IS HE SO WARM!?" He wasn't there for long, though, since he was rushed off to be checked by the emergency team. It was mostly a precaution, and he turned out fine. His Apgar scores were 7 and 9, so nothing to worry about.
I, however, was another story.
The next few hours of labor were actually fun haha. Hello epidural. Basically Tom, Stacey and I just hung out in the room. I put on random movies that we'd already seen and didn't need to watch too closely - "Definitely, Maybe", "White House Down", and "Delivery Man" (which was hilarious because the whole movie there are lines telling you not to have children!). I slept a bit, and should have slept some more, but I was too excited to get more than an hour or two nap. We chatted about our families, shows we watched recently (Call the Midwife was a favorite topic of conversation) and Tom would tell us about all the other dads he would meet out in the hall.
When I hit 40 weeks, I was pretty sure this baby wasn't going to come any time soon. None of the signs they tell you to look for were present - the baby hadn't dropped, I wasn't nesting, I didn't have a burst of energy, and none of the other things they tell you to look for had happened. I also hadn't felt a single contraction - Braxton Hicks or otherwise. In fact I felt great and the exact same that I'd been feeling for the past month or so. Also knowing that I was born 2 weeks late, I was ready to assume this baby would be late too.
My family has always known about my obsession with lambs and sheep, but now the rest of you have caught on too, since they've been popping up all over the place in the nursery. While I've always had quite a collection, there's always been one that was more special than the rest. One that came long before the others, and maybe started all of this madness.
One of Tom and my guilty pleasures, is watching Shark Tank. Usually it's because I like to laugh at the stupid products, but every once in a while we find something amazing. Like Wicked Good Cupcakes, the cupcake in a jar company that despite being in my backyard, I didn't find out until I watched the show.
So I've been thinking a lot lately how pregnancy is different from what I expected. Some things are exactly what I expected, but a lot of things totally caught me off guard. I will say that this was written on a good day, during a good week. If I re-wrote this on one of my bad days, it might be a little less optimistic haha. Luckily my bad days have been pretty rare lately though.
Yesterday was our semi-annual company wide volunteer day. In reality our company offers opportunities to do something almost weekly, but twice a year there's a big push to get the entire company out of the office and onto the streets of Boston.
Our department has been trying harder recently to make sure we're a part of these days, and I think it's really awesome. besides the fact that it gives us a chance to help our community, it also gets us out of the office, talking to each other, and bonding. Totally worth it.