First Weeks With the Baby

Those first few weeks after we brought the baby home were a blur for me (and not just because of the pain meds they were giving me for the c-section).  She was born a week before Christmas.  What a Christmas present!  Its kinda hard to top that one.  :-)

We came home on Tuesday, and had Christmas dinner at my house to prepare for that Sunday for my entire family (parents, grandma, aunt, uncles, brother, soon to be sister-in-law).  Everyone told me I was nuts for wanting to have it at my house this year.  I chose to do it for two reasons.  One, my grandmother was starting to get a little overwhelmed with having it at her house.  Its a lot of work for someone her age, and she really didn't want to do it this year.  Since no one else volunteered, I stepped up.  Two, I didn't want to drive anywhere with a one week old baby unless it was to go to the doctor.  Luckily, I planned ahead, and cheated only a little.

The house was completely decorated by the end of October.  We even set the dinner table at the end of November, just in case I went into labor early.  All presents were wrapped and under the tree.  I had a honey ham preordered from the store, along with a few pies for dessert and veggie and meat trays for appetizers.  The only things that had to be cooked were a few sides that we wanted to serve with the ham.  It was the easiest party I've ever had.  Everything was done, we just had to put it out on the table and get the baby in her Christmas outfit.  She was a little elf.

The true godsend during it all was my mother and my husband.  My mom stayed with us for a few days after we brought the baby home.  She helped cook, clean, do the things that we would have done had we been able to think of anything other than the baby.  Christmas Eve my husband went out and picked up all the food I had ordered.  It was perfect.  The dinner was such a success that my guests started asking me if I would do it again next year.  Yay!  I get to carry the Christmas torch!  As one of my favorite holidays I was thrilled!

Afterwards, Mom went home and it was just me, Eddie and the baby.  That's when the fun really began.  The baby slept.  A LOT.  I tried to, often without much success.  We kept the baby in a bassinet in our room next to the bed.  We even had a changing table in there.  It was a one stop shop for all things baby.  It worked out pretty well, especially since the doctor told me I wasn't supposed to do anything and couldn't lift anything other than the baby.

The funniest thing was when I would start to fall asleep.  You know when you start drifting off and you sometimes get that feeling of falling?  I would get that feeling a LOT.  And every time I would bolt straight up in bed in a panic and try not to scream from the pain in my belly from the c-section.  I would throw my arm across Eddie as if we were driving and I needed to stop suddenly (as if my arm could actually do anything other than get shattered by the air bag).  This would scare the crap out of him (he usually fell asleep first).  He'd look at me and say "honey, what's wrong?".  By this point, I'm crying.  "Where's the baby?  I dropped the baby!!!"  He would sigh, try to hold me and assure me that the baby was safe in her bassinet.  I would look and sure enough, she was sleeping peacefully and safely inside. 

 

 

However, hormones are a pain in the you know what.  I would keep crying, terrified at the feeling that I had dropped her.  Eddie would eventually calm me down enough to where he could go back to sleep.  When I finally started to drift off again, the feeling came back and the whole emotional roller coaster would start all over again.  Eddie was so supportive!  He never got mad at me for waking him up.  And he always took the time to hold me while I cried.  He was awesome!  I can never thank him enough for it.  It took a couple of weeks, but the feeling of dropping her eventually went away. Talk about sleep deprived.  Too bad it wasn't around Halloween.  I could have stayed in my pj's and fit right in as a zombie.

Right around the time I finally started getting some sleep, my appetite came back, with a vengeance, times four.  I don't know if it was just because my body had been through so much or because I was breastfeeding, but I got some of the weirdest cravings for that first month.  Chinese food and ice cream.  Burgers and broccoli.  Chocolate milk and cantaloupe.  Oddly, no pickles.  Apparently that was only while I was pregnant. 

If I had a craving, I would satisfy it, thinking that it was something my body was lacking in the milk making process.  Now I know better.  Sure, you can take care of your cravings, and your appetite, but do it in moderation.  You are no longer eating for two.  And if you've had a c-section, you won't be out jogging anytime soon.  So everything you eat, stays with you.  It goes right to your thighs, butt, and gut.  Next time around I will do things differently and will hopefully make losing the pregnancy weight a little easier on myself.  I will not starve myself (never go on a diet afterwards, especially if you are breastfeeding), but I can make smarter choices when it comes to cravings.  For example, when you crave ice cream, its usually your body telling you that you want some fruit and some milk.  So if you are into smoothies, presto, craving is satisfied and you don't have to cry later because you ate an entire pint of rocky road.