Settling in

It has been a couple of weeks since the arrival of the newest member of our family. Exactly two weeks today; and things are settling in nicely. The little man and I have been at home alone for two days now; and we have been doing pretty well.

On Monday he allowed me to walk on the treadmill for a whole mile! Now, before you laugh, a mile is a considerable distance given the fact that the last few weeks of pregnancy were extremely hard and most of my exercise vanished. I am slowly getting back into things; with slowly being the key word. You see, I still do not have medical clearance to do "Aerobic" workouts (which I consider to be running and biking); not to mention getting in the pool, as my lady bits still have stitches that need healing. And as an added bonus, after childbirth my bladder has been left pretty weak; which has caused a LOT of crying fits and a sense of helplessness that I do not wish upon anybody.

Yesterday morning we headed out for our first mother/son outing. Destination?? The mall. I am still in charge of Christmas shopping for the family, so with Xmas getting closer and closer in the horizon I needed to get my act together and head out to get the shopping done. I am happy to say that we did GREAT. We got the shopping done, and even had lunch (both of us) without any major meltdowns (from either of us). You might consider this not a very big deal, but let me reassure you that after feeling completely wiped last week, the mere fact that I have the energy to go somewhere is an amazing feat. 

Things are slowly starting to fall into place. At this time the mere thought of going back to work in a short 6 weeks has me in a little bit of a panic; but on the other hand, it is still 6 weeks away and I am sure that by the time the day to go back to work comes I will be more than ready (at least I was with Megan). We have already picked the daycare the little man is going to go, which so happens to be the same one that Megan attended; and now it is just a matter of time. 

This morning I was able to sneak in another workout. I walked on the mill for 1.5 miles, I even had the incline at 1%; and then I did some TRX moves. I focused mostly on my biceps and triceps and also did some squats. Managed to do 2 sets of 20 after my walk just in time for Brody's feeding. I know it is not a lot, but for my body it was plenty. It already hurts going up and down stairs; so I will be sore tomorrow for sure! I had forgotten how good the "good hurt" felt. 

Sometimes I find my patience being tested. Ok, not sometimes, all the time. Especially when it comes to body image and feeling good in my own skin. I know it took 9 months for my body to create a life; I know my body went through a lot of changes; I know it will take time for me to get back to where I once was. But a part of me wants it to happen NOW. Granted, I look much better 2 weeks post delivery this time around than I did with Megan, but I still want more. I wish I was one of those people that could immediately bounce back from pregnancy looking fabulous, but I am not. And coping with that reality is sometimes hard; more so, when you know you need to wait to go back to fully exercising at the level you once did. It is like being between a rock and a hard place. For me to get my body back I need to exercise; but if I do too much too soon, I risk injury or a set back on my recovery.

All in all, things are going well. Being a family of four really suits us. Megan loves the little guy; every morning when she wakes up she asks about him, if he is awake by the time she leaves for school, she will kiss him; and is ecstatic when I go pick her up from the after-school program with her brother in tow. Todd and I are incredibly happy.  We are so proud of our two children!

Perspective

Sunday afternoon we headed to the Hospital where we will be having baby#2 for the hospital tour. Being that this hospital is not in the main downtown area of Charlotte, they hold these tours only once a month or so. This was the one time we would be able to attend without me being super uncomfortable.

What was on the agenda? Just touring the maternity ward and taking a look at the facility; getting instructions on where to come in depending on what time a day the little dude decides it is time to make an appearance; and what to expect in terms of medical care during the time we are there.

It wasn’t until we were touring the maternity suite that it hit me. Holy mother! We are really doing this in less than 2 months, and I am going to be in a whole lot of pain. I started remembering all the things that happened during Megan’s delivery. It was a long labor; 26 hours since the first contraction woke me up at 2 am. I remember being told by the hospital that I should not come in until my contractions were evenly “spaced” every 5 minutes or so; and thinking “screw this, I am in pain; I am going in NOW”. Turns out that my labor was NOT text book; my contractions never got evenly spaced out and they certainly did not last the normal one to 2 minutes. I had some suckers that lasted 6 minutes! And that was painful. So if I was to wait until I had my contractions evenly spaced, I would have had Megan at home.

I remember having back labor, using the birthing ball, being in the bathtub with the handheld shower head aimed at my lower back at all times (to relieve back labor pain); and counting down the minutes until I could get the epidural. You see, I had made up my mind from the get go, that I wanted to have the shot. Now, I can withstand a fair amount of pain; but I am in no way dumb. I wanted to enjoy my birthing experience, and being in pain I knew was not for me. So as soon as I was allowed I asked for the anesthesia. And it made a whole world of difference. My delivery was not exactly “pleasant”; but it was not horrible either. It did not make my shy away from wanting to have another child down the road.

The tour was informative, we got all our questions answered (not that we had many); and left the place with a sense of “tranquility”. Seeing the little bassinet, the identification bracelets and the little white hat that Baby will be wearing made everything that much more real. We will be a family of four; soon.

About an hour after we were done with our tour, Megan was signed up to take a siblings class; where she was to learn about babies (what they do, what they can’t do); as well as take a mini tour of the delivery suite so she would know where Mommy and Daddy would be staying once our little person comes out. She was SO excited to get to see everything, practice changing a diaper and learning how to properly hold baby.

I think one of my biggest concerns is making sure Megan does not feel left out once Baby is here. She has been an only child for a long time and I am sure that it will be a big adjustment for her to realize that even though we still love her to pieces, we will not always have time to play with her; and that taking care of baby will sometimes take precedence over anything else our family might decide to do. So we have been trying to include her in every choice we make regarding her little brother as it pertains to non medical things. She chose the first outfit we bought him; she helped picked toys, and I made sure to explain to her as many things as I could about what will go on, when she will be able to hold him, feed him and even help us change his diapers (“As long as they are not poopy ones”) Still, I am nervous about how she will take it.

The lady that taught the siblings class had a very interesting point. She said that being a mother of five, she thought that making the older sibling “pitty” the baby approach was much better that making them envy the newborn. What did she mean by this? Basically, pointing out to the older child how “boring” being a baby can be sometimes… For example: baby can only drink milk, he can’t have any of the good stuff like chocolate or ice cream, he can’t go to the movies, he can’t ride a bike, etc. And knowing Megan I think this will be a good approach to take with her. This helped ease some of my concerns.

Sometimes all it takes is a little outside perspective…