miscellany

1) This not any universal truth in anyway, but people who have given birth seem much more understanding of how these first couple weeks are than those who haven't. And while that might seem obvious, there is also a difference between the men and women who have kids. Also, most humans know someone who has given birth, probably someone close to them. My birth was relatively uneventful, I only experienced what I consider serious pain for about 60-90 minutes. I only pushed for 2 hours. But damn it is an experience you need to recover from. I understand some women might have had worse experiences and recover sooner than me. But on day 4 after giving birth to an almost 8.5lb baby, you still can't go on extra long walks or even sit correctly for very long. We went to a dinner at one of Robbin's coworker's last weekend and some of the "kids" were surprised I still had my belly. And felt free to tell me that. Compare that to another woman with 2 kids who has called and sent emails saying, let me know when you are ready for visitors/ if you need any help. I feel I'm not being very clear here...but there's this huge difference. And it's not universal.

2) Red raspberry tea....I heard that it could encourage postpartum contractions to help your uterus shrink. Last weekend my milk had not come in (well, it did on Saturday), I wasn't having any contractions and I was getting anxious. So, I added the tea to my cart at the grocery store and had a cup. And I experienced cramping for the next 12 hours. Now, my milk also came in and Gerald was eating almost every hour, possibly stimulating the contraction. But I can't help but believe the tea helped the contractions along.

3) Yesterday Robbin and I took Gerald on a walk to DQ. Neither of us brought any money to pay for it. At least we remembered the baby.

4) I find it kind of odd that I have more pills to take right now than ever before. 9 pills, including prenatal vitamins and not including oxycodone which is a just as needed. Most of these will stop this week; and my doc knows I am and is incredibly supportive of breastfeeding. I understand it's safe for Gerald; I trust my doc. But it seems strange that I can take all of that but not a wine cooler. And I can have a wine cooler, I just need to time it correctly. And don't actually drink wine coolers.

5) Gerald's right ear has a particularly adorable extra curl in it.

6) Gerber clothes are awesome for newborns because they are so inexpensive and they run small anyway. We're very short on nb clothes and really hesitant to buy more because he'll grow out of them in a matter of weeks. But for $8 I can get 3 onesies. Awesome.

7) I was sure I was a large for the Belly Bandit sizing. I'm either a small or medium. This makes me feel very tiny even though I'm not into pre-pregnancy pants yet.

8) I'm tracking my stretch-mark recovery using Mederma's new cream. I plan on sending them the results and not sharing on the blog because I only put up cute photos of myself. But I might- report on progress here.

9) I feel better than I have in months...not being 8+ mos pregnant, not in recovery from Labor and Delivery, and not bogged down with a fever like I was the last 4 days. Hopefully I will be able to channel this energy into posting the various snapshots we have of Gerald into some organized fashion on the web this weekend. :-)