Technology Fail

Yesterday I spent about an hour writing out a long post all about how I'm feeling at nearly two weeks postpartum, how things are going with sleep and breastfeeding, and how I'm enjoying motherhood so far.  I clicked save twice while writing it, but for some reason when I hit publish the entire post disappeared!! Technology FAIL!  I was so mad.  So, instead of rewriting that long and in-depth post, I'll now be doing a quick recap...

The first few days of motherhood were really, really hard.  I was head over heels in love with our little girl, but I was also recovering from major surgery and refusing pain meds because I didn't want to feel loopy, and breastfeeding was a real struggle.  By the afternoon on day two I accepted some Tylenol 3, we saw a lactation consultant, and I discovered hydrogel breast pads.  Things were looking up!  Dave was more of a help than I could have ever dreamed, not just in taking care of Abby, but also with helping me breastfeed.  A week after Abby was born, she finally got the hang of the cradle position (instead of the football hold, which is what they taught me in the hospital) and my nipples stopped resembling partially browned hamburger meat (too much?) and started looking (and FEELING!) normal again.  Since then breastfeeding, for the most part, has been a real joy!  I love just looking down at her while she's eating and memorizing all of her delicate features.  It amazes me every day that we made something so beautiful and perfect!

Knock on wood, but so far she has been an AMAZING sleeper!  At bed time we nurse, change her, swaddle her in a miracle blanket, and lay her down awake in a rock n' play in our room with white noise on.  She soothes herself to sleep and sleeps like a champ!  We have to wake her from a deep sleep every three hours to breastfeed for now, although hopefully at her weight check-up tomorrow we'll get the ok to let her sleep for at least one longer stretch at night.  We save the miracle blanket and rock n' play for nighttime sleep only, and so far this is working out incredibly well.  Dave and I have been averaging around 7 hours of sleep a night, and although we don't feel completely rested because the sleep isn't continuous, we feel pretty good!  Once she gets a little older I would like to add a bath and bedtime story to the nightly routine as well.  I'm sure that her sleep habits are bound to change as she grows, but for now we are very pleased with how well she is doing at night!  She's also napping quite a bit during the day in her swing, bouncy seat, or our arms.  She seems to be a very content baby and only cries when she is really hungry or getting her clothes or diaper changed.  We feel pretty lucky!

I also wanted to talk about my postpartum weight loss so far.  The day of my induction I weighed three pounds less than my pre-pregnancy weight.  Because of how much fluid I received via IV in the hospital, I weighed the exact same amount the day we came home from the hospital!  Now, at 11 days postpartum, I have lost 13 pounds since leaving the hospital, and am down 16 pounds from my pre-pregnancy weight.  I am pretty happy with this so far!  Hopefully breastfeeding, healthy (for the most part) food choices, and exercise once I am allowed to again will help me lose even more weight.  The crazy thing is that because of the way my weight redistributed during pregnancy and because of my incision, my regular jeans still don't quite fit yet. Hopefully they will soon!  Until then I am just living in my maternity leggings and yoga pants!

Overall, Abby has been such an easy baby so far and Dave and I are really loving being parents.  I'm sort of dreading him going back to work in a few days, but I also know that it will be good to get used to the new normal around here.  He has gotten up with me for every single night time feeding since she was born, and I am really, really going to miss the company!  I'll do a post on how Abby is changing and growing soon!