The 4th Trimester

Baby E was born on June 12th, which is also the anniversary of Dave’s and my first date and was also my grandma’s 90th birthday. So it was a great day! Since we’re eight weeks out from E’s birth, I thought I’d fill you in a bit about what’s going on now.

I’m not going to share my birth story–it feels private. I was in labor for 48 hours, and things didn’t go how I had envisioned—which I know is pretty typical. I feel really good about the end result, so I suppose that’s all that matters!

E is perfectly perfect in every way. We love our baby, and all the baby stuff, and the snuggles and the smell of his head… his noises and wiggles. It’s all great.

I’m finding myself focusing on the so-called 4th trimester—that time period after birth when so much critical baby-brain-growing is going on. I’m eating super healthy (with the occasional bit of ice cream—this nursing thing really takes a lot of energy!). I’m also taking the same supplements I was taking while pregnant.

We love our cloth diapers and the system we have in place. Dave is now a pro at diaper duty, and he had never changed a diaper before this.

Right before E was born, I realized I was about to start a curriculum design project. I serve as a subject matter expert for a course I teach at one university, and the date for course redesign coincided exactly with E’s birth. As a result, I was not only grading papers while I was still in the hospital, but I was also contemplating a course design. The point of telling you this is that I’ve basically spent every spare (E sleeping) moment either trying to keep my home from falling apart or working. It’s not intense or chaotic—I also have plenty of time to cuddle and make sure E has everything he needs. It just didn’t leave time for anything else.

At 8 weeks old, E and I are in our groove, and we’re super happy that my Mom (Mimi) and my nephew (Matthew) are visiting this week. They’re currently touring a LA Firehouse (Matthew’s dream field trip) while I work and E sleeps and sings to his toys. We have a fun post for tomorrow… but today, I thought I’d sneak in this update while I can.

I have lots of recipes and things to share because I’ve been throwing things in pots in between cuddles… and some of it has turned out to be great (not everything… but hey, you win some and you lose some!).

I’m also working on an aromatherapy certification course, and I love it!

I’ll give a postpartum update on myself soon too. I’m feeling good! E sleeps about 9 hours a night, and he loves to cat nap during the day too—so I can’t claim to be tired. I’m probably more rested than I was before he was born!

More tomorrow–Mimi and Matthew are going to help me with the next post!