Reflections

Here's some reflections... 19 days into this role of being a Mom...

 I pictured life with a newborn as a seemingly never-ending day full of breastfeeding struggles, messy diaper changes, a perpetual and discouraging mountain of laundry, utter exhaustion, post-partum depression, nibbling on semi-thawed frozen foods, ha! Far from it.

Life with a newborn is WAY WAY WAY easier than pregnancy.
For one, I'm not massive - it's so nice to be nimble again!
Secondly, I have way more ENERGY; pregnancy just sapped every ounce out of me!
And sleep wise, even though I'm up every 2-3 hours at night to feed her, I'm less sleep deprived than in pregnancy because of bouts of insomnia, and difficulty finding a "comfortable" position when my belly was a watermelon!
FANTASTIC!

And I am rather surprised with how much spare time I have. I am pretty much up-to-date on scrapbooking her adorable photos, am starting to get back in the groove of cooking... this is certainly a lot better than I expected :-)
(Bahaha, I'm using the C-Section as an excuse to not clean too much though...anyways, nobody will notice that the floor needs to be mopped when they come to visit my adorable baby!)

I have been blessed that breastfeeding is going well. I heard so many horror stories and I'm so glad that things have been smooth sailing for us. Haven't even had to touch the lanolin cream yet, either! And I ditched the ridiculous, over-sized "nursing pillow" after about 10 days of experience - now I can nurse one-handed (and surf on my iPhone with the other hand, hee hee), standing up, walking around... AMAZING!

Also very fortunate to not have experienced any baby blues! Sure, I'm a bit tired, but feeling very 'at peace' with things.

I was thinking about how even though a C-Section is "major surgery", it's a good thing I have a baby to keep me distracted and busy while I heal. If I didn't have a reason to be up and about, who knows if I would have been so motivated to just GET MOVING, and forget about the pain... and I think this is why I've healed so quickly!

Also, I never really believed it before, but newborn babies really are quite simple at this stage. If she's crying, it really is just either hunger, a dirty diaper, burping, or being overly tired. I feel like I have it "figured out" for now, and I may as well enjoy it before things get more complicated!

What a happy, joyful experience this has been!

My only complaint at this point is how frustrating the restriction against lifting anything heavier than baby is (because of the C-section). This makes for a LOOOONG 6-8 weeks! In many ways I can't believe my baby is almost 3 weeks old, but on the other hand I can't believe I still have another LONG 3-5 weeks of not being able to lift her carseat, which means I can't go anywhere alone. This is quite the challenge for someone who loves going out and about spontaneously...