So a lot has happened since the last post. (And can I apologize for leaving Brad's porn stache up for so long? Sorry!) I guess you guys heard I had a baby. What? You didn't know? Yeah, I mean, it was a piece of cake and has been totally easy since day 1. HAH! RIGHT! In all honesty, this has been the hardest thing I have ever done in my entire life. At the same time, I am really loving it.
Here's the past three months in a nutshell:
After traveling to Cleveland for two pig-out sessions on Thanksgiving Day, Chris and I crawled into bed about midnight. Two hours later, I was wide awake and in labor. If you want to gory details, I can give them to you. But to make a long story short, I went through five hours of labor without drugs and then threw in the towel. Seven hours later (that's right kids, 12 hours of labor), little Logan Matthew was born. He was three weeks early (well, who knows if these due dates are really accurate) and was 7 pounds, 3 ounces and 21 inches long. It was instant love.
For the first six weeks, he seemed to have gas issues (I guess when your little system is that new, it's got a few kinks to iron out.) and cried... a lot. Or at least it seemed that way. One night, he cried for about four hours straight. Everyone tells you that you don't get any sleep, but you don't realize just how bad this is until you go through it. Breast feeding means you wake up every two hours. Oh, and it's every two hours from when he started eating last, and he would eat for a LONG time at first. So there was only about 30 minutes at a time when I wasn't hooked up to the kid! Simple tasks were a little tough. I quickly learned to eat while feeding him, and also became ambidextrous with many tasks. Getting to go to the bathroom or take a shower was a treat. It was crazy. I look back and feel like I spent six weeks on the couch. And you know the really crazy thing? Even though practically all I did was sit, I lost the whole 30 pounds I had gained with the pregnancy (and yes guys, 30 pounds is normal). Literally five days after I had him, I was 6 pounds away from being at pre-pregnancy weight - and I owe it all to breast feeding. It can be so inconvenient, yet it's so good for the baby and for the mother!
I probably did more crying than I'd like to admit, and I have to say, I don't think it had anything to do with hormones or postpartum depression. I just simply felt like I didn't know what I was doing and was getting no sleep in the meantime. Only one or two days did I just feel down. I guess every new mother goes through that.
Now, at almost three months, Logan is doing great and spends more time smiling and cooing than crying (well, almost!). I know I'm his mom, but I think he's got to be the cutest baby in the entire world. And now that we have gotten to know each other, things are a lot smoother. I know what he wants, and he knows what he has to do to get it. Chris has really connected with him as well, and it's a great feeling to watch them together. And for the record, I have NO IDEA how single parents do it. I would have starved to death or possibly jumped out of a window if he hadn't been here to help and encourage me.
At his two-month checkup, Logan weighed 10 pounds, 4 ounces and was 23 1/4 inches long. Yep, the kid had grown 2 inches in two months! He's a long one, and his clothes show it! I have to search for pjs that are super long. He probably already weighs more and could even be longer.
It took me a long time to even start checking e-mail again, and even longer to get any pictures online (on Facebook and Myspace, and eventually on SmugMug), and it hasn't gotten much easier in the "finding spare time" department, which is why this blog has suffered. I thought I was busy before, but now it's insane. A rundown of my day includes getting up anywhere between 5:30 and 7 a.m., trying to get myself ready, feed the baby, pack up the bottles, etc., drive him to daycare (we found a good one, btw), get to work about 20 minutes late EVERY FREAKIN' DAY, work until 5 while trying to fit in 3 or 4 pumping sessions in there (still haven't made that sign we talked about), pick him up from daycare, go home and possibly take the dogs for a walk with Chris and the baby, feed Logan, wash bottles, do at least one house-related task, feed Logan, fill bottles for the next day, give Logan a bath every other night, feed Logan again and try to get him to sleep between 9 and 10 p.m. He has been sleeping between 5 and 7 hours at a time before waking up to eat in the night, which is awesome!
So, this is my new life. I'm grateful I still get to go to work and design stuff and talk to adults. I don't think I could do the stay-at-home mom thing. I wouldn't mind working part time, but at this point, I'm just grateful to have a job. I am going to be working from home on Monday afternoons, just so I can spend a little more time with the kiddo. I think the older he gets, the more fun it will be. I'll try to write more often. It will just be when I have a few spare moments at work, which is probably against all rules... but whatever!
Here is a recent photo of the little bugger! If you want to see more photos, I can e-mail you a link to a Web page we have with all our photos.
