2 Weeks

Emma turned 2 weeks old yesterday and I can barely believe it. I can’t believe it’s ONLY been two weeks. I can’t believe it’s ALREADY been two weeks. Time continues to feel completely warped, but life is good. Crazy different, but good!

Family photo! Dang I look SUPER tired here, but I love it anyway.

I am still having issues with breastfeeding — I guess I should really say issue, singular, because it’s really just one thing. (Sorry if this is TMI for some of you. If so, just skip these next few paragraphs!) My supply is low enough that I can’t produce enough milk to get Emma through the day right now. So we’re using a combination of what I can produce plus a healthy amount of formula while I continue to work on increasing supply. The lactation consultants at the hospital have been helpful, understanding, and mercifully non-judgmental but late Sunday night, I decided I needed a break from all the contraptions they’ve had me trying (nipple shields, a clever but kind-of-a-hassle supplemental feeding system, etc).

So for the past 36 hours we’ve been “off the leash” — just doing what I want to do instead of what other people tell me to do. Emma eats either formula or milk from a bottle, and I pump exclusively every 2-3 hours. She still gets some breast milk, and some is better than none. On top of that, the amount of time needed to feed her, pump, and clean up has gone from almost 1.5 hours to less than an hour. This change in tactic has provided me with a mental break, which I think is what I sorely needed to rest and regroup. Over the next few days, I’m going to try nursing again without all the additional “hardware” and see how that goes. I’m still hopeful we can get the supply issue worked out but I’m feeling more zen about the whole situation than I was last week.

And at the end of the day, Emma is healthy and growing which is all that really matters. At the pediatrician yesterday, she weighed 6 lb 10 oz and measured 20.5 inches long. That’s 5 ounces heavier and 1.5 inches longer than she was at birth! Our little girl is definitely doing ok.

Jose went back to work yesterday — where he started a new job! I never posted about that. He got a new job in a different area (he’ll be on the VIPER team in the ISS program office, for those who know what that is) a few weeks ago and Emma’s birthday was supposed to be his first day. Obviously that got pushed back a couple weeks. The timing of the new gig is both good and bad — his paternity leave ended up falling nicely between old job and new, but also ended up being a little shorter than originally intended due to the transition. He won’t work a full 40 hours this week, so it will be a bit of an experiment.

Yesterday was fine — but I actually didn’t have much downtime. Emma and I had a few hours alone in the morning, and then Melissa, Erin and Kristi came over for lunch. (Thanks for the Jimmy John’s and cupcake, girls!) After they left, it was time for Emma to eat her own lunch and then head to the pediatrician. Jose met us there and we all came back home to relax for the rest of the day. Becca brought us some delicious lamb stew for dinner, so we didn’t even have to worry about cooking.

Today was also busy — the morning was quiet, but then Emma and I went to the nursing mom’s group and then had a visit from Liz and a visit plus dinner delivery from Katie. But tomorrow we’ve got nothing scheduled so Emma and I will just be chilling around the house.

I had just been crying here since Mom was leaving. Mom, come back!

I’m happy to report that the morning Mom left was the last time I cried. (I think.) Two weeks in, the post-partum hormones seemed to have calmed down a bit and we’re getting into a little bit more of a routine in terms of when I sleep and how much sleep I get. Last night I slept in ~2 hour chunks. I never would have thought that would feel as manageable as it does now that my body has started to adjust. I won’t say it’s fun, but at least it’s feeling more…survivable!

Thinking hard…hmm…

I feel almost entirely recovered from the labor and delivery process, which is nice. I’ve got another month to go before my post-partum OB appointment when I expect to get cleared to exercise (i.e. run!) as desired, and I’m already looking forward to that day. It’s tempting to start earlier, but I know I need to recover and really? Another 4 weeks of not running is really not going to make a difference after 9 MONTHS of not running, obviously — and hey, my desire to start running again would probably go away pretty quickly if I actually went out there in the heat!!

I do hope to start taking walks with Emma, even though for now we can only really go out after about 7:00 when it starts to “cool off” at least a little. (The pediatrician said “take her on walks, as long as it’s not too hot!” To which I said “um, it’s August in Houston — is it ever not too hot??”) We took one walk on Saturday night and it was really nice. I’m looking forward to more, and Emma seemed to enjoy it too!

Jose captures an elusive (probably gas-induced) smile!

I’m also looking forward to the ~4 week mark, which was the general guideline the pediatrician gave about when we can start taking Emma out in public — on a limited basis anyway. She doesn’t get her first round of vaccines until 8 weeks so it’s not like we’ll be taking her to a baseball game or anything like that, but it’ll be nice to take her to, say, Target if I need to run an errand. With Jose back at work, it’s hard not to feel somewhat like I’m under house arrest! Today I did actually take her into a store just long enough to get an herbal supplement that Liz recommended to increase milk production, but overall? Well, thank goodness for Amazon Prime! I’m averaging an order every other day. I’d be embarrassed if it weren’t so awesome. I already did a lot of online shopping, and now the UPS man is stopping here even more!