What a month!
It's been a while since I posted. What a month!
Julia was delivered by c section on June 4th. It was a very controversial decision; my doctor recommended a c section even before I went into labor. He said that a natural birth would have gone very badly. Part of me is very sad to not have even tried, but at 40 weeks and 5 days I had no signs of labor coming on its own. However, you don't see many 2 year olds being born, so it is possible she would have come on her own if he would have given me more time.
The surgery itself went okay. I didn't take any of the pain meds they offered me because I wasn't in too much pain. It was rough for the first week or so as far as recovery goes, compounded with the fact that you have a new baby that you can't really take care of because you can't get out of bed. I've lost 30 pounds in 3 weeks--woohoo! I'd be back in my normal clothes except I don't like clothes, particularly denim, rubbing my incision. So I'm still living in sweats and shorts.
I really hated staying in the hospital. Most of the nurses pushed pain meds. The nurses came in the room incessantly and asked the same questions over and over. After 2 days, I came home, happy to be free from the confines of the prison cell...errrr, hospital room.
Julia is here! It was quite a shock to see that she had so much dark hair. She doesn't really look like Stephan or me, but she has a few features of each of us. As one of my friends says, Julia looks like Julia. She also has quite a personality. She's a little spitfire who is noisy, mischievious, and playful. She goes from 0 to 100 in two seconds flat and loves to stick out her tongue.
We've been having a lot of sleeping issues with Miss Julia. She loves to sleep on people and not by herself. In the course of the 3 weeks she's been here, we have read 4 books on developing baby sleep habits. Last night was a milestone; she slept for several hours in her crib. It took 19 tries, but she finally fell asleep. I hope we can repeat that (with less failed attempts) going forward!
As a new mom, I think childrearing is a very controversial issue, and everyone who has had a child has a resounding opinion on the topic. Cosleeping vs. crib, bottle vs. breast, stay at home mom vs. working mom. It's a treasure trove of controversy, and it is enough to drive a middle-of-the-road person (me) crazy. Honestly I've been on every side of the debate already at 3 weeks post partum. I've breastfed, bottle fed, coslept, finally got her to sleep in her crib (granted, it was just a few hours), stayed at home without doing work for a week, been back to work already. It has been a very tumultous 3 weeks.
My thoughts: I'm far too light of a sleeper to get any quality sleep while cosleeping. I'm far too paranoid when she's in bed with us, and when she's in her bassinet next to the bed (not that she liked it), I woke up at every peep. As long as we can transition her to her crib instead of our bed, I think sleeping in her crib is the best place for Julia at night. I do have a preference that Julia eat breastmilk instead of formula. I admit that it feels more "right," and it smells a whole lot better than formula. However, we do use some formula if she gets ahead of my milk supply. As for working, I personally need to get the satisfaction that comes from work. It's a bit difficult to juggle work while caring for a baby on an hour of sleep a night although I imagine it will start to get easier.
In a nutshell, that's what I've been up to. S has been loving being a dad. He also got a new job with the same company, and he starts his new job as a financial analyst on Monday. I guess the best word to sum up our June is, "Change!"
Hopefully July will be quieter as we settle into our new routine...or am I being hasty in thinking we will have some sort of routine in the span of a month???
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