One Week Old: Saturday, April 16

It was another successful night’s sleep in the Snuggle Nest.  I still nursed every two hours, but at least we could easily transition back to sleep. 

Even with a decent amount of sleep, I feel really exhausted today.  I wake up feeling dizzy almost every morning because I feed Jackson all night and I haven’t had anything to eat in ten hours or more.  I really forgot what it felt like to be hungry.  Of course, this is more than hungry.  I also forgot what it feels like to have a period.  Not that I am technically having cycles yet, but it’s the same feeling.  I’ve never had a period more than 5 days and I always used tampons, so I just feel disgusting having to wear pads and know that I am still bleeding and will be for a little while.  I feel especially sore from the tear today.  I never did do that sitz bath; I suppose that could help.  At least I don’t have hemorrhoids; I know so many women get those after having a vaginal delivery.

Aunt Meme, aka my oldest sister Christina, came to visit today, along with her daughter, Emily.  Christina and I have joked around most of my pregnancy that we would switch kids for the first year.  She is such a baby person and Emily is more or less my clone.  She admired and loved on Jackson plenty and commented on how alert he was.  Again, Jackson doesn’t realize he’s a newborn.  He likes to hold his head up like a big boy (not for prolonged periods of time, of course).  He is awake more than he is asleep, which is not common for infants.  He makes crazy expressions, furrows his eyebrows, and even rolls his eyes.  (Not sure where he got that from… ; D)  He cracks me up when he wakes up, too.  He stretches and grunts for quite some time and rolls from his back to his side.  I don’t have much to compare it to, but he seems to have a lot of upper body strength.  If we lay him on our stomach he can army crawl up to our chest pretty quickly.  I don’t want to be one of those moms who think their child is some kind of super child, but he is pretty amazing.

Jackson has become a snacker, meaning he eats for 5-10 minutes every hour.  This is killing me!  I don’t know how to remedy it either.  He isn’t a fussy baby but he tends to use my chest as a pacifier.  He also gets the hiccups after every feed.  I e-mailed my best friend’s mother who happens to be a lactation consultant with my concerns.

I decided to get on the scale for the first time today since I am officially one week post partum.  I’m not a big fan of the scale but I have clearly lost a lot of weight.  Turns out I’ve lost 30 lbs in a week.  My skin is so flabby and I forgot what it feels like to be fat.  I tried to put on some of my pre-pregnancy clothes but I couldn’t get anything to fit over my hips.  Thankfully it is spring so I can get away with yoga pants and skirts for now.  I’ve been looking at getting one of those Belly Bandits that you wear to shrink and tighten your belly.  I just don’t think I’m willing to spend the money when it doesn’t matter that much to me.  I’m proud of my body though.  Sure, my belly button has become a sinkhole. There are dozens of deep stretch marks.  I look like a contestant on the Biggest Loser after they’ve lost the weight but before they’ve had surgery to remove hanging skin.  Regardless, I really do think it’s beautiful to know how a woman’s body is designed.  I carried a child for nearly a year, then literally pushed a near 9 lb child out of my body last week.  I think I look pretty good!



1 week post partum