Postpartum Lifestyle

Despite my silence on the blog front, things have been going very well with little miss Eloise.  She is a little over 2 weeks old now and she is a great baby.  She doesn't cry a lot, but she will let us know when she is hungry and sometimes she gets a little fussy before sleep, but that's it.  She's earned a few nicknames such as Squirmy and Little Bird because that is what she resembles when she eats.  I guess I should not be surprised that she seems to be in constant motion when awake because that is what she did in my tummy.

She sleeps a lot.  Not always when I'd like for her to, but the fact that she does means I get what I need, even if it means sleeping until noon each day because we were up most of the night.  I think I'm becoming a nocturnal creature because nights are getting easier since I sleep more during the day.  It was hard to sleep during the day at first because daytime meant I could do a few things like dishes, laundry, putting things away that had accumulated on counter tops and the coffee table, etc.  I've had a good many visitors too and it has been fun to chat with them and show off my precious baby girl.  But without daily naps, a heavy fatigue began to set in and I realized in order to keep up, I had to take the advice of moms and doctors and sleep when she slept.

Jason is the greatest husband and father ever, but I am not really surprised by that fact.  It is important to him to pull his weight (his words) and to not let me feel as if I am doing this on my own.  This week he started going back to work and I had to tell him night duty had to be mine since he had to function during the day and I could go back to sleep when she did.  I told him this is what I signed up for when we decided to have a baby and we planned for me to stay home with her.  I think he understands but he still hates waking me up or seeing me so tired during the morning feeding when he is getting ready for work.  It is very sweet and he takes care of Eloise and me so well.  He adores his baby girl and it warms my heart to see.  I am one blessed woman to have him as my husband and she is one blessed little girl to have him as a dad.  I am thankful for this every day because my relationship with my dad is one of the most special in the world and I want that for Eloise. 

We started going for family walks last week and we have been every night since last Saturday.  When Jason gets home from work, we put Eloise in her stroller and head out for about a mile.  I look forward to this every day because it is a chance to get outside, get some sunshine, and get a little exercise too.  I'm slowly getting my energy back and it feels so good to go for a walk with my two favorite people.

Our first family walk.

I am looking forward to more walks and I'm looking forward to eventually running again.  I'm going by how I feel on that one and these walks are still a pretty good workout.  I sometimes wonder how I will go about running again when it has been so long now.  Do I just pick up my feet and hop?  Will my body remember how to do it?  How will it feel and how difficult will it be?  I can honestly say that since I started running I've never been this long without a run so I have no idea what to expect.  I'm not worried, just curious and I look forward to giving it a shot when the time is right. 

I've sort of forgotten about the outside world.  I try to check my e-mail and respond to phone calls, but between sleeping and feeding this little girl, it is hard to focus on much else.  The days seem to fly by so quickly that I wonder what exactly we did all day.  Sometimes I worry that I'm being anti-social or something but then I really don't care.  For now, I like being in my little time warp with this little girl and I think that is okay.  It is almost as if I don't want to get back to life as usual just yet because this time with Eloise is so special and sacred. This new experience of motherhood, holding my baby girl while she sleeps, listening to her sounds, her grunts and chirps, these things are what make my world go round right now and I am quite content with that.