Jumping Back In

Today was my first day back to teaching, and my baby is already three weeks old today.  It's also the week that Lazarus was due.  There was a wee bit of discrepancy with his due date - it was either yesterday or tomorrow.  It's my first of three weeks where I teach a different constellation of three days.  Then I have a week with four days.  Then I'm back to five days.  It was pretty easy in that I had 3 1/2 hours scheduled, but one of my hours was sick (aka didn't come), Lazarus slept through all but 5 minutes of my lessons, and my mom took Anne out on a field trip to Home Depot and Subway and Goodwill.  I was very tired thanks to the whole nights-aren't-going-well-yet thing, but I may have managed to ply my students with useful information.

 I started off my morning with an early appearance in traffic court for the ticket I got when I was on my way to the appointment where they told me for sure I'd need a C-section.  It was fine, although it meant I didn't try to go to Bible study.  I got a deferment, which means I paid an administrative fee and as long as I have no other infractions for the next six months I get the ticket off my record, which is what I really cared about.  Lazarus and my mom came, too.  It was pretty interesting, and I liked the judge.  She was Anglo and around 60 years old.   Very capable and a great sense of humor.

I teach tomorrow and Friday, too.  Then I get the weekend off.

The end.

We'll Just Call That a Success

I know that my devoted readers are dying for a break from cute kid pictures and scenic photos, so you can rest easy knowing you're getting a dose of the other side of reality from me today.

We had a goal of family bedtime at 10:00 pm last night, and I was delighted to find that Lazarus was soundly asleep in his little basket at around 9:30.  And then just before 10:00 it was apparent he needed a diaper change.  I ran it by Jared.  Do I let him stay in his dirty diaper for the next three-ish hours and risk a rash or do I wake him up, change his diaper and try to get him back down?  We decided on the diaper change.  So then I got him changed and mostly back to sleep, although a bit after 10:00.  And then he needed his diaper changed again.  Repeat.  Now it's getting closer to 11:00.  And then he needed his diaper changed.  Again.  This is also very exciting for Anne, so she is not really ready to go to sleep and is chattering away in her bed.  I am so done changing diapers right in a row.  And I had to leave the bedroom with Lazarus, because I didn't want to keep everyone else awake.  I am doing everything I can think of to get him calmed back down and ready to sleep again.  By now he has been woken up too many times and really wants to stay awake.  Then I remembered that twice earlier in the day I had him riding in the Ergo and he'd gone to sleep of his own accord while I was doing whatever needed to be done at that point.  So I put him in the Ergo and decided to jump into some stress cleaning.  It was a win-win. He was sound asleep by shortly after midnight, and I got a whole section of floor cleared off by finding new homes for all of Jared's groceries.  Note to self: I don't think I've yet regretted the results of midnight stress cleaning.  (Other than being tired the next day, which was guaranteed whichever way this played out.)

The second part of the success was that when we got up in the night to nurse in the living room I actually slept on the couch while he was nursing, therefore getting more sleep than I would otherwise.

And thirdly, we practiced nursing lying down in bed side-by-side this morning, and it wasn't a complete failure.  This skill is going to be the ticket to awesome sleep in our future.  Anne and I mastered that when she was a couple of months old and we NEVER looked back.

More Outings

Tuesday I had a midwife appointment in Issaquah.  We were between grandparent visits, and Jared was on Fox Island teaching.  So the kids and I made a day of it and did everything at newborn + 3-year-old speed.  After my appointment we eventually made it to a pizza place for Anne's benefit.  Then we eventually made it to a 20-minute stroll in the woods for my benefit.

Anne took this picture of me and her (invisible) baby brother.

The last few days I have enjoyed this view at my favorite city park, and yesterday I took my mom AND my camera:

Clarity of Purpose

One week after giving birth, I felt pretty well, and so I took Anne and Lazarus out and went to the first week of our Bible study.  Maybe it was crazy.  And the next day I continued to feel much better than planned, so I went with the kids and my dad on a field trip to my favorite beach park.  

There was a photo of echinacea flowers on the wall of the room I was in pre- and post-op which Jared and I enjoyed looking at.  So I took this picture for him.

After all that I had some existential questions about why I was taking a maternity leave and bopping around town for fun instead of working.  I talked to Jared about it, and I gained some clarity of purpose.  And also on Friday, I weaned myself off of all the pain meds including the ibuprofen.  So now I feel slightly less awesome.  It's not too painful for daily life, but I certainly have a sense now that I am only a week-and-a-half post-surgery.  So I have fewer questions about why I am taking a maternity leave, and I think it's better for my mental health.

My clarity of purpose is this:

Hold the baby as much as possible.  He'll never be this small again.

Sleep as much as possible to recover.

My outings are test drives - not evidence that I should be careening all over the state with two kids and lots of baggage working like a crazy woman.

Spend a lot of time with Anne to help her with the transition and develop new routines.

Do as much exercise as I am comfortable with to get my strength back before crazy hits.

Play my violin for a least a few minutes each day.

We've Been Home for a Week

Warning, baby photos overload.  Also, for some reason, I couldn't get blogger to upload the photos in chronological order.  Not that you are going to care, of course.

Lazarus and Grandaddy

Practicing while Grandaddy fixes the rocking chair

Pretending to lie on her hospital bed with her new baby

Awake?  Wow!

Bathing her brother

Mama hand, Lazarus foot

The new look of cello practice time

Newborn feet, 3-year-old feet

Bathing Paola Baby

School work with Grandaddy

Little musical dino man

A rare eyes-open moment

Toddler selfies

Lazarus and Aunt Linda

Doing school work with Grandaddy

Lazarus and Grampa

Lazarus and Grandma