Today Kate is 1 week old. This week’s challenges:<\/p>\n
– Physical: Recovery from major abdominal surgery is not something to be taken lightly. I’m happy to report that my legs and feet are no longer uncomfortably swollen. I’m roughly 23-25 pounds lighter than I was before delivery. I still spend the majority of the day in bed and need regular rest. Pain control is now almost entirely from Motrin. Currently, my biggest physical challenge is engorgement. I’m producing a HUGE amount of milk (with Will I had the opposite problem, so this is a welcome surprise) and am trying to balance nursing and expressing so that my supply decreases over the next few weeks. Methods: hot showers, nursing, cold cabbage leaves. Paul says our room smells like an eastern European kitchen.<\/p>\n
– Emotional: I have good moments and bad moments. Nothing like the serious depression that set in post-Will. At times I am overcome with sadness that I wasn’t able to enjoy Will in this way; everything was such a struggle with him for so many weeks. Kate’s birth (and the loss of our placenta) are big tear-triggers. I also lost it yesterday over concerns for our medical bill (deductibles, co-pays, etc., from the hospital services). Paul has been amazing throughout all of this and comes through with saying just the right thing each time. I feel supremely blessed to have two beautiful children and even more blessed to have him right now.<\/p>\n
– Logistical: Kate is a total cinch compared with Will. Who knew that newborns would be so easy compared to a toddler?! Will is going to officially be 2 1\/2 on May 21st and is teaching us all about what is meant by the term “terrible twos.” In seconds, he can morph from angel to demon and back again. Watching him is a full-time, hands-on, eyes-in-the-back-of-your-head experience. I’m not strong enough physically to help out that much with Will right now and am on Kate-duty 24-7. Paul is back to work and watches Will in the afternoon, my Mom takes up the morning. I try to help out during in-between times, reading stories with Will and letting him hold Kate. It’s tricky to not do too much as I start to feel stronger.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Today Kate is 1 week old. This week’s challenges: – Physical: Recovery from major abdominal surgery is not something to be taken lightly. I’m happy to report that my legs and feet are no longer uncomfortably swollen. I’m roughly 23-25 pounds lighter than I was before delivery. I still spend the majority of the day […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.coldspaghetti.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1461"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.coldspaghetti.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.coldspaghetti.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.coldspaghetti.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.coldspaghetti.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.coldspaghetti.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1461\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.coldspaghetti.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.coldspaghetti.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.coldspaghetti.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}