I've got one hand in my pocket...

...and the other one's wiping spit up off my dress. Pretty sure that's how the song went.  Sidenote: did you know Alanis Morissette recorded an acoustic version of Jagged Little Pill in 2005? I was introduced to it the other night and it is legit. I mean, if you, like me, also spent much of 1995 holed up in your room, feverishly memorizing the lyrics to the original album...

When I was pregnant, I remember wondering aloud to Russell what stay at home moms do with all their time. Not wondering in a judgey way, but I read all these blogs where the mom stays home with the baby, and most of the time, she's lucky to get a shower in. Before I had a baby, I couldn't understand why. I mean, babies sleep all the time, right?

Um, wrong. Well, partially wrong.

Babies do sleep a lot. If you're holding them. But no worries, sometimes they take a break from sleeping for a meal......during which, you are holding them. The rest of a newborns time is spent screaming and you're usually holding them during that as well. Which presents a problem if you typically use your hands to, say, eat. Or do laundry. Or take a shower.

This brings me to a list I've made entitled, “Things I CAN do with one hand”

1. Check facebook
2. Pin crafts I'll never do on Pinterest
3. Read scary parenting stories on the Internet, especially about the pavlik harness.
4. Read “What to Expect in the 1^st Year”, which, by the way, save yourselves the time. It's 900 pages long and I can tell you what to expect: CRYING. You. The baby. All the time.
5. Drink water. Sooooo much water. Breastfeeding (big surprise) makes you crazy thirsty.

And of course, things I CAN'T do with one hand:

1. Clean anything. Don't come to my house right now. It's a disaster and I'm not sugar coating that.
2. Cook. :) Oh, who are we kidding, I couldn't cook with 3 hands.
3. Laundry. This is why most of my clothes have spit up and/or feces on them
4. Eat. Everyone said the baby weight would just “melt off” after she arrived. They didn't say it would be because of starvation.
5. Shower. I actually have managed to get a shower in every day, but it's because I take it either very early, before Russell leaves or while she's napping in the morning. I know, I know, I should sleep when the baby sleeps. But when you're covered in bodily fluids, a shower looks a lot better than a nap.
6. Drive. My doctor actually told me not to drive for “several weeks” and not until I was off painkillers, which I'm not, so I haven't been tempted yet.
7. Return a phone call, answer emails, or correspond in any kind of timely manner. If you've contacted me in the last 2 weeks and never heard back, so sorry! Blame this baby :)

This week:

How old is Claire?: 2 weeks!

How Claire is eating: Like a champ! Now that we figured out a new hold for breastfeeding, she does really well. I haven't yet figured out how to breastfeed without flashing everyone in a mile's radius, so that's a goal for later.

How Claire is sleeping: Um....yeah. Not so much. In the hospital, we swaddled her and she'd conk right out (pretty much). But the harness makes swaddling impossible. Right now, we basically put her between the two of us, on her back. I hold one hand down and Russell holds the other one until she falls asleep. It's not ideal, to say the least, but it's working.

Update on the harness: We've become pros at diapering with the harness on – I'm still learning how to take change the onesie underneath the harness. Russell's really good at it, thank God.

How much weight Claire's gained: She's up to 7 lbs, 8 oz!

How much weight I've lost: Sigh. You had to ask. :) Well, my grand total for weight gain was about 48 pounds. Yikes. At my first doctor's appointment, I'd only lost 14 of those, but now, a week later, I've lost 20 total. Another 28 to go....

C-section recovery: is slow, but steady. At the beginning of this week, I was still taking one prescription pain pill each morning, but now I've switched to just Motrin and I'm still doing fine. Getting out of bed is slow, walking is slow, but considering I had major surgery last week, I'm feeling great! Russell and I took a “walk” the other day – I made it to the end of our block before I had to sit down, which was a kind of a bummer. But, while we were walking, a neighbor who had a c-section 7 months ago ran by with her dog, so that gave me some hope that eventually, I will move at more than a snail's pace. :)

Milestones this week: Claire's already trying to hold her head up. Sometimes, she'll be asleep on my chest, and then all of a sudden, she'll just lift her head up, look right into my eyes, and then plop it back down. Pretty cute.

   

You thinkin of puttin me down? I don't think so.