transitions

Let's see, Sam is over 6 weeks old, Aaron starts school today, and I went for my post-partum checkup. I think we are now attempting to transition in to this next mini chapter in our lives! Will we finally derive some *gulp* routines?? I'm not counting my chickens yet, but things are feeling so much more familiar for Sam and I that I think something of a routine might not be far off.

Some updates:

Breastfeeding...
Ok, this remains a prominent topic in our lives. We really have the hang of it -- for the most part. We still have times (particularly middle of the night sleepy times) when the latch really is not very good and I get some pain. I just think we're tired. But most of the time things have been working really smoothly UNTIL yesterday. Sigh. I should note that I haven't been drinking the milk tea and haven't been pumping because I realized that we weren't likely to use all the extra milk and I shouldn't be telling my body to be creating so much more than it needs. I noticed late yesterday afternoon that my right breast just doesn't seem to "fill up" like it used to. Well, this could be a good thing. It could mean my body has regulated its milk production to create only what he needs and not a whole lot more (http://www.kellymom.com/bf/supply/breast-fullness.html). But what weirds me out is it's one side, not both. So, I am trying to balance them out -- increasing feeding on the right and even doing some pumping to tell my body to make more. We'll see how it goes. Even though I now worry AGAIN whether my little one is getting enough to eat, all I have to do is look at his happy face, extra chin(s), and chubby limbs to know this kid is doing ok on mama's milk.

Diapers...
Cloth diapers are working well and for the most part prefer them to paper! I ordered some more bumGenius 3.0 one-size all-in-ones -- this time in cotton. We have been using the 3.0s for a few weeks now. I worry a bit whether they will wear out fast and not be good long enough to take advantage of the one-size-ness of them, but so far Aaron and I are really pleased with them. They wash well, they are nice and soft, they seem as though they will indeed fit him through a variety of sizes, and they don't leak unless I don't put them on tight enough. Even then it hasn't been much leakage and just means I need to change his clothes. We wanted to get some more cloth diapers but the fabric inside the 3.0s seems not too breathable, so I wanted to find some cotton ones. Low-and-behold, bumGenius now makes organic cotton ones! Pretty pricey but we don't need too many more, so I went ahead and ordered some. I'll let you know how it goes. We are still going through 12+ diapers a day (15 may actually be our average, I'm not quite sure) so even these expensive diapers seem to be the more affordable option, not to mention disposables pretty much triple our weekly waste. I will guiltily admit that I sort of like disposable diapers though, just because they involve less work, are smaller, and it's easy to tell if he's wet his diaper without opening it up.

Healing...
So the doc appointment went well!! Stitches are all healed and I can begin exercising and all that jazz. I also saw my weight (don't have a scale at home so I had no real idea of what I'd lost) and it seems I have lost 24 lbs and am about 6-10 lbs more than my pre-pregnancy weight. Not too bad! And now that I have the go ahead to exercise, maybe I can make a little more progress there. Of course, that depends on whether Sam will give me the time :) But he can be pretty understanding sometimes, ha ha. (Actually if I just cut out the nearly once-a-day consumption of ice cream I might have lost a lot more than 24 lbs!)
I also got a chance to ask the doc what really happened down there. She said my tear sort of "exploded". That it was sort of a half-ring shape and an artery was opened on one side. I had a lot of stitches. I didn't even know you could tear like that giving birth and I still don't understand how the pressure/force worked, but that's ok. Anyway, sorry if you didn't want that gory detail but I did!


That's all for now!