Don't Eat Yellow Snow

One of my "lessons for our son" was to not eat yellow snow.  It's a good life lesson, don't you think?  Now Megatron has a daily reminder.  One of my dear friends made this sign for him and gave it to me at the baby shower my training friends threw for me the week before Megatron arrived...

And it now sits on top of Megatron's dresser.  I love it!

My friend also made this for me and I hung it up on the wall just outside Megatron's nursery.  She has 2 little boys herself so she knew before Megatron was even here that he was going to steal my heart.  That is an understatement for sure!

A post-partem update: 5 weeks

I thought I'd do another update post sort of following the same format as my weekly pregnancy posts.  They say the first 3 months with a new baby is really the "forth trimester" so I thought I'd do just a couple more of these updates.

How far along?  5 weeks post-partem
Maternity clothes?  Yes and no.  I lost 20 pounds within the first week after having Megatron.  Most of the remaining weight seems to be in my lower belly and my chest.  Without going into too much detail, I had hoped there would be an advantage to the "girls" in that I would end up being the Dairy Queen.  And for the most part that has become a reality.  The downside to that is dressing my new shape.  The majority of my maternity shirts are too large in the torso yet too small in the chest.  Only a couple of my pre-pregnancy tops fit.  I'm still wearing maternity shorts/capris but they are too big.  But my pre-pregnancy shorts are too small in the hips.  I've been able to wear some lounge-wear and some workout gear which is great around the house but not so much when its time to venture out.  I lucked out and Target was having a sale. . . an additional 20% off all clearance clothing.  I picked up a couple tops one size larger than my usual size which was just enough extra room in the chest.
Have you started to show?  Depending on what I'm wearing, I don't think I look pregnant anymore.  Knowing what I looked like before though, I'd say I have about a 3-months pregnant look to my mid-section. 
Symptoms:  Well, the evil things like heartburn, hip and back pain have gone away!  Almost all of the symptoms from the HELLP syndrome have also gone away.  My blood pressure is back to my normal 110/75 range and no more chest pain!  I was slightly anemic when I left the hospital so I'm still on an iron supplement to help remedy that.  I go this week for a follow up on that.  My body is still figuring out post-partem life though.  There is still some unpleasantness that I won't get into on the internet.  If you've had a baby that wasn't born via c-section, then you know what I'm talking about.
Activity:  Does feeding a baby every 2-3 hours, pumping breast milk every 3 hours around the clock (more on that later) count as activity?  If so, then I'm really active!   I've really started to feel better in the last week so I've been moving around a lot more.  There was the walk the other night and I hope to slowly keep at it so I can try to get back into a decent workout routine.  I've also got a post-partem mom and baby workout DVD that I'm just waiting on the OK from my doctor to try out.
Best moment this week:  Watching "Happiest Baby on the Block" and realizing the tips for soothing a crying baby really do work.  There was also some nursing success!  Since Megatron was early, he wasn't ready to latch on consistently.  He's figuring that part out but now the challenge is his endurance...or lack there of.  He takes a bottle like a champ but the extra work required on his part to nurse leaves him sleepy.  He's too dang small to just let him work at it.  He needs to eat.  So that means nearly every 3 hours for the last 5 weeks I have been pumping in order to meet his demands.  It's exhausting, but we met with a lactation consultant who worked with us and helped us come up with a game plan.  So far its working!  Megatron is now nursing every 2-3 feedings and taking a bottle of the milk I pumped for his other feedings. 
Miss anything/movement:  I'm combining these because I miss the movement.  I didn't think I would but I do miss some of those little flutters.  I certainly don't miss the jabs to my bladder or rib cage but it is a bit surreal to watch Megatron kick and twitch on the outside now.  When I'm cradling him in my arms and a hand or foot twitches, it is as if I am watching the movements I felt from the inside for so many months.  It's so surreal!
Food cravings:  While I'm not quite as hungry as I was in that third trimester, I'm much more hungry than I was pre-pregnancy.  Nursing works up an appetite!  I'm also not picky at all.  I told The Pilot that I feel like I can be easily influenced.  I can see a commercial for some food item and then will want it.  He can suggest something for dinner and then I'll suddenly want that.  I will say the best food has been the food that others have brought for us!  Some homemade, some takeout, it doesn't matter.  People bringing food is probably one of the most helpful things in these first couple weeks (second only to my parents coming over so The Pilot and I can take a nap!).
Gender:  I had this slight fear we'd plan for a boy and then be surprised if a girl actually came out...but Megatron is in deed a boy.  :)  Most definitely a boy as both The Pilot and I have been peed on already.
Looking forward to:  Surviving the first 3 months.  Everyone tells us the first couple months are the most difficult.  I'm holding out hope that it will indeed get easier.  I'm also looking forward to being able to sleep for more than 3 hours at a time.
Not looking forward to:  As if Megatron's arrival wasn't stressful and scary enough, little man has had a few complications.  Most likely from his early arrival but he has jaundice that just won't seem to go away.  We have more testing at the local Children's Hospital and then will have to wait for the results.  I'm not looking forward to any of it!
Milestones:  All three of us survived the first month!  That's all I can ask for!  :)

A Milestone

To celebrate surviving one month of parenthood...and you know, to celebrate Megatron's one month birthday, we ventured out for a walk.  We took the Caddy with us, strapped that baby in and took off...very slowly.

We met up with the group I had been training with early in my pregnancy for one of their group trainings.  To say Megatron was a big hit was an understatement.  Only one person from the group had actually met him and I hadn't seen any of them in quite awhile.  It was so nice to see everyone and be welcomed back.

 I missed this gang so much!

Megatron seemed to enjoy the ride...he slept through the mile and a quarter stroll down the trail only waking up at the very end to let us know he was hungry.  As for the stroller, it worked out great.  It was a little cool and breezy so we pulled both his car seat canopy and the canopy on the stroller to create a little shelter for him.  The window on the BOB's canopy allowed me to watch him for the entire walk which was great.  The stroller rolled like a dream on the blacktop but also did well when we took a short detour through some grass.

Slacker!

Only trouble with the stroller was that I tried to fold it up myself and couldn't figure it out.  The Pilot stepped in to collapse it though.  I told him that I need to practice folding and unfolding it in the garage before I go anywhere alone.  I'd hate to be somewhere and not be able to fold it up.  It barely fits in The Pilot's trunk when folded.  We haven't even tried it in my car yet.

The walk, while slow and short, was much needed.  Megatron has had to have some medical tests done recently to make sure he's staying on track (more on that in another post) and it's been stressful.  My way of dealing with stress has been to workout and since I haven't been able to workout for so long, it was great to get outside to get some fresh air and have a distraction.

It felt important to me to go through all of the motions even though it was going to be a short and slow walk.  I could have just as easily left some casual clothes on but I "suited up;" putting on running shorts, a technical shirt and my running shoes.  I even put my Garmin on.  (1.27 miles if you are interested!)  I wanted to feel like my old self and try out getting ready while also getting Megatron ready to go out the door.  Which is not easy.  Making sure he's fed, changed and safely strapped into his car seat (which is still awkward because he's so small) takes quite a bit of time!  But we managed and we made it to the group training on time.  One point for the new parents!

Hopefully we can slowly start adding more short walks each week.  Even though it was only just over a mile last night, it wore me out.  Mostly in my core, which seems to be non-existent since giving birth.  I get really tired after standing or walking around for too long.  I'm not sure if that is simply because of delivery and being not so active for the last month or if it's still some recovery from HELLP or maybe a combination.  I'm looking forward to getting stronger and I'm not too frustrated by it yet.  Of course I had hoped to be a little more active by this point but after Megatron's unexpected arrival, I'm learning to not have any expectations right now and to just go with it!  I was just glad we made the effort to get out, no matter how short and slow!

A Cadillac

Eighteen hours before giving birth to Megatron, The Pilot and I were at Babies R Us haggling over the price on the Cadillac of running strollers, the BOB Revolution SE.  It felt very much like buying a car.  They weren't going to honor the online price of a stroller they had in the store.  And trust me, when you are trying to buy a stroller with a suggested retail price of $450, you will haggle to get the best deal.  Ultimately we won, got a great deal and took that bad boy home.  Unfortunately by the time we got it home, I was really starting to feel bad.  I was waiting out the hour my doctor gave me before going to the hospital while The Pilot opened the stroller.  A cat immediately had to check it out...

That cat loves a new box!  The Pilot got the stroller out of the box but that's when I talked to my doctor and we dropped everything to go to the hospital.  The stroller was sitting in the family room.  Later that night my dad went to our house to pick up a few things once we realized we would be staying at the hospital.  When he returned he asked us what "that huge thing" in the living room was.  Oh that's just the mother of all strollers!

We've only used it once so far when we took Megatron to a festival at the church I grew up attending.  We had to do some off-roading so we took the BOB since it has shock absorbers.  I'm not kidding when I say this stroller is nicer than my car.

I am hopeful I can use it soon to take an actual walk.  I haven't been given the OK from my doctor to start working out yet but I go in next week for my official 6-week post-partem appointment.  To be honest though, this week is the first time I've actually started to feel better.  Both Megatron and I are still being monitored for our various ailments so between doctor appointments and his "I MUST eat all the food RIGHT NOW" feeding schedule of every 2 hours and me still recovering from delivery and HELLP syndrome, it's been hard to get out and about much. 

When we are both given the ok, you betcha we'll be putting some miles on that stroller!