4 days postpartum
I had some burning urinating at first, but that pretty quickly subsided, and I’m feeling great in that department now. Had some constipation for the first couple days, I think due both to allowing myself to become slightly dehydrated during labor and also the incredible stress I put on my body trying to get her out as fast as I could. I thought about having Scott get me some prune juice, but instead ate a bunch of chocolate (my mom sent me a 1-lb. box of See’s Milk Bordeaux
and I made myself a couple cups of organic hot chocolate) and that seems to have smoothed things out, I feel much better. Lochia is easing up already, and can I just say that I love my cloth pads? No bad smell, no blood clotting in my pubic hairs, no itching. Nice!
Breastfeeding is going fine, which is still a relief even seven years after the miserable experience I had with my first. I am engorged and leaking a bit, so decided to try a nursing bra and pads but gave that up fairly quickly, since the confinement and lack of exposure to air brings almost immediate protest from my nipples in the form of pain while nursing.
Still trying to find a satisfactory nighttime diapering system. She’s been leaking through everything. Last night I put a cloth diaper inside a newborn disposable, and put all that inside one of my 3-year-old’s nighttime pull-ups. Seems to have done the trick, but I don’t want to keep using disposables. My mom is bringing me down some vinyl covers (the old-fashioned kind,) so maybe that’ll do the trick. Are the fitteds, like Kissaluvs, very absorbant? If the vinyl pants work, I might end up going that route. (Please don’t suggest wool soakers, I am way too lazy to take care of them. :LOL ) The newborn disposables, by the way, are worthless for holding in poop! We found that out the other day – poop everywhere, all over her umbilical cord, ugh. I think it would have already fallen off by now if not for the fact that we had to get it wet to get the poop off. And when it was wet, boy did it stink! No smell at all before that.
I am just loving having a newborn this time around. I really think it has a lot to do with the birth itself, the fact that the hormonal process was at no point disturbed. But also I think it’s that I don’t have to deal with visitors while being in this open, emotional transitional phase. When I have afterpains, especially, I feel
weird. Vulnerable. Sensitive. Having people around somehow intensifies it, and I end up feeling really bad and yucky. So it has been great to be able to recover in privacy, and not have to feel expectations to share my baby when I don’t want to. The relief of it is in itself uplifting, and everybody who calls comments on how “up” I sound. A long ways from my first postpartum in which I was in a deep funk for the first several weeks.
Back to the baby, I am just thrilled at how my mothering instincts have surfaced immediately this time. I don’t mean that I didn’t love my other children as babies, of course I did, but I’ve always found the newborn stage to be a hassle. Having to change diapers and wet or spit-up-on clothing constantly, having to do laundry constantly, having to be ultra careful about handling the baby gently, having to wake up at night to tend to the baby – all of it feels natural and normal and part of the flow to me right now. It’s all good. I have patience. I am calm. I am surprised, actually, at how different it is. And she is the most adorable, dear thing that I can imagine, utterly precious and perfect.
The kids have been something of a trial, not that they are “acting out” but just that they are being their usual fun-loving selves which just happens to involve a lot of noise and action. How great it would be to live in a village where they could go whoop it up outside to their hearts’ content, safely. There is an Ursula K. Leguin short story called “Solitude” I keep thinking about that perfectly describes the village life that I wish we could have. Oh well, it could be worse, and I suppose I would miss them if they weren’t here anyway! They have been
wonderful with the baby. They are very sweet and tender with her, and they are thrilled that she is a girl. My 3-year-old daughter refers to her as “my baby, my angel.” Here is a picture of the two of them together:
http://home.earthlink.net/~eaglefalc...baby9.22.1.jpg
We haven’t named her yet, though we’ve narrowed it down to a short list. The boys want to name her “Coco” or “Crystal” and my daughter is insistent that we name her “George”. :LOL I am optimistic that since we’re taking our time we will end up with a name that fits her well.
go go milk! let's go milk! 
j
I've been that one-pony trick... the Milk Truck. It feels discouraging sometimes I know. Has Jerome tried the Neck Nestle or the Warm Fuzzy by Sears?
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