Two Months is a milestone, right? or Therapize this!

Wow. Two months. It really seems like every day is a victory. A victory over what? That I don't really know. But every day we manage to keep a baby alive or not fight with one another or actually fold that pile of laundry feels like a day of accomplishment.  Never mind that the sink is overflowing with dirty dishes, we'll get to that later.

Reed is starting to tease us with long stretches of sleep. Twice in the past week, he has slept from about 7:45 pm to 5 the next morning. If only we could get ourselves to bed before the sun sets we would be in a good place. Speaking of a good place, I have had just a bit of an issue with that dreaded pregnancy problem of the post-partum depression. There were definitely some signs that I was heading towards a bad place mentally, so we took some preemptive action before I could spiral too far into this place. I have started seeing a counselor and that along with a small dose of medication seems to really be helping. Who knows what causes ppd? Or why it strikes some people and not others. I think in my case it had a lot to do with the less than perfect labor coupled with some outside stresses that just happened to coincide with some crazy ass hormone fluctuations. Whatever the cause, the other day when Reed peed in my mouth, spit up in my hair, and then pooped on my hand, all I could think was "Thank goodness for the Zoloft."

"I'll pee in your mouth if you're not careful!"

The turtles are back out at Green Lake.

And since it has been awhile...here is a picture of downtown on a lovely spring day.

We're growing up so fast around here.

First, a little bragging.

Reed is six weeks old today. Over the course of the past week, Reed has learned to flip himself over from his tummy to his back. According to babycenter.com's development chart, this is something that is generally mastered around the three month mark. Clearly, Reed is very advanced. He can also hold his head at a 45 degree angle. Apparently that is also a developmental milestone. Who knew we would get so excited over seemingly simple things. 

Second, Reed has finally kind of started to like sitting in his swing for small amounts of time. I really hoped that Reed would take to his swing and we could go about our business. That has not been the case. Up till about two days ago, the swing only encouraged very loud screaming. Very loud. But, the other day he stayed in it long enough for me to make, and get this, EAT my spinach salad. It was indeed a luxury.

Third, we went to a PEPS meeting. It stands for Parenting something something Support, or something like that. It wasn't as bad as I had anticipated. Only three of six couples brought their babies. At six weeks, Reed was the oldest baby there. And with the other two little girls each weighing in at under seven pounds, he looked like a behemoth! According to my super accurate Wii Fit scale, he weighs about 11 pounds. He was 8.12 when he was born, so he is really packing it on.

And finally, School starts again next Tuesday. Eeek. There is something I am unprepared for. I already have homework for the class I am taking. Also, I learned that one class is actually twice as expensive as I thought. Apparently, I was looking at the undergrad tuition scale in preparation for the class. Maybe if one can't read a chart accurately that person is not really ready for graduate school. Ooops.  

So, I should probably stop writing this, turn off Days of our Lives, and maybe stop messing around on the internet long enough to read the assigned articles. Oh the non-stop excitement of a stay-at-home graduate student/mom.

Wait for it...wait for it...

There it is!

In Search of the Holy Grail

I'm finding it hard to find time to blog. Also, I'm worried that I have little to talk about, aside from diapers and poop.  And just so you know, we are using thirsties all in one diapers, bummis diaper covers with prefolds, and seventh generations and naturebaby disposables. Very exciting stuff, isn't it? We'll be expanding our cloth diaper collection as he grows.

What can I say about this first month of Reed. A lot of adjustments, but its as if he has always been here. I can't remember life before he was here. No, not true, I still vaguely remember being pregnant. Enough to know that I am not ready to do that again. Anyway, we have an ox of a child, appropriate because he was born in the Year of the Ox. He is so strong. He holds up his head and looks around. He presses his feet against any surface they touch so that he is standing up, or while in the bathtub, till his head smashes into the side of the kitchen sink.  Knock on wood, he is a fantastic sleeper. We have had several nights of 4-6 hours of sleep at night and we love and appreciate him for allowing us that luxury. He is a mini-Rob. With his blue eyes and red hair(!) and his adorable little chin, he is Rob's tiny little doppleganger. 

In the past week or so, Reed has been giving us glimpses of a smile. They started with little night smiles, and have gradually progressed to his waking hours. Some books say they are an indication of inner contentment, others say it a reaction to passed gas (I think we all have those smiles, don't we), and still others say that due to his late arrival, they could be the beginnings of the long awaited social smiles. Whatever the cause, they are the most beautiful thing I have ever seen in my entire life.  They are just pure joy...or relief.

We haven't managed to catch the smiles on camera, but the two following shots are an attempt to catch them. 

Alright...enough blogging, I need to get back to Facebook!

There are legal names...and then there are the names we call him...

Sometimes I am asleep and content.

Other times, I am just so upset.

And then there are the times when I am concentrating so hard...or pooping.

His birth certificate says Reed Elliot Chambliss.

We call him...

Puppy Rabbit

Shark Baby

Little Critter

Stink Bomb

Squeak Toy

Snorty Pig

Minotaur

and of course,

Futureman

He'll never learn his real name at this rate.

So Tired

Parenting is hard. 

Recovering from surgery and dealing with raging hormones and feeding a demanding baby who refuses to use his words is hard.

But he is just so beautiful, and I am told it will get easier. Although I was told a lot of things that ended up not being true...i.e. sex induces labor (ha), among others. However, I am clinging to the belief that this will get easier.

I am dreading Monday, when Rob has to go back to work, although luckily my wonderful mother is coming back to Seattle to help. I can't even begin to express how wonderful it was having her here the first week at home with Reed. And I am looking forward to my dad coming back in two weeks, although he had better be over his cough...

And Rob, wow. What an incredible father. He has such a calming effect on this child, and to an extent on me as well. Although I am already worried that Reed is more rational than I am.

Anyway...Parenting is hard. I am sure most of you already know that from experience. I knew it in theory two weeks ago, but wow, it is more true than anything else.

I can't even imagine doing this with eight infants. That Nadya is cuh-razy.

Reed is Six Days Old

Alright. Back in the blogging saddle...

It was just last week that I wrote, but life has changed.

That may be a bit of an understatement.

I hope this isn't overly personal. I am trying to share some of the details of Reed's birth without oversharing. Just be forewarned, this may be graphic, but I am trying to keep it pretty clean. 

Reed Elliot Chambliss arrived on Friday the 13th at 1:25 via an unexpected c-section.  It was a bit intense and I am still processing everything that happened over the course of my 12 hour labor and the six days that have since transpired. I am still a bit shell shocked from just all of it. But, in the end we have a wonderful little man.

We didn't really have a definite birth plan. The plan was to go natural and see how it worked out, but we didn't rule out drugs completely. Anyone who knows me, knows that I love drugs. Love them. Anyway, labor started quickly, none of that slow build-up promised in our birth class and all those books we read. I expected hours of mildly intense pain while I re-watched Arrested Development. That isn't really how it worked. I woke up at 11:30 with contractions that I thought were too painful and too close together. So blah blah blah, we went to the hospital, expecting to be told to go home, but we were admitted. 

Seven hours later, I was practically begging for the epidural. And, I've got to say, I wish I was always on an epidural. Just for day to day operations. They are fantastic. In those seven hours I made NO progress, despite the intensity and frequency of the contractions. The goal of the epidural was to get some sleep while my body continued to work. Well, I fell asleep and my body continued to work, but when I woke up from my much needed nap, I had still made no progress. It was at this point my midwife Cathleen, said the baby wasn't responding to the contractions and we might need to start thinking about a c-section. At that point, we figured it was still just an option, and that my body would start reacting the way it needed to. Even my doula thought at this point we still had time, and that this would be a good opportunity to go grab some food. Not 20 minutes had passed when Cathleen came back in and calmly but urgently said we needed to go to the operating room now. So....long story slightly shorter, they prepped for surgery, wheeled me down, and Reed was here at 1:25 pm.

I am still processing this whole story. I am trying not to dwell on the negative, but it gets hard. This is a more difficult recovery than I was expecting, and I can't stop thinking that my body failed me and failed Reed. Cathleen is definitely the crunchiest hippiest midwife at the practice, and the more I think about it, the more I realize that if she was so insistent on an immediate c-section, than something really must have been wrong. But I need to stop thinking this way.

I need to focus on my beautiful baby, who despite my concerns from earlier in my pregnancy, isn't three years early at all. He is wonderful and right on time. I already can't imagine my life without him. How cliche. But so true. I just can't stop staring at him. He is just perfect.