June 5, 2021
It’s been four weeks since our Lilliput joined us. Crazy! It does not feel like that long and in three days she will be one month old.
And it’s crazy to think that she lived in my belly not that long ago. The bump picture with the Sock Monkey was taken in March. It’s hard to even believe that she was in there kicking all day every day. Our little monkey ♥
June 3, 2021
May 16th, 1 week 1 day postpartum
To go for walks is basically the only “workout” I’m doing these days. I have my postpartum checkup in three weeks and up until now I’ve been mostly just focusing on resting, going for walks and wearing belly bands to help with diastasis recti (which I don’t know if I have or not, that will be checked at the 6 week appointment, but my doctor knows that I’ve been a little worried about it so she told me to wear a band until I see her the next time).
I do miss moving my body around every day and I would like to do something easy, but the question is…when? Lily is like I’ve said before a pretty easy kid so far and we are so happy that she sleeps through the night which gives us a good night sleep every day. But, most days she doesn’t nap for more than 5-10 minutes here and there throughout the day unless we hold her. So if I’m not stuck breastfeeding, then I’m stuck with her sleeping in my arms. Don’t get me wrong, I’m totally signed up for that Lily will take up most of my time and that cleaning the apartment, cooking and even showering will happen if I have a moment over these first weeks. But, it’s honestly hard to even imagine that I will ever have a moment over for my daily practice of yoga or for pilates and ballet.
Exercise, any kind, is so good for your overall wellbeing. Moving the body is like a happy pill, not only does your heart thank you but also your brain. So, when I’m stuck on the couch or in bed holding my child all day, the only thing I add to my heart and head is love which is wonderful of course but not enough. Us humans need to be active every day in order to function. We need muscle strength, balance, mobility in our joints, help to digest what we eat, blood pumping in and out to our heart and a mentally happy brain caused by endorphins from a workout.
So for now walking is ok, but I do need more than that in order to stay sane. Postpartum depression is a real thing and it can pop up at any point, and it can happen to anyone. By staying active, to go outside and enjoy the nature and to laugh together with your loved ones will help reducing the chances for someone to get PPD. I do have tougher moments where I let myself cry, I don’t think there is anything wrong with that, that’s just part of being human. But I’m luckily nowhere near a PPD, as of now. But it can change so to avoid that I would like to do something nice for and with my body. I hope I can figure something out:)
Of course I also would like to lose the baby weight and go back to my “normal” body size again. My body will never look the same after this pregnancy, it’s been going through huge changes. But I never expected it to either. Nobody should get pregnant and expect things to be the same after having a baby. I don’t really care about what the scale says or how big my body is. My reasons for wanting to work out again and losing the baby weight is simply because 1) I need strength to be able to care for my child and 2) I don’t feel like throwing out all my clothes and buy new ones hahah. Plus I don’t think there’s anything wrong with wanting to look a certain way. I like how my body feels and looks when I’m a bit more fit. But the looks is not what I’m striving for, it’s the strength and looking good will be a bonus.
So I have a few goals:
* Build my muscles back so that my joints don’t give up
* Get my now stiffer body to be more flexible again
* Lose 12 lbs, or possibly a little more
* Fit into my jeans
I wonder how long it will take me to reach these goals. I don’t want to stress about it, it will take the time it takes plus I am breastfeeding so to lose too much too fast or go on a diet (which I would never do, I even hate the word) is just not ideal. Moving my body and eat my greens will take me to the finish line of my goals:)
June 1, 2021
When you’re Swedish living in America, you get to celebrate Mother’s day twice a year.
It was Mors Dag (mother’s day) in Sweden on Sunday.
One of my goals for this long Memorial Day weekend was to start my computer and update here. I didn’t get a chance to do that. Whenever I had a few minutes over I prioritized other things, like, enjoying my cup of coffee or eating a slice of pizza or snuggle Thor. I don’t have many daily goals these days other than keeping our babies alive:) One thing on my list this weekend was to shower my hair and I got to do that (yay!), another was to fold laundry which I did maybe a third of the current pile that will multiply today. Right now I’m trying to eat breakfast and update here as fast as I possibly can before I have to feed again – I can do stuff on my laptop while she eats but it’s quite difficult plus I want to keep my focus on her.
(well,…it took me 9 hours and 45 minutes from when I started to write this post til I’m ready to publish it hahah. I have been pretty busy today AND been stuck nursing for extra long sessions)
So, what has happened since last time I updated?
My original plan was to wait to get vaccinated until after I’m done breastfeeding, so, sometime at the end of the year. But after reading about that babies get antibodies through vaccinated mothers milk and after talking to other moms whos got it already, I decided that the right decision for me and our daughter is to get the vaccine now. Since I have to fly with Lily in July (regardless of where we move) I want us to be as protected as possible.
On Friday, as I was feeding Lily lunch, I signed up to get myself a first vaccine shot… 40 minutes later. You don’t actually have to sign up, they allow drive-ins, but it’s easier to fill out your personal info online than having to do it in the car at the sight. When we were all dressed, we drove over to the sight (five min away). It’s like three huge parking lots, all empty (cause nobody is getting their shots now – they either already got them or they don’t want to get them). I sat in the backseat with Lily, rolled down the window, got my shot in my left arm and then had to sit in the car for 20 minutes on a different part of the parking to make sure I felt fine before we could leave. Lily didn’t enjoy a stopped car but fell asleep as soon as we moved.
So now I got my first vaccine shot and I’m happy with my decision. I have to go back in three weeks for my second one and then we should be good to fly down south:) And how did I feel after the shot? In the middle of the night when I was feeding L my arm felt a little sore but it was gone by the time we got out of bed in the morning, so not bad at all. Some say they got sick after the second though so I have to pick a good day for that.
It has mostly just been raining this weekend so we have been enjoying our baby bubble inside. Lily sleeps, eats, has her poop explosions, plays at the gym, reads books, listens to mamma singing old Swedish kids songs (that I have now realized have pretty terrible lyrics) and starting to smile in response to what we are doing. She is still a dream. She’s so sweet, very funny with all her weird noises and different facial expressions and I can see that there is a little character with her own personality coming out more and more.
On Sunday, I really wanted us to have some fresh air but didn’t feel like taking the stroller out in the pouring rain, so I put her in the carrier that we were gifted and all four of us went for a walk up and down the covered parking lot of our building.
Lily after a sponge bath, just too cute♥ She still has a tiny bit of the umbilical cord left so we haven’t given her a real bath yet but she is def due for one
Yesterday, Monday, it finally stopped raining and the sun even came out for a bit. We’ve had some colder temperatures out now which I honestly don’t mind at the moment, Lily needs to gradually get used to hotter weather. Anyway, after lunch, we went for a longer walk to the “cute street”. It’s so wonderfully green over there now. I don’t think I have walked over there since maybe Christmas. It’s not far from us but the bigger my belly got the less away from our home I wanted to walk.
Today, even if I had what felt like a million things to do, I took both babies out for a walk by myself while Jim went to the bank. It wasn’t that easy though cause Mr Daddy’s Boy didn’t really want to walk anywhere, I kept dragging him around behind me. I should be used to that by now though cause it has been like this since the pandemic started.
May 27, 2021
Every day looks the same in our bubble. It has been hard to remember what day of the week it is for a year now, you can only separate weekends from weekdays. But now, I have no clue what day it is. It could be a Saturday or a Tuesday, it’s all the same. Sure, hubby has phone work meetings from time to time that tells me it’s a weekday, but other than that, no idea:) And this weekend is a three day weekend so I’m gonna be completely thrown off hahah.
Every night this week, Lilliput has been fussy for about an hour around 7-ish. Babies her age is “supposed to” sleep for 16-20 hours/day, but Lily sleeps an average of 12 hours/day which she seems pretty ok with and then she sleeps through the night. But she does have a fussy hour because she is overtired. Crying and crying and crying, and if I happen to be a bit extra tired then I allow myself to cry a little too. This is apparently called “the witching hour“, something most babies goes through, says google. It can be because of overstimulation during the day, overtiredness, gas, upset tummy, busy background from the rest of the family etc. It starts around week 2-3 and lasts til about month 3-4 (yay). She’s got a few longer naps in today so I’m hoping for a much more relaxed evening. We are also not watching anything on TV tonight and have no extreme noises overall. And the air conditioner kinda works as white noise which is good, it keeps her asleep.
(( it was also full moon yesterday, so maybe that’s what made her fussy all week, who knows 🙂 ))
We haven’t started with any specific schedules or routines yet, we still just go by what she needs and want. Her umbilical cord came off awhile ago but there’s a tiny stump piece left which for some weird reason was bleeding this morning, so we can’t give her any real baths yet, which is something to add to a regular schedule in the future. For now, we just go with the flow, and we are all happy with that 😀
This week we have been trying to put her in the BabyBjorn bouncer for short periods of time.
She is starting to enjoy it I think.
May 24, 2021
Two weeks since we came home from the hospital. How is it two weeks already?? Where did time go, what have we done?
In a weird way I feel that I have met Lily before, being with her feels so familiar in a way. And life with a baby feels strangely familiar as well. I have no clue how to take care of a baby but somehow we manage to keep her alive hahaha.
How are our babies doing? Thor is still not really convinced that Lily is a keeper, but he also seems to be a bit protective of her. He is curious about her and has come closer to her, even given her a kiss on her hand, but for the most part he keep his distance. And Lily is getting chubbier every day which is great of course, that means she is eating well. She has now also started to poop like a normal baby. The first 1.5 week we got maybe two poops from her. Since Saturday we have got plenty of explosions. Jim and I just kept laughing and laughing after the first one on Saturday arrived. She doesn’t give us any warning, and she has the calmest facial expression right before and during hahaha.
I’m going to jinx it now, but so far, having a baby is pretty easy. Sure, I’ve had some tougher moments here and there, but overall it has been way easier than I expected and Lily is just the dream. Last night she slept for 7 (!!) hours, she ate for like 15 min and then back to sleep for 3 more hours and then slept some more after the breakfast feeding… which probably wasn’t great since she hasn’t slept really after that and was screaming for like an hour from being overtired until about an hour ago (it’s 6pm now). But, hopefully this was just today. So overall, everything is great and I am grateful for all the peaceful moments we’ve got so far.
I haven’t got on my yoga mat since before she was born cause my body hasn’t been ready for asana practice. I haven’t sat down to meditate either really. My checkup is 6 weeks postpartum and I really hope I can go back to dance, yoga, pilates or whatever else I feel like doing after that.
I have however taken every chance I get to focus on breathing, given myself a moment to check in with myself. Whether it’s during my walk in the park with my girl in the stroller, while she is eating or while I’m trying to do business in the bathroom (oh the beauty of child birth🤪). It’s not the daily practice I’m used to but for now I’m happy with this. And when time is right I’ll roll out my mat.
In deep thoughts…most likely about pooping
It was 90°f (32°c) outside yesterday so I couldn’t take Lily out in the stroller. Instead I took her to the terrace… for abut 4 minutes and then it was too hot for her and Thor and we went inside for a couch party
Today it was colder outside so we could go for a walk
