Jenny Ford, founder of Monkey-Toes.com - Baby Week 3

Week 3 –

My how the weeks begin to fly by.  I guess now instead of counting them up to 40, we’re actually counting up to 18 – years that is.  18 is when little Oscar can go out on his own and be free of mom and dad telling him what to do.  So sad to think of little Oscar packing his bags to go to college, especially since he has no fine motor skills and he mainly just hits himself in the face all the time.  I am guessing that will go away by the age of 18 (but picture it, many, many black eyes because he just keeps hitting himself in the face with uncontrollable arms – sorry, so off topic right now, but I make myself laugh).  Tim thinks that I am going to baby him because he is my son and sons are the apple of mama’s eye (he should know he is to his mom!) and that he’ll be living in the basement of our house until he is 40, or longer.  *Picture Will Ferrell’s character in Wedding Crashers “MA, where’s my meatloaf???”*

Oh this week, what a week it was.  I ended up in bed with what seemed like flu symptoms.  All of you breastfeeding mommy’s please take note – if it feels like daggers are shooting into your chest when your baby latches on – you may have mastitis.  If your tata’s are quite sore even after the engorgement has gone away and after a feeding – you may have mastitis.  If you have red spots on either of your mams – you may have mastitis.  If you develop flu symptoms because you have NOT caught on to any of these clues – you are probably a masochist and enjoy pain and suffering so much you ignore all the symptoms and definitely have mastitis and at this point only antibiotics 4x/day can cure (I’m not a doctor, but if this is the case go to your doc immediately!).  I ended up in bed on Wednesday with what felt like the flu coming on slowly – chills, sweaty, achy, headache, etc.  Thank God Oscar naps so much, he just laid right next to me and slept while I waited for my doctor appointment.  I ended up with a fever that night reaching 101.2 and it finally breaking early in the morning.  I am on my last day of antibiotics, finally, and feel a million times better.  Wow, that was rough.  Seriously though, thank God for Twitter.  I sent a tweet out with these flu symptoms and so many amazing women chimed in with Mastitis!  I would have never known.

All of my days, nights, feedings, etc are all running together now.  I have to use the calendar on my Blackberry to remember when I fed Oscar last or when I took my last antibiotic.  I do remember however some fun the other night at 5 am, though I think it was more fun for him than me.  I remember doing the usual feeding, whereas midway through he would poo, I would burp, change him, go back to feeding, then back to bed.  He decided that right after I got the last snap done up he would poo again.  So I start the entire changing routine over again, pull of the diaper and low and behold I was not armed with the Pee Pee Tee Pee and I was squirted for the first time.  I pretty much knew that every time I stood there, unguarded, I was risking the soak, but I just thought – I have a really good baby – he would never pee on his mommy.  I let out a really loud “OH GEEZ” because it threw me off guard.  I think it hit me in the bangs but I couldn’t find the wet mess anywhere, it might be on the ceiling.  The best part was that when I pulled off his pajamas to change his entire outfit, he was wearing a onsie that said “I’m in the doghouse” – fitting for this situation.  How could you be mad at such a cute, chubby, sweet little face? So now here I am still changing him without my pee pee armor – I’m totally asking for it.

I’ve been wondering how to get back in the game of life and I think I’ve come up with a solution that will at least buy me another 30 minutes every three hours.  Ahh, the blessed Boppy.  I only used the Boppy for the first couple days until I got my breastfeeding bearings straight again, now my girls use it on their lap to hold Oscar.  But I had a light bulb moment when I was working the other day (and I am sure this is how the Boppy company totally intended their product to be used) – I could sit at my desk, dangle myself over Oscar while he eats and then have two free hands to work while he eats – viola!  Is that not the best idea for multi-tasking or what?  And I am sure that this is exactly what the Baby Whisperer was talking about when she said to make sure you are feeding your child in an environment free of distractions.  I don’t know about you but there is nothing more soothing than the sound of click-clacking away on a keyboard.  In fact it is quite calming to know that work is actually getting done - then we can all rest at night, stress free.

Aside from the cupcake I ate in bed on Sunday night, my diet has been pretty good!  I actually do feel like every morning that I wake up I am slowly gaining my old body back (minus the tight bum and muscles – I guess I will have to go to the gym for that pain).  I measured my waist and am at 33”.  I even, nervously, tried on a pair of pants from early on in my pregnancy (a size 8) and was pleasantly surprised to see that they fit!  YAY!  Something normal to wear and now I will give them maternity pants the old heave-ho.  I still have this giant sack of skin on my belly, which when I stand up has a minor pooch, when I sit down I look like the perfect candidate for having the giant satchel cut off my gut – or a tummy tuck as some people might call it.  Though I had that before I got pregnant and planned to get it taken care of with the help of a surgeon, someday.  One thing I am completely disappointed in is my bum, or lack thereof.  Where did it go?  Why is it so mushy?  It’s gonna need some work.  I bought myself a new pair of running shoes – the Nike+ with the Ipod attachment (gosh I am mentioning a lot of companies in this post – no, I’m not getting paid, but I will take their money should they offer).  I’m really excited to get walking/running on those babies.  Maybe it’s my “new shoe adrenaline” but I’m thinking that I may start running in the local races again…MAYBE.  Talk to me again in a month when my muscles are all achy and sore and I cannot walk.