Brags

If you'll permit me, I have some bragging to do:

* Let me tell you about the best little 3-week old baby in the world.  Here she is:

C continues to have a sweet, laid-back personality.  She spends most of the day contentedly in her bouncy seat or swing, watching her big sisters or sleeping.  I almost feel like I'm neglecting her because she's so easy!  I try to cuddle and hold her as much as I can while the big girls are taking naps, just so she won't feel left out.

P.S. We were co-sleeping with C for the first 2 1/2 weeks or so-- I find it's the best way to maximize Mama's sleep with a brand new baby.  Maybe I'm rushing things, but I quickly got anxious to start a bedtime routine with her (and return to a sense of normalcy for me and M), so I decided to try her in the crib again this weekend.  It worked great.  She's been in the crib three nights now, and she has only had one waking each of those nights.  That means she goes down at 8 PM, sleeps a 5-6 hour stretch, wakes up to eat, and then goes back to sleep for another 4-5 hours.  If I go to bed when she goes to bed, that means pretty much a normal night of sleep for me.  YAY!!!

P.P.S. Check out this picture of N when she was about the same age as C:

(Please ignore the seatbelt on top of her head... I was an inexperienced Mommy at this point.)  I'm sensing some similarities in appearance, aren't you?  It's funny, because as a  brand-newborn I think she looked more like L, but now that those cheeks have slimmed down a little, she's definitely the spitting image of her biggest sister.  It's so fun watching them change as they grow up.

* Mama officially packed away all maternity clothes this weekend.  Yes that's right, I can zip almost all of my pre-pregnancy pants.  The scale says I'm back down to pre-pregnancy weight already, but lest you think I'm bragging too much, keep in mind that I'm still pretty lumpy and flabby.  The pants will zip, but they are still tighter than I would like them to be.  Which brings me to my next brag...

* I had my first postpartum run yesterday afternoon.  This is not really something that I have a right to brag about, because it would never have happened if my darling husband had not given me the time when he came home from work.  It felt GREAT to run and I can't wait to do it again.  M and I are going to be taking turns running in the afternoons when he gets home from work.  Luckily we are both addicted to the runner's high, so we have a lot of mutual understanding of the other's need to get out the door and run.

(By the way, you'd think I'd be able to run a lot faster all of the sudden, being 18 pounds lighter, but I think I wasn't any faster yesterday than my last run at 37-ish weeks pregnant.  All the tendons and ligaments still feel pretty loose, and there's a funny feeling that you get postpartum--not that your abs are merely weak, but that they don't exist.  It's like when the baby was born she took the entire wall of abdominal muscles with her.  So I'll need to do some rebuilding of muscle and some healing of ligaments before I can feel up to pushing really hard again, I think.  But... the mere fact that I'm moving my body again is an improvement over... well... not moving.)

* I finished our entire tax return in one afternoon.  Again, it's not something I can really take credit for, because it never would have happened if Grandma hadn't been here getting dinner ready for me.  Plus all the girls took really long naps that day.  BUT, it's finished.  AND we're getting a refund.  That feels good!!

So, even though there are plenty of stressful moments around here, there is a lot that is going well for us, too.

And the main reason it's going so well is because these girls have a very helpful Daddy and Grandma.  I could never do it all by myself and I'm so thankful to have such wonderful helpers.