This is my favorite picture of Charlie so far - he is just 4 days old here with my MIL who has been such a huge help driving the kids to & from school! If you look carefully in the background you can see my bedroom --- *love* - and the white dresser/changetable with a mirror that I fixed up, and envisioned as a peaceful place while in labor. See my cute little diaper holder, the black & white thing with a gray ribbon flower? Fun!
I weighed in at 143 pounds on the 14-day mark which means I have exactly half of my weight gained left to lose: 16 pounds. Why does that still seem like so much? Maybe because with Jack I only had like NINE left to lose by now. Ah well, I'm not even remotely eating raw vegan right now so I shouldn't be surprised. I'm glad to have lost a little more though, and would be SUPER de DUPER happy if I could get down to the 130's before I start my kick-butt weight loss routine in February. I think if I watch what I eat moderately it will happen - and not eat 10 chocolate chip cookies in one sitting like I JUST NOW DID (hmmmm) even if they ARE mini cookies. =) =)
Someone described it as "deep hunger" when you are nursing. It seems to be so true -- I am ALL about fasting and know exactly what it feels like to be super hungry. And yet, it doesn't seem quite as intense as the hunger you experience when nursing...it's like God knew when he made woman that she would be longing to lose the weight after baby, even immediately after, but He made SURE that the hunger would be so intense that she is like NOM NOM to everything in sight, ha ha! That's me too, even at midnight. I try to keep goodies out of the house because when it hits I literally will be like a drug addict, searching out ANYTHING that involves baked goods or chocolate. Strangely enough, ice cream holds no interest for me....??? Weird.
So on this day -- I feel SO great. Last week was pretty intense, but this week - ow, baby!! I feel fantastic. Mostly because my huge tummy that was so heavy..is GONE. Yay for baby coming out! And my bleeding is virtually nonexistant now, thank the good Lord above (hate that).
But just as an FYI, I am not doing much cleaning or anything that really takes exertion right now. I am relying heavily on Lucy who comes 2x a week to do the deep cleaning of bathrooms/vacuuming/kitchen -- and then each day all of my kids clean the whole house usually twice. It's kind of cool having so many kids because they are each in charge of one room, and since our house is small - all I have to do is announce that we're cleaning the rooms we're in charge of in 5 minutes (it works well to prepare them) and in about 15 minutes, the whole house is clean. They are also in charge of everything dishes and laundry related, although I do fold/put away mine & DH's and Charlie's clothes.
I feel like, this has been the best time of postpartum I have ever had. I really, really was dreading that part ... that, and the birth. Just one of those things that are inevitable and no matter what I do, I HAVE to go through it. And the unknown. But anyway, the past 2 weeks have been a dream...I know it has been HUGELY in part to the excellent care I have had. Funny to think that the 8th baby would be my best time of healing, of postpartum, eh? Maybe it's because I am not trying to do everything on my own, I'm letting people help.
But MOST of all, it is Charlie. He is the sweetest baby, honestly, I think of all that I have ever had. He nurses PERFECTLY and has now gotten it down to a science (well, almost - he still falls asleep too much in my opinion lol) so where it used to take me 1 hr and 15 min to nurse him (omg my butt would get NUMB!!), it now takes approx 25-30 min.
So because of THAT, my nights have been just wonderful! He does his 3-hour routine almost down to the MINUTE, it's so funny - he wakes up at midnight, nurses/gets changed/burped etc for about 45 minutes (of which I enjoy watching Nikita - thanks for the idea, Jen! I've already watched 1 1/2 entire seasons since he was born, lol), then I lay him down in his bed (even if he's awake, he's sooo good!) and he goes to sleep within minutes. Sleeps the night away and then I wake up to hear his little cry, look at the clock, and sure enough - it's 3am! Rinse, repeat. =) Very rarely does he cry and cry...that has only happened twice since he was born, that he wouldn't go back to sleep at night.
As a result I wake up feeling pretty darn refreshed in the morning - the past few mornings I've woken up at 8am to help get the kids out the door, then nurse him and go about my day with the little ones. By noon I am about pooped, I can feel I'm starting to get kind of dizzy and my heart is pounding, so...time for naps, everyone! Since Charlie sleeps 2 out of 3 hours, it's fairly easy to coordinate his nap with the little ones because Harmony sleeps for 3 hours, and Jack for 1 1/2. I put H down from 12:30-3:30, and then as soon as Charlie goes to sleep I put Jack to bed and am able to sleep for a good 1 1/2 hours.
I wake up feeling refreshed and ready to tackle the mayhem of receiving 4 bigger kids after school, and do the necessary busy stuff to get dinner ready, etc. But once dinner is on the table and at about 7pm, I need to lay down again...so slowly but surely I am emerging from the fog of postpartum-ness.
I am fortunate in that we are almost to the Christmas break, which means no school - yay! DH has been taking the kids to & from school every day, and my MIL picks up my kinder. See? I'm taken such good care of! No wonder Charlie is on such a good schedule...he never needs to be interrupted to go anywhere.
Today, though, I was just itching to venture out of this house. Five of my kids need haircuts - Harmony's hair has never been cut and in it's 2 1/2 year old state is kind of sorry looking. Oh, actually, Marie5 cut her hair, chopped it at almost the scalp (of course!) when she was 1 1/2 and now it's finally growing out to look normal. But still scraggly in the back especially. Jack and Isaac just need normal boy haircuts cuz it's been 2 months since their last one.
Grace7? Oh yeah....THAT has been driving me nuts. She decided to chop ONE side of her hair because she was mad, she said. So one side is approx the length of her chin in the front, and all the rest is below her shoulders. And since I've been MIA for the past like, 3-4 weeks --- ugh. She looks like an orphan. The 5th one is James10, and he refuses to get his done at the hair shop, so I have to do that one myself.
Anyway, I felt like it would work this morning so I put Charlie in his carseat for his nap instead of his bed, quickly got the littles ready to go, and RAN to the hair shop. Jack & Harmony are now sporting the cutest little haircuts, and Charlie slept through the whole thing - yay!
Better run...naptime! Oops, it's already 1pm and I haven't put Harmony down yet...and I'm starting to feel kind of crampy like I've done too much. So - time to sleep. =)
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