Back to earth!

Posted On July 27, 2010

Finding a quiet moment here to write is such a nice thing right now! Everything is going very well. The birth went great, my milk has already come in (so I’ve got a happy baby and toddler), and I’m already feeling better walking around and doing stuff- although I know I still need to take it slow. We got ridiculously little sleep until last night, but I’m feeling pretty refreshed for being 3 days postpartum. We’ve also had loads of visitors, which has been really nice. When you can’t do much more than nurse and sit and be tired, hanging out with people and talking is really nice. This morning Jeff had to go do some work for an hour or so, so I set Vera up with a movie and Asa is just sleeping next to me. And so life resumes! It is going to be nice to have Jeff home for the next few weeks. While Vera is loving the baby, it’s a new and stressful time for her, and I can tell she needs our attention and patience. I’m also dealing with hormones and new sensations and near constant sensory-overload, so I am so so grateful for all the help and attention we’ve been getting. Life can just be such a ride! 

I’m piecing together my memories of the birth and will write up a birth story soon. Although it won’t be nearly as eventful as Vera’s! No late night trips to the hospital and back… I think this birth was equally as profound to me, though. I find the whole process to be really eye-opening and full of lessons. Each meal and hour of sleep I get brings up more and more reflections on the whole thing. And you know me-I’m hopelessly introspective. I guess I’ll save most of it for when I actually sit down and write about it, but I will say that I feel really lucky to have educated myself and had the births that I wanted. They’ve really contributed to who I am as a person, now, and I’m incredibly grateful for the experience and the community I have as a result- not to mention I just think I’m a better person for having gone through it, on a really basic level. I’m not at all interested in resuming birth work at the moment, but who knows what the future holds. I’m just glad to have done a little of it, for now, and I’m looking forward to just keeping things extremely simple around here.

And as for this little person, he’s pretty perfect if you ask me. So skinny and soft and sweet… I’ll have to fatten him up. 🙂 His eyes are that pretty dark blue that infants have- we’ll just have to wait to see what color they turn. He has Jeff’s pinky finger and the sweetest little toes… He’s strong like Vera was, already holding his head up quite a bit. Although he’s got almost no hair- she had an entire head full. He’s a great nurser, and we only had a few times where it was stressful to get all latched on. I’m really grateful for no nursing problems so far. And the smell! He smells so sweet, it’s amazing. 

And now everyone told me this would happen, but it’s true- Vera is ENORMOUS. I mean, she’s still just this little two year old, but now when I pull her into my lap she just seems like this whole thick person compared to the little delicate baby. Her head is huge. Such a sweetie. I feel so much love for her- more now that she’s got this new role to fill. 

The dog hair has been getting to me. There’s just so much. We sweep and vacuum and it’s just everywhere. So we’ve been going at Maya with brushes and trying to get it all out. At least to the point where it’s manageable. I’m not a clean-freak by any means, but having tumbleweeds of hair float through the house a day after you cleaned the floors is a little irritating. Plus with visitors pulling hair out of babies mouths and… I’ve just had enough! To illustrate my point, have a look.

That’s just a once over. We keep getting that much every time we brush her. Thankfully, I think it’s working. It’s like this really soft under coat that we just had to get at. I feel bad just composting it… I feel like we should be stuffing pillows or something. I love that hairy dog.

The garden. This morning I went out alone and just breathed in the early air. It’s so perfect. I’m really glad to be in the middle of summer, now. When Vera was born it was mid February and I just looked longingly out the windows… This is way better. I spent a large portion of the day outside yesterday, and the days to come will be much the same. Plus, little boy was a little jaundiced yesterday so we stripped him down and put him in a little sun. He looks way better today. Anyway, I’m grateful to have this space. So so grateful. It’s much more productive than I thought it would be right now, though, so I’m already doing some food storage. I’m actually happy about it- it’ll give me projects to do while I’m still taking it slow. Aren’t those potato boxes wild? I hope they give us a good turn out, I’d love to do them every year- they are so pretty.

There are lots of fun pictures to come, they just all reside on other people’s cameras at the moment. Soon!