Just hangin around...

(September 13th, 2011)

(September 13th, 2011 - Hanging around off the side of his boppy!)

We have just been hanging out around the house lately, with a few trips here and there... to Auntie Haley's house, to the grocery store, to L.L. Bean. It has been a somewhat relaxing week. We are getting so much better at breastfeeding, the soreness is going away slowly but surely - as well as the thrush that we realized we had at the beginning of the week. We tried to treat it with Grapefruit Seed Extract but could not find it in liquid form at our Natural Food store... so, we are treating it with Nystatin. And it seems to be working perfectly. Levon's cheeks aren't white any more - they are nice and pink. But we have to continue to treat it until next Tuesday just to be sure it's 100% GONE! Levon's latch is great. We have to pull off and start over a couple of times here and there, but overall no leakage and no pain! I'm so proud that we have made it this far!

(September 17th, 2011)

(September 16th, 2011)

Levon has developed a little bit of baby acne on his face this week. He was born with such perfect skin, we obviously wouldn't be in the clear forever! No pun intended. ;) He's still the cutest baby in the world!! I love this close up shot of him. I wish his eyes were open just a little bit more...his eyes are still dark, slate blue, but they are lightening up around the pupil. It's adorable! I wonder what color they will end up... maybe green-blue, like his Daddy's!

(September 17th, 2011 - Cuddling with Daddy.)

Speaking of... Patrick has to go back to work on Monday. Which I am less than thrilled about. He isn't too thrilled either. I mean, of course he is excited to get back to doing things he is used to doing and is really great at - housework isn't his best skill - but he's going to miss being at home with me, the baby, the dogs, and the cats all the time. Not to mention getting paid for just relaxing with his family! I wish he could stay home forever and get paid!! But we have spent a lot of wonderful, quality time together that I am so thankful we were able to have. They flew by so fast and we have made a lot of fun memories!

As I said earlier, yesterday we went to L.L. Bean. We went to return a couple pairs of shoes, because Patrick needed some new ones before he goes back to work. The ones he had previously had become fairly uncomfortable. His feet are very wide and the soles of the shoes were thin - so naturally, his foot and the shoe were sliding to the right - off of the sole. Not good for his feet. So, he got some super comfy looking and supportive - blue and gray hiking sneakers. He seems pretty pleased with them! I got a pair of daybreak sliders with a pretty sweet dog graphic on them. They are awesome for around the house and going over to Haley's... which is almost all of what my days consist of, lately! They'll do the trick.

As for me, I'm feeling better about myself. I'm still sticking around the 20 pounds I have lost since birth. It fluctuates a bit but stays pretty consistent. My confidence is rising, but emotionally, I'm still a little anxious and a bit depressed... which comes with the territory! I wish all of this postpartum crap would be over with already... hormones back to normal, and lady parts back to normal, too. I've had a harder postpartum period than most, because of the surgery to manually extract my placenta. I've had some strange bleeding over the past week (like, TMI, sorry -- but filling an overnight maxi pad in under 2 minutes kind of strange). My midwives said it was okay and nothing to worry about as long as the bleeding stopped and didn't continue. My heart rate was normal and I had no temperature, so, it didn't seem like anything to worry about. I'm still monitoring myself to make sure everything is normal - it seems like each time I think everything is almost healed and ready to go, I take two steps backward with a scare like that... -sigh-

(18 days postpartum, September 17th, 2011. Twenty pounds lost total.)

But all in all, I'm sad the three weeks of paternity is over day after tomorrow. My baby is three weeks tomorrow (look for his new weekly picture in the Levon's Journey section). My body is getting back to it's normal self. Life is good... and getting better! I love my husband, my baby, and my animals. I am so truly blessed to live the life I do.