Hello everyone! This is Mark writing. Those of you who I talk to frequently know I don't speak very often about what's going on with the symphony - what repertoire we're playing, who's conducting, etc, etc. And especially how I'm feeling about whatever we're playing. In fact, I don't really talk about feelings much at all! Katherine asks almost every day how the rehearsal or concert went, and I usually respond with a short, informative statement devoid of emotion. And in all honesty, since we entered parenthood it has been difficult to be fully invested emotionally at work when there's so much going on at home. Even though mine is a unique and wonderful job, I imagine this is pretty common for new parents. (I know we've been parents for almost three years now, but I still feel like a new parent.)
So it hits me like a ton of bricks when, playing a concert, I find myself responding to the music in a very emotional and passionate way. It usually occurs once or twice each season, and wow is it special when that happens. Music can touch us in such a way that it really is difficult finding words to express what's happening inside. There's a certain part of human emotion that can perhaps be described with words, but positively resonates with certain music. That happened for me today in our performance of Rachmaninoff's 3rd Piano Concerto.
If you're unfamiliar with classical music, a concerto is a work featuring a solo instrumentalist accompanied by the orchestra. The piano concertos of Rachmaninoff are very, VERY special pieces. I fell in love with his second concerto way back in high school and his 3rd is equally wonderful. If you saw the movie Shine, then you may remember how this 3rd Piano Concerto was a central part of that movie. It's incredibly gorgeous music - lush, powerful, sweeping melodies; tender, delicate moments; rich harmonies. Today's performance was one for the ages. The orchestra sounded fantastic. The soloist, Garrick Ohlsson, is hands-down one of the best pianists for this piece. He has the technical precision to handle this concerto - one of the most challenging in the repertoire - with ease. He's a huge man, with large hands and amazing power. Yet he brings a certain grace to the quiet, introspective sections that balances out the powerful, passionate passages. It was simply a wonderful performance, a wonderful experience to be part of. It's days like today that I'm a bit overwhelmed with gratitude that this is my career. What a blessing when vocation and passion coincide!
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Projects
I am now into my seventh week as a SAHM. Still enjoying it immensely. This time around I am taking 6 months off from work! I've added a ticker above as my "back to work countdown." Not because I'm eager to return to work (just the opposite, at this point), but to help me remember to cherish this time --- as it is limited, in more ways than one.
Katie has been a bit restless this morning --- lately she's been super easy in the mornings - having a nice awake period just after Ben goes to school, where we can play and interact. And then spends the rest of the morning dozing with a few breaks to nurse and get her diapers changed. But for now, she seems pretty happy and settled into her bouncy seat for a little nap --- so I (hopefully) have a bit of time to myself.
When I'm feeling nice, I use these morning naps to do the dishes and laundry, clean-up and plan some meals and make grocery lists. When I'm feeling selfish (as in right now), I catch up on email, post to this blog, or do "frivolous" things such as join facebook. :) Having these little bursts of time is amazing - even when she is restless and needs help - as it is such a contrast to the end of my pregnancy, where I was working full-time, and just feeling generally huge and exhausted all the time. Having a clean kitchen is a victory now - and Mark also seems to be enjoying my ability and energy to help out around the house a bit more.
I'm also enjoying learning how to be domestic. Since we've been married, Mark has been the primary (and sometimes exclusive) chef in our house. And especially in the recent past, I have done little more than make the token meal from time to time (however, Ben and I have become experts at making muffins together). Part of this was convenience - Mark's schedule allows him to prepare dinner in the late afternoon - and the other part was that Mark actually became quite good and skilled at it - and it became a sort of hobby for him. We have Alton Brown's full DVD collection, he subscribes to Cook's Illustrated magazine, and has taken a few cooking classes at Central Market (Houston's rather swanky grocery store).
However, cooking with small children is not quite as glamorous, and cooking every day can get tiring, so Mark has welcomed my suggestion that perhaps I try to chip in to meal preparations during my leave from work. This is all very novel to me, so I'm enjoying finding simple recipes (please share any of your favorite easy recipes or cookbooks!), and am rather pleased when some of them actually turn out tasting good! In this process, though, we've learned that Mark is the pickier eater of the two of us - which he is certainly allowed when he's the one cooking. :) He's been very gracious about eating my meals as well, only adding comments when I suggest making the same meal again.
All that being said, I read in a parenting magazine once that taking care of small children is about "as pleasurable as housework." And I think there is real truth to that. There are those adorable, perfect moments where you think this is why I wanted to have a family. But changing the fourth diaper in an hour, doing an average of 10 loads of laundry a week, and needing to run the dishwasher every single day is really not all that fun. Right now, I actually don't mind it, because I am so pleased that I can keep up with the housework during those few baby/toddler-free moments --- whereas I just could not when I was pregnant and working full time. But it's always still with the knowledge that I'll need to repeat it all the next day (or let it pile up, if I chose to do something else, such as blog) :)
So what keeps me sane? Projects. I love Projects. Just about any project will do. It just needs to be something (a) useful (I'm not so into crafts, etc. unless I can fill a need such as give it someone as a gift, or spend time entertaining Benjamin with it) and (b) can't be undone the next day (hence the less-than-total satisfaction with dishes, laundry, etc).
Since I learned the helpfulness of having projects to do during my shorter (3 month) maternity leave with Benjamin, I looked forward to beginning a few during this leave with Katie. Granted, days and sometimes a couple of weeks can go by without a whole lot of progress --- but even a few minutes chipping away at getting something done really boosts my spirits, and gives me something to think about and look forward to as I pace the floor with a cranky, sleepy (and sometimes screaming) child.
And we have many, many potential projects in our house. Probably should have started with the baby room, as our daughter still does not have a room or a crib (she's in a bassinet in our room). But we didn't. We started with our living room. Which makes sense, as we spend a lot of time in this room together during the day --- particularly because it also serves as our desk/computer room.
And this room has forever been a work-in-progress. And we are almost done with it! Close enough that I'm posting pictures!
So what are you looking at? It might help to see the way-before picture --- this is actually a picture from just after we closed on our house - back in 2005.
I couldn't find pictures of it, but our living room was furnished with mis-matched items from the various stages of our lives. And a lot of it. Since we were able to claim a good portion of that from the flooding, we have been slowly picking out new furniture to replace it. And we were able to finally finish this room over the past few weeks --- including Mark installing and programming an HTPC (home theater PC computer!) Now we just have two components to operate our TV, Blueray DVD player and stereo! And it's connected to the Internet, so we could stream TV shows and movies right to our TV. And we only have ONE remote control for all of this (unheard of, I know).
So in these past few weeks, Mark hung our TV on the wall, did a BUNCH of wiring (so that the wires connecting everything wouldn't show), we bought a new bookshelf from Ikea to house the two components and still leave plenty of room for Ben's toys (no more wire crates!), and we bought a carpet for our floor. Whew! So fun to have it all just about done!
And here's our little girl, sleeping peacefully and allowing me to write this blog!
So what is our next project? Since we only have a three-bedroom house, we have lost our guest room to make it Katie's room (actually, right now, it's our junk room --- sorry, Katie). So we're modifying Mark's studio to allow it to be a guest room when we have visitors. But first, we have to do a lot of organizing in there to make more room. That's our project for this week and next. After that, Mark's big project is to build a Murphy bed.
Okay - this little girl's awake. Probably should go be a mom now instead of just writing about being one. Bye!
Katie has been a bit restless this morning --- lately she's been super easy in the mornings - having a nice awake period just after Ben goes to school, where we can play and interact. And then spends the rest of the morning dozing with a few breaks to nurse and get her diapers changed. But for now, she seems pretty happy and settled into her bouncy seat for a little nap --- so I (hopefully) have a bit of time to myself.
When I'm feeling nice, I use these morning naps to do the dishes and laundry, clean-up and plan some meals and make grocery lists. When I'm feeling selfish (as in right now), I catch up on email, post to this blog, or do "frivolous" things such as join facebook. :) Having these little bursts of time is amazing - even when she is restless and needs help - as it is such a contrast to the end of my pregnancy, where I was working full-time, and just feeling generally huge and exhausted all the time. Having a clean kitchen is a victory now - and Mark also seems to be enjoying my ability and energy to help out around the house a bit more.
I'm also enjoying learning how to be domestic. Since we've been married, Mark has been the primary (and sometimes exclusive) chef in our house. And especially in the recent past, I have done little more than make the token meal from time to time (however, Ben and I have become experts at making muffins together). Part of this was convenience - Mark's schedule allows him to prepare dinner in the late afternoon - and the other part was that Mark actually became quite good and skilled at it - and it became a sort of hobby for him. We have Alton Brown's full DVD collection, he subscribes to Cook's Illustrated magazine, and has taken a few cooking classes at Central Market (Houston's rather swanky grocery store).
However, cooking with small children is not quite as glamorous, and cooking every day can get tiring, so Mark has welcomed my suggestion that perhaps I try to chip in to meal preparations during my leave from work. This is all very novel to me, so I'm enjoying finding simple recipes (please share any of your favorite easy recipes or cookbooks!), and am rather pleased when some of them actually turn out tasting good! In this process, though, we've learned that Mark is the pickier eater of the two of us - which he is certainly allowed when he's the one cooking. :) He's been very gracious about eating my meals as well, only adding comments when I suggest making the same meal again.
All that being said, I read in a parenting magazine once that taking care of small children is about "as pleasurable as housework." And I think there is real truth to that. There are those adorable, perfect moments where you think this is why I wanted to have a family. But changing the fourth diaper in an hour, doing an average of 10 loads of laundry a week, and needing to run the dishwasher every single day is really not all that fun. Right now, I actually don't mind it, because I am so pleased that I can keep up with the housework during those few baby/toddler-free moments --- whereas I just could not when I was pregnant and working full time. But it's always still with the knowledge that I'll need to repeat it all the next day (or let it pile up, if I chose to do something else, such as blog) :)
So what keeps me sane? Projects. I love Projects. Just about any project will do. It just needs to be something (a) useful (I'm not so into crafts, etc. unless I can fill a need such as give it someone as a gift, or spend time entertaining Benjamin with it) and (b) can't be undone the next day (hence the less-than-total satisfaction with dishes, laundry, etc).
Since I learned the helpfulness of having projects to do during my shorter (3 month) maternity leave with Benjamin, I looked forward to beginning a few during this leave with Katie. Granted, days and sometimes a couple of weeks can go by without a whole lot of progress --- but even a few minutes chipping away at getting something done really boosts my spirits, and gives me something to think about and look forward to as I pace the floor with a cranky, sleepy (and sometimes screaming) child.
And we have many, many potential projects in our house. Probably should have started with the baby room, as our daughter still does not have a room or a crib (she's in a bassinet in our room). But we didn't. We started with our living room. Which makes sense, as we spend a lot of time in this room together during the day --- particularly because it also serves as our desk/computer room.
And this room has forever been a work-in-progress. And we are almost done with it! Close enough that I'm posting pictures!
So what are you looking at? It might help to see the way-before picture --- this is actually a picture from just after we closed on our house - back in 2005.
I couldn't find pictures of it, but our living room was furnished with mis-matched items from the various stages of our lives. And a lot of it. Since we were able to claim a good portion of that from the flooding, we have been slowly picking out new furniture to replace it. And we were able to finally finish this room over the past few weeks --- including Mark installing and programming an HTPC (home theater PC computer!) Now we just have two components to operate our TV, Blueray DVD player and stereo! And it's connected to the Internet, so we could stream TV shows and movies right to our TV. And we only have ONE remote control for all of this (unheard of, I know).
So in these past few weeks, Mark hung our TV on the wall, did a BUNCH of wiring (so that the wires connecting everything wouldn't show), we bought a new bookshelf from Ikea to house the two components and still leave plenty of room for Ben's toys (no more wire crates!), and we bought a carpet for our floor. Whew! So fun to have it all just about done!
And here's our little girl, sleeping peacefully and allowing me to write this blog!
So what is our next project? Since we only have a three-bedroom house, we have lost our guest room to make it Katie's room (actually, right now, it's our junk room --- sorry, Katie). So we're modifying Mark's studio to allow it to be a guest room when we have visitors. But first, we have to do a lot of organizing in there to make more room. That's our project for this week and next. After that, Mark's big project is to build a Murphy bed.
Okay - this little girl's awake. Probably should go be a mom now instead of just writing about being one. Bye!
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Katie's Photo Shoot
Our friend (and fantastic photographer!) Staci did a newborn photo shoot with us when Katie was about 3 weeks old. Check out her pictures on this link:
http://gallery.me.com/stgwinn#100211
We are planning a full family photo shoot soon, as well --- just as soon as Katie gets over her infant acne. :)
http://gallery.me.com/stgwinn#100211
We are planning a full family photo shoot soon, as well --- just as soon as Katie gets over her infant acne. :)
Growing Up
Our little man is transitioning to the Early Childhood Community at school! He is currently in the Toddler II (older Toddler class), but now will be joining the 3-5 year olds in the EC class. I guess that will officially make him a pre-schooler now! (although he's already been in school for almost two years!). I'm thrilled for many reasons: One of which is that he's been "acting up" a bit in his class, and his teachers thought the reason may be that he's bored and ready for new challenges. I love that about his school - how knowledgeable the teachers are, as I would have guessed we needed to work on his behavior instead of his environment.
The EC class also does neat things like go to chapel one day a week, has a teacher come in to teach a music/math class, and the summer program is a weekly "theme based" one with lots of special visitors who come to share things with the children.
Our little boy is growing up!
The EC class also does neat things like go to chapel one day a week, has a teacher come in to teach a music/math class, and the summer program is a weekly "theme based" one with lots of special visitors who come to share things with the children.
Our little boy is growing up!
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Post Partum
***Note: I started this post yesterday - on Katie's 6-week birthday --- but of course was distracted and didn't finish it. So, I am trying again today (6 weeks + 1 day post partum), and I hope to finish this post this morning, as Ben is at school and Katie is asleep in her bouncy seat...
Today marks Katie's 6-week birthday! To me, the six week point is also significant, as it marks the end of the post-partum period. True, having a baby and then a child is a constant adjustment, but since a woman (who has a vaginal delivery) has her last scheduled OB appointment and is typically declared "fit for work" six-weeks after having a baby, for both my babies it has marked the point where I feel like I should be settling into a "new" normal.
And so it seemed appropriate to mark the occasion with a Blog post. I believe I posted several times about Benjamin during his first six weeks of life, but alas, Katie, as a second child you will have to get used to the slightly (or, okay, greatly) less attention that you will likely receive at each point in your life than your big brother did. However, he'll go to college three years before you, so you'll have us all to yourself as a teenager. Hopefully you aren't having sex and doing drugs at that point, and we can enjoy each other's company. :)
I actually did write a post a few days after I posted Katie's birth story --- I detailed the rest of our hospital stay and our arrival home, and was then going to post further about my opinions on labor and childbirth, but it somehow was COMPLETELY LOST by Blogger. I was so angry that I couldn't get the heart to try to re-write it all again. And so I'm going to just briefly summarize my thoughts below, in much less detail.
We chose a different doctor and hospital for Katie than we had for Benjamin. At the end of the day, we were really happy with our choice in the doctor, but not so thrilled with the hospital experience. Some of our dis-satisfaction was the hospital itself...and some of it, I think, was likely just a different perspective going into it a second time.
We actually had a great experience in labor and delivery, had fantastic nurses, and besides the room being teeny, tiny thought the facilities were good too.
The recovery experience, however, was a bit of a drag. We again were put in the smallest room that they had, the furniture seemed old and dirty (likely wasn't actually dirty, just worn), the shower head was broken, so we had to jerry rig it to get it high enough to take a shower. The nurses weren't as friendly or helpful... One had such a great bedside manner --- within the first five minutes of my arrival, she proceeded to tell me about a woman who went to a hospital in the Houston suburbs to have a baby, got a penicillin-resistant staph infection, and ended up having to have both arms and legs amputated.... I then spent the rest of my hospital stay worrying about what diseases were floating around this hospital, and wondering whether all the folks coming in my room had thoroughly washed their hands...
The recovery nurses were also not very warm or friendly - as we had experienced at the hospital after Benjamin's birth. I am not sure if we were just unlucky in our assignment of nurses, if they are more overworked at this hospital, or if they figured we knew what we were doing since this was our second child.
Anyway, all this was to say that we were REALLY looking forward to coming home. I wanted to be somewhere that felt cleaner and safer, where I could nurse Katie more comfortably. I wasn't as scared by the idea of taking home a newborn this time, and I was just ready to start our lives at home. This was SO different than my experience with Benjamin, where I had asked the doctor if I could stay one more day (I couldn't), and we didn't leave until 10 PM the night we were discharged.
By mid-morning on our second day at the hospital we were ready to go home. We got Katie dressed in her going home outfit, packed up our stuff, signed all our discharge papers, and then waited for our "transportation" to wheel me and Katie to the car so we could go home. Only I guess lots of people were ready to go home from the hospital at that time, as we had to wait for over an hour for transportation. It was very anti-climactic and we left the hospital with a sour taste in our mouths. I'm not sure what we would do should we have decide to have another baby, as we LOVED our doctor, but were pretty displeased with the hospital (besides all this somewhat "trivial" stuff mentioned above, I also got a bad epidural, so am not eager to return for that reason as well)...
I guess the contrast to our displeasure with the hospital was that it was SO nice to be home! Ben was still in school when we got home (about 1 PM), but my dad was waiting for us. We sat down in our living room and chatted and just enjoyed the relative quiet and looked forward to Benjamin returning home from school so we could all be together again.
General thoughts on Labor and Delivery
I was definitely more relaxed this time around about the whole thing --- with Benjamin, I really wanted to have a natural (un-medicated) birth --- but this time, while I wanted to have a natural birth, I was prepared to get an epidural if I had bad back labor again.
As you know from my earlier postings, I was disappointed that I needed to be induced, as I knew this would lessen my chances for an un-medicated birth, and I also, truthfully, felt cheated of the excitement and spontaneity of wondering when I would go into labor. However, I also wanted to have a healthy baby --- and I think many of us take for granted that this will be the outcome no matter how we choose to labor and deliver. I think maternal and infant statistics around the world, though, show that this is not always the case. So in hindsight, I have no regrets about our decisions. I wanted a doctor to be my caretaker instead of a midwife --- because if I did have complications, I wanted a trained medical professional that I chose to be making the decisions, and if necessary, the procedures --- not a doctor I had never met. I realized even at the time of making this decision that it would put me at a higher probability for interventions --- and I was and am still okay with that.
I do feel differently about natural childbirth, though, now that I have experienced labor and delivery twice. I think I went into this pregnancy unconsciously believing that most women have an equal chance to give birth naturally, and their ability to do so is affected by their decisions (doctor vs. midwife, hospital vs. birthing center, etc)., their preparations, and their ability to tolerate pain/ strength. I still believe all these things impact how a woman will labor, but I don't think everyone has an "equal" shot at it anymore. Babies lie differently in the womb. Mine apparently like to lie on my back. In Katie's case, she also liked to lie on her side. Bodies labor differently. Even with Pitocin, my body labors slowly. Each woman's body and baby and labor are very different --- and while it's great fun and very interesting to share birth stories and experiences, there is also a comparative"edge" in doing so --- and I believe that it just simply is not true that birth stories can be compared.
So how will I feel about all this if we decided to have a third child? I know that I'll still have some decisions to make that will impact my labor and delivery experience. Will we stay with our doctor, even if it means going back to the hospital that we didn't like for the birth? I don't know. Will I still hope and plan for a natural childbirth? Yes - it is still something I would like to experience. Will I be disappointed if I request / require an epidural for a third time? Likely, yes. But the truth is --- I probably will need some relief. When we were discussing Katie's birth during our post-partum visit with Patti (our doula), she said that the shape of my pelvis was likely the reason I experienced back labor, since it happened with both of my children. And Katie's tendency to not want to settle head down into my pelvis (she finally did at the very end of my labor) could occur again since there is more "room" with each subsequent pregnancy. And at least knowing this, I don't think I'll be as hard on myself for not muscling through a difficult labor --- and instead I'll focus on being present in that beautiful moment when my child leaves my body and enters the world. *
*(note: this does not indicate in any way that we plan to have more children --- this is all hypothetical!)
Whew! So six weeks and one day after Katie's birth, I think I've finally captured everything I wanted to around the first few days of her life. Now I just need to catch up on the last six weeks!
Just to quickly summarize --- we've gone from a relatively easy baby (particularly in those first few weeks with lots of extra hands around to hold her 24:7) to what I thought might end up being a colicky baby (the screaming started soon after all the help left, and Mark had many busy nights of work!), to again a relatively easy baby (particularly with the help of a MobyWrap in the evening --- I LOVE this sling!).
More to come soon (I hope)!
And in the meantime --- a few more pictures!
And so it seemed appropriate to mark the occasion with a Blog post. I believe I posted several times about Benjamin during his first six weeks of life, but alas, Katie, as a second child you will have to get used to the slightly (or, okay, greatly) less attention that you will likely receive at each point in your life than your big brother did. However, he'll go to college three years before you, so you'll have us all to yourself as a teenager. Hopefully you aren't having sex and doing drugs at that point, and we can enjoy each other's company. :)
I actually did write a post a few days after I posted Katie's birth story --- I detailed the rest of our hospital stay and our arrival home, and was then going to post further about my opinions on labor and childbirth, but it somehow was COMPLETELY LOST by Blogger. I was so angry that I couldn't get the heart to try to re-write it all again. And so I'm going to just briefly summarize my thoughts below, in much less detail.
We chose a different doctor and hospital for Katie than we had for Benjamin. At the end of the day, we were really happy with our choice in the doctor, but not so thrilled with the hospital experience. Some of our dis-satisfaction was the hospital itself...and some of it, I think, was likely just a different perspective going into it a second time.
We actually had a great experience in labor and delivery, had fantastic nurses, and besides the room being teeny, tiny thought the facilities were good too.
The recovery experience, however, was a bit of a drag. We again were put in the smallest room that they had, the furniture seemed old and dirty (likely wasn't actually dirty, just worn), the shower head was broken, so we had to jerry rig it to get it high enough to take a shower. The nurses weren't as friendly or helpful... One had such a great bedside manner --- within the first five minutes of my arrival, she proceeded to tell me about a woman who went to a hospital in the Houston suburbs to have a baby, got a penicillin-resistant staph infection, and ended up having to have both arms and legs amputated.... I then spent the rest of my hospital stay worrying about what diseases were floating around this hospital, and wondering whether all the folks coming in my room had thoroughly washed their hands...
The recovery nurses were also not very warm or friendly - as we had experienced at the hospital after Benjamin's birth. I am not sure if we were just unlucky in our assignment of nurses, if they are more overworked at this hospital, or if they figured we knew what we were doing since this was our second child.
Anyway, all this was to say that we were REALLY looking forward to coming home. I wanted to be somewhere that felt cleaner and safer, where I could nurse Katie more comfortably. I wasn't as scared by the idea of taking home a newborn this time, and I was just ready to start our lives at home. This was SO different than my experience with Benjamin, where I had asked the doctor if I could stay one more day (I couldn't), and we didn't leave until 10 PM the night we were discharged.
By mid-morning on our second day at the hospital we were ready to go home. We got Katie dressed in her going home outfit, packed up our stuff, signed all our discharge papers, and then waited for our "transportation" to wheel me and Katie to the car so we could go home. Only I guess lots of people were ready to go home from the hospital at that time, as we had to wait for over an hour for transportation. It was very anti-climactic and we left the hospital with a sour taste in our mouths. I'm not sure what we would do should we have decide to have another baby, as we LOVED our doctor, but were pretty displeased with the hospital (besides all this somewhat "trivial" stuff mentioned above, I also got a bad epidural, so am not eager to return for that reason as well)...
I guess the contrast to our displeasure with the hospital was that it was SO nice to be home! Ben was still in school when we got home (about 1 PM), but my dad was waiting for us. We sat down in our living room and chatted and just enjoyed the relative quiet and looked forward to Benjamin returning home from school so we could all be together again.
General thoughts on Labor and Delivery
I was definitely more relaxed this time around about the whole thing --- with Benjamin, I really wanted to have a natural (un-medicated) birth --- but this time, while I wanted to have a natural birth, I was prepared to get an epidural if I had bad back labor again.
I do feel differently about natural childbirth, though, now that I have experienced labor and delivery twice. I think I went into this pregnancy unconsciously believing that most women have an equal chance to give birth naturally, and their ability to do so is affected by their decisions (doctor vs. midwife, hospital vs. birthing center, etc)., their preparations, and their ability to tolerate pain/ strength. I still believe all these things impact how a woman will labor, but I don't think everyone has an "equal" shot at it anymore. Babies lie differently in the womb. Mine apparently like to lie on my back. In Katie's case, she also liked to lie on her side. Bodies labor differently. Even with Pitocin, my body labors slowly. Each woman's body and baby and labor are very different --- and while it's great fun and very interesting to share birth stories and experiences, there is also a comparative"edge" in doing so --- and I believe that it just simply is not true that birth stories can be compared.
*(note: this does not indicate in any way that we plan to have more children --- this is all hypothetical!)
Whew! So six weeks and one day after Katie's birth, I think I've finally captured everything I wanted to around the first few days of her life. Now I just need to catch up on the last six weeks!
Just to quickly summarize --- we've gone from a relatively easy baby (particularly in those first few weeks with lots of extra hands around to hold her 24:7) to what I thought might end up being a colicky baby (the screaming started soon after all the help left, and Mark had many busy nights of work!), to again a relatively easy baby (particularly with the help of a MobyWrap in the evening --- I LOVE this sling!).
But overall, we are enjoying parenting our newborn WAY more now than we did in the early days with Benjamin. We are so much more relaxed and confident. I LOVE being at home. I love our relaxed lifestyle. And while I braced myself late in pregnancy and all throughout that first month of her life for the PPP (post partum panic) that I experienced during the first two weeks of Benjamin's life --- we've instead experienced the joy of settling into a new routine with our expanded family. With of course all the challenges of splitting your time/attention between two children and figuring out appropriate disciplining/parenting for an opinionated toddler (do I dare call Ben a preschooler now?).
More to come soon (I hope)!
And in the meantime --- a few more pictures!
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