Over the past week baby girl has been, shall we say, a little plugged up. As in, she went three days without having a poopy. (How embarrassing this would be if she could understand!) This started Poop Watch 2012, with us looking for any signs of bowel movement, frequent texts from work (Has she done it yet?), and copious amounts of praise for even the slightest passing of gas (Good job Ells! Have anything else in there?!). On day two we took her to her pediatrician. He sent us off with some reassurances and a prescription for some suppositories, with instructions to use them only if she went five days without some movement. Five days! Thank goodness day three brought some relief (for all of us :)). I have never been so happy to see something so disgusting. While the whole ordeal was cause for concern, I found it amusing to think that for three days our lives revolved around waiting for our baby to poop. It made me think of how different (wonderfully so) our lives have become.
Bedtime is REALLY early.
If we are not at least getting ready for bed by 9:00, and by "we" I mean me and Erik, Elliot is long asleep by then, it is basically like the middle of the night for us. We had the opportunity to catch a movie a few weekends ago and we both found it ghastly that a movie would start at 7:35! We happily headed to the 4:00 show knowing we would be tucked safely into bed by 9:30 at the latest.
There is no such thing as a last minute, quick trip to Target.
Just the other night we were reminiscing about the days when, if we wanted to go somewhere, we would just get in the car and go. No need to plan the whole day around a trip to the library. No need to wait until someone wakes up from a nap. No second guessing the amount of food or diapers necessary to make it to a second location when running errands. (If I feed her right before we go, will I have enough time to make it to the grocery store AND the post office? No, better not risk it.)
We voluntarily make fools of ourselves on a daily basis.
There is nothing we wouldn't do to get one of those huge, gummy smiles from our little silly. On any given evening you could walk in our house and see me doing a dance while blowing raspberries, prompting Elliot to erupt into giggles or Erik walking around the house with Elliot on his head saying "have you seen Elliot anywhere?" I have even found myself at work just randomly blowing raspberries at, say, the copy machine, because I am so used to doing it at home.
My body is different now (and I don't care).
Here I sit, two pounds away from my pre-baby weight. The only thing is, it doesn't look like my pre-baby body. It is just different. God bless those lucky women who bounce right back to their bikini-wearing bodies. I kissed mine good-bye when the stretch marks settled in for the long haul. I thought I would obsess over it. To my surprise, I don't have time to obsess over it. Working full-time, I have very little time to be with my daughter, and every second I have with her is precious. How could I waste it worrying about how I look? Plus, my body just did an amazing thing. Who am I to judge how it looks after pulling off such a feat?
Waking up at 6:30 on a Saturday is less like a punishment and more like an opportunity.
It doesn't matter if Elliot wakes up or not, without an alarm I am now programmed to wake up at 6:30. If she is awake, great! That means we get some good mommy/daughter time in. If not, then I get an early jump on the day. It is so satisfying to have eaten breakfast, showered, cleaned up the house, fed the baby, and look at the clock and see it is not even 10:00 yet.
My husband is amazing.
Ok, so I knew this before the babes came along. But post-Elliot, I have seen even more facets of his personality and I fall in love with him more every day. It's not just that he has really stepped it up in the helping out around the house department. (Seriously, I am super lucky. Since he gets home before me at night he usually has dinner going by the time I get home. Then, later he lets me have some good, quality time with Elliot and he cleans everything up. That's right, cooks AND cleans!) It's the way being a dad brings out parts of him I did not know existed. He is so careful and loving with her. Today, he was sitting with her on the floor and she was sitting up by herself in her wobbly way. She looked up at me with a huge smile on her face, so proud. But when I glanced at Erik he was looking intently at her, with his hands close to her but not touching, waiting for the slightest sign that she might topple over. Elliot, of course, was oblivious, plowing forward without the slightest regard for her safety. There was something about that scene that just tugged at my heartstrings. I don't know if it was the way he didn't look up because he was too worried about her falling or that he so obviously wanted her to feel the joy she was feeling about being so independent, but it melted me.
Anyway, these are just some thoughts on how our lives have changed over the past 5 months. That's right, it has been five whole months already. It is so much better than I thought it would be. I am one lucky lady. A lucky lady that has spent way too much time away from her family writing this blog post! So on that note, I will bid you adieu. Happy Veteran's Day weekend!
