Romantic Dinner Chez Nous, Tuesday

My aunt Carolyn came to town to help us with our new bundle of joy and to teach us some things about babies since we know very little. It's been 26 years since Bianca was a baby and that's the baby I was most involved with. I've done some babysitting and read some books, but nothing beats experience. It's really helped us feel safe knowing there is experienced backup around and that we're not totally winging it.

Additionally, she's been feeding us! Woohoo. It's been 12 weeks of Mark cooking and take-out, so a home-cooked meal is really welcome. I'm fairly mobile despite having giving birth last weekend, but the nursing of the baby really takes it out of me and takes up literally HALF of the day, closer to 12 hours than not. Feeding time is measured from start to start, not finish to start, so if I'm supposed to feed him every 2 hours (can be stretched to 3 sometimes) and it takes him 40 minutes to eat, I can have to feed him as frequently as every hour and 20 minutes! Doesn't leave much time for much else. And he's still at the stage where I can't always put him down and walk away. He's getting there. He's stopped the gagging/choking thing that kept me awake at nights the first couple of days. So now, I can at least walk away SOME time. And with Carolyn here, I can leave him with her and go bathe or whatever. Mark's trying to get back into the swing of things with work and went back to work today since we have help and I'm not left in the house alone.

Here' s a picture of the beautiful flowers she cut from the yard and dinner she cooked for me and Mark, replete with burning candles on the fireplace and music playing in the background. Very sweet, indeed.

I actually feel physically stronger than before the baby was born since I can move around, but I'm still not allowed to drive and I take some strong medicine for the stitches. So I can't wait until I can REALLY go out and do my thing. Also, I'd like for the baby to be older so I can take him out. People are too touchy and he's too new. At the pediatrician's office, this guy put the baby's pacifier back into his mouth without asking and he'd just gotten over some illness! I didn't know any of that, but I had a handy bottle of Purell and cleaned the freakin handle off surreptitiously. Don't touch my baby yet - he hasn't even made it to his prescribed birthday yet! I'm not a clean freak, or a germ freak but come on. So I can't really go anywhere with him just yet.