When I set up my school year back in early summer, I arranged it so I could take 3 weeks off around the baby's birth. We didn't get much done the week leading up to Leo's early-Friday-morning birth, so I haven't decided whether to count that as a week off or not. Last week was off, totally. This week will be off, totally. I guess I'll decide in a few days whether to grind back up to speed a week from now or to put it off one more week. Mark has been hinting ominously about a possible business trip — he calls it a "standing invitation" — next week…
But even though I'm not starting school back this week, some things are back to normal. Today was the first morning I set an alarm, showered right away, made my own breakfast, woke the children. MJ and Leo and I went to the preschool music class. Thursday, we expect, we will have our first six-person Family Gym Night: I will walk around the track with the baby. Then this weekend we will be back to some socializing: Leo's baptism is Sunday, and my house will be filled to capacity with food-bringing godparents and grandparents and the tribe.
Mark is still getting dinner on the table and managing children in the afternoon while I nap. Today a couple of girls are coming over to play with the middle kids so that both of us can nap, unless Mark decides to spend it doing taxes or something like that. I still need a lot of rest.
I was thinking about making some lists for next year's school, though, when I go upstairs to lie down this afternoon. Because I hate March, I have always taken an extra week off (besides for Easter) then — but mostly used that week for school planning, as it's not that I need a vacation as much as I need to work on something different for a few days. Hmm, what'll we do for science, for music, for history? I'll have a fifth grader and a first grader and a 4yo…
I'm also thinking in earnest about getting back into shape, even though it's a little too early for me to do very much. It'll be just walking for a few weeks. I have no idea when I can start trying to run. I figure I can probably get in the pool at 6 weeks (Saturday, March 13! Calendar marked already!). Although my first peek at the scale a few days after Leo's birth upset me, I've watched the scale continue to drop slowly and steadily. I've now lost 18 pounds of the 45 I gained.
Mark advised me to make a plan, some plan, and practice sticking to it. "I know you," he said, "you'll feel better if you're doing something than if you're doing nothing." So I am building two habits. I am weighing myself daily again, and I am keeping a qualitative (no measurements or numbers allowed) food diary.
(You can see it here, in bloggy form, not that it's terribly interesting. Bonus points to anyone who figures out why I picked that userid for my identity in the weight-loss-o-sphere.)
Mark is right, by the way. I do feel better. I am a successful food diarist, if nothing else. Small successes add up.
Well. We are extra tired today because of a trip to introduce Leo to his pediatrician, in which I learned how the rules have changed since my last baby was born. Fever of 99.8 in a baby under 3 months –> ER visit to rule out GBS infection, check. 400 IU per day of of Vitamin D, unless I supplement myself much more expensively, check. Pertussis vaccine recommended now for parents of newborns, because around here Mom is the most likely vector for infecting newborns with pertussis, interesting, check. We were reminded to sing to the baby, got complemented on the cloth diapers, sidestepped vaccine-related interrogation by politely asking for a copy of the recommended-these-days schedule to peruse at home, scheduled a hearing test for next month, and presented Leo's right heel to be stuck for the newborn screen (poor guy).
Fortunately, our babysitting-tweens-in-training just arrived to play with our big kids for 3 hours. Nap time!
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