Prolonged postpartum period
We don't have that many friends in Portland. And the ones that we have aren't really the sort who are inclined barge in and take care of us without being asked. Not that they aren't lovely people, but they're just not that sort of people, and we're not the sort of people who ask. So we've had no meals brought to us, no errands run for us, etc., in the immediate postpartum period. (We did have one extremely opportune bag of groceries brought to us the day after Skipper almost died, when we were so tired we could barely stand, let alone operate a stove.)
That was fine, since we've had a pretty easy time of it (other than those pesky three days in the hospital) - I bounced back pretty quickly after delivery, thanks to the perineum-supporting midwives and my apparent natural aptitude for baby-ejecting, and everything seems much easier with a newborn the second time around. Anyway, I'm not really the sort of person to embrace the notion of a two-week lie-in of doing nothing but nursing and snuggling - I like the IDEA of it, but in practice it makes me twitchy. We would have loved some pampering, but it was okay that it didn't happen, and it's clearly due to our personalities that it didn't happen.
But this weekend, as we celebrated Skipper's 3-week anniversary, we had two visitors come to bring us treats, including one full (and extremely delicious) homemade meal. This was lovely, and much appreciated, but Cook and I can't help but feel a little weird about it, like we don't really deserve it. We're fully functional now, because Skipper has decent sleep habits for a newborn. Really, things are probably easier now than they will be in a month or so, when she's fully arrived and maximally cranky (if she follows Dutch's model of babyhood). I'm doing school stuff and spending my days alone with Skipper, Cook is working more than fulltime, we cook dinner every night (except last night! Yum!), we run errands, we even occasionally clean the bathroom, and we've been doing this for two weeks. So we're in the weird position of accepting wonderful generous gifts that we don't really NEED, which makes us miserly types feel uncomfortable. We're trying to move past it, because generosity is wonderful no matter when it comes.
In other news, Skipper's infant acne has taken over her entire head, and she looks uncannily like a mangy baby capuchin. When people say "she's so cute!" I become worried about their eyesight.
That was fine, since we've had a pretty easy time of it (other than those pesky three days in the hospital) - I bounced back pretty quickly after delivery, thanks to the perineum-supporting midwives and my apparent natural aptitude for baby-ejecting, and everything seems much easier with a newborn the second time around. Anyway, I'm not really the sort of person to embrace the notion of a two-week lie-in of doing nothing but nursing and snuggling - I like the IDEA of it, but in practice it makes me twitchy. We would have loved some pampering, but it was okay that it didn't happen, and it's clearly due to our personalities that it didn't happen.
But this weekend, as we celebrated Skipper's 3-week anniversary, we had two visitors come to bring us treats, including one full (and extremely delicious) homemade meal. This was lovely, and much appreciated, but Cook and I can't help but feel a little weird about it, like we don't really deserve it. We're fully functional now, because Skipper has decent sleep habits for a newborn. Really, things are probably easier now than they will be in a month or so, when she's fully arrived and maximally cranky (if she follows Dutch's model of babyhood). I'm doing school stuff and spending my days alone with Skipper, Cook is working more than fulltime, we cook dinner every night (except last night! Yum!), we run errands, we even occasionally clean the bathroom, and we've been doing this for two weeks. So we're in the weird position of accepting wonderful generous gifts that we don't really NEED, which makes us miserly types feel uncomfortable. We're trying to move past it, because generosity is wonderful no matter when it comes.
In other news, Skipper's infant acne has taken over her entire head, and she looks uncannily like a mangy baby capuchin. When people say "she's so cute!" I become worried about their eyesight.
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