It's been awhile...
And frankly, I don't even know where to begin with this!
It's been an insane two weeks. I'm seriously sleep-deprived and am impressed with how well I'm functioning on such little sleep.
Breastfeeding makes me feel like a cow. I feel like that's all I do, day in and day out, and I suppose it is really all I do since I'm doing it 8-12 times a day. At for an hour each time. That gives me very little time for anything else. A shower is a big break.
Lincoln isn't gaining weight. We aren't exactly sure what is going on. He's hanging on strong to his 7 pounds. We've been going in for regular weight checks and he gained 10 grams in a 44 hours. We go again tomorrow (Wednesday) for another weight check and we'll discuss possibly supplementing. I really don't want to do this, but if it is what makes him a healthy baby then that's what we'll have to do. He's eating "enough" as he has enough wet diapers throughout the day. He's just not getting enough calories from my milk. As my friend put it, I'm producing low-fat milk! ha ha. First time anything has been low fat on me!
Other than the weight issue, he's a good baby. It's so different this time than it was with Gunnar. I'm more relaxed, more mature. Things are better at home as far as Chris helping out and being understanding and patient. He's even let me go off of the deep end without engaging me in some foolish arguement. This is the first time he's been on a significant leave that I wish was longer instead of shorter. Really, it's nice having him at home.
My mom left on Saturday and that was really hard. I had gotten used to her being around over the past 3 weeks. She was a tremendous help with everything--the baby, Gunnar, cooking, housework etc. Plus it was good to have her company. I hated letting her go back, but she has a life and a job to get back to so I couldn't keep her forever.
Speaking of my mom, I was a little sad when I saw the state that she was in. She just isn't herself anymore. I know this past year has been really hard on her losing her mom and her grandma and having to deal with all of that. You can tell it has aged her and taken a little bit of her spark away. It just made me sad to see her like that. There has always been a certain level of spunk I expect from my mom and when that level fell short, it made me feel like I've lost a little piece of her. I guess that's part of how life's experiences change us. She is still a great and wonderful lady and I wouldn't trade her for the world, I'd just like a little bit of the old her back.
We did manage to squeeze in some fun times and a little shopping. Even if it was at the PX and the Chosun (this specialty store on post) we did have a good time and I scored a couple of shirts and a skirt out of the deal.
I don't know how it's happened but I've managed to drop below my pre-pregnancy weight in less than two weeks after his birth. I'm not complaining, I just hope it keeps up and I can lose that final 10 pounds I wanted to lose before I was pregnant. I can't start running or doing any formal exercising until the 9th of May and that's tough. I'm anxious to start running again. There is a 3K on 12 May that I'm going to attempt. I'm sure I'll be walking more of it than running but that's ok. It will get me back into the swing of things.
Paperwork pending, we will be leaving Korea for our 6 week visit to the US on 27 May. We are waiting on Lincoln's passport now and once we receive it we'll have to get his Visa to make him legal in this country. We're really pushing the envelope as far as days are concerned to get all of this done but that's what we had to do. The Embassy called last week to say they wanted a better picture for Lincoln's passport so we had to have them retaken and resubmit those this week. That adds an extra week to the entire process so it will be interesting to see how it all works out.
So that's about all that is going on around here. Just wanted to do a quick update. As I get into a better feeding schedule and figure out life with two kids, I hope to get better about updating! :-)