My non-pregnant body

My boobs are huge. Exxxxcellent. Normally, my husband would be thrilled except he's going nowhere near second base any time soon.

I now have clearly identifiable legs and butt instead of just one big hock. Some cottage cheese effect remains on the thighs, but I'm hoping once I start walking/exercising, that this disappears.

My wrists and ankles are back.

I have a waist again.

My stomach is back to pre-pregnancy shape, except now I have a black line running down from my belly button.

I have bags under my eyes from lack of sleep.

My hair is falling out.

My skin went from absolutely luminous immediately post-birth, to its current dry state. I can't seem to add enough moisturizer to un-dry it.

My upper arms are getting a workout from lifting baby. I'm also getting dextrous, pardon the pun -- I can now do thing with one hand while the other is holding a squirming baby. These activities include fixing his bedding, folding and refolding blankets, putting on my breastfeeding pillow, getting Vitamin D drops ready, answering the phone, putting cat food in cat food dish, etc. etc.

I should get out of my bathrobe and get out more.

I should shower more often.

I miss my pregnant body. I miss my bump.

My boobs are huge.

Laundry List

Here's what we have today:

• 1 towel
• 3 baby undershirts
• 6 bibs
• 9 blankets
• 11 sleepers
• 13 spit-up rags
• 1 change pad
• 1 bathrobe (mom's-- after a spit-up incident in the middle of the night)
• 1 nursing bra (also a casualty of the spit-up incident)
  
• 2 t-shirts (1 dad's, 1 mom's)

Please note that this is TODAY's laundry list, as opposed to YESTERDAY's. Yes, it's true, we seem to be doing laundry everyday now.

Jon suggested we purchase more outfits, spit-up rags and blankets for the boy so we don't have to do laundry as often. But if we did that, where would we put it? (see earlier post about baby infrastructure)

Paparazzi Ban

The worry of the week is baby acne.

Dexter's beautiful face erupted into pimples late last week. The acne clustered around his cute little nose and cute little square ears. This week, it started to look a little worse, drying up a bit but leaving a nasty yellow-y crust.

Dexter can blame his parents for this bit of development. Pimples are a result of hormones that crossed the placenta from mommy. Babies are also prone to it if the parents have a history of eczema (like daddy). So you see, he was doomed to get it.

After consulting with my mommy online support group (thanks Phoebe, Viive, and Shirley!), surfing online and talking with the paediatrician, I was informed that the acne is supposed to clear up on its own and I am not to apply any lotion of any sort. I'm less clear on how long this will take. Maybe two weeks, maybe two months.

So... until the nasty, annoying red dots and crusty bits clear up, we have imposed a photo ban. Okay, maybe just one photo. I need one for the "outtakes file" that I am preparing for the girlfriends he brings home to meet us years from now.

The Ready Room

Well, it's almost ready except for some finishing touches. We need some shelving and some window covering, perhaps an area rug, and Dexter's room will finally be done.

Actually, once I abandoned the idea of a maritime-themed mural on one wall with a to-scale, hand-painted sea-shells-with-their-Latin-names bordering the room at baby eye level, it became a lot easier to finish the room. I would like to attribute the sudden re-calibration of expectations to a sanity check on my part, but no, nothing like that. This can only be attributed to Dexter's early arrival which meant that Jon took over the project and managed it to more realistic levels, therefore ensuring its completion before Dexter's departure for university.

The finishing touch to the room is a series of Winnie the Pooh stickers purchased from the sandylion warehouse outlet (note to Karen and Judy: let me know if you need any scrapbooking supplies!) in Markham. I realize this contradicts my steadfast opposition to the Disney Industrial Complex, but you gotta love Pooh! So I can live with myself, I vowed to balance Dexter's world view by sharpening his critical thinking and media analysis skills at an early age, as well as introducing lots of guilt and shame for unscrupulous consumption of material goods. This social experiment is going to be fun!

He Could Have Been an Aries

Dexter's birth date was supposed to be either today or tomorrow so I thought I'd mark the occasion with this post. Instead of just being born, Dexter is now six and a half weeks old!

Our boy is doing well and growing slowly, steadily. Or I think he is, but I'm not really sure since I see him everyday. I do have clues here and there that he is growing. For example, he is starting to fill out, and, in some cases, outgrow, his preemie outfits. I put on his sleeper today and it was a snug fit even without an undershirt. We have a trip to the paediatrician scheduled for Friday and that should give us some good empirical evidence of actual growth.

Happy birth date, Dexter.

Bedside Reading

One indicator of our life in transition is the collection of reading materials on our nightstands.

Here in no particular order are what's on Jon's nightstand these days:

The Baby Whisperer Solves All Your Problems by Tracy Hogg & Melinda Blair
What to Expect the First Year by Eisenberg, Merkoff & Hathaway
Everything For Baby Toys 'R" Us catalogue
Homepage Usability by Jakob Neilsen & Marie Tahir
Build a Better Life by Stealing Office Supplies by Scott Adams
The Feynman Lectures on Physics Volume III
The Complete Book of Pregnancy & Childbirth by Sheila Kitzinger
The Blessings of a Skinned Knee by Wendy Mogel
Rocket Ship Galileo by Robert A. Heinlein
Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown
Marvels by Alex Ross and Kurt Busiek

What's on my night stand? Funny you should ask. For one thing, I have no nightstand! That piece of furniture has been moved to make room for a bassinet with a baby. However, in one corner of the bedroom beside my impromptu nursing station are these books that I glance at every once in a while:

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Bestfeeding by Renfrew, Fisher & Arens
Knitting Technique Volume 1
450 Knitting Stitches Volume 2

-- yet another example of how our lives are changing as our pre- and post-baby worlds collide.

Resisting a rest

After Imo and Noel's visit, we noticed that Dexter was especially fussy and difficult to settle for his naps. This prompted Jon to ask why the boy is resisting a rest. (This remark is actually quite funny given that Noel is a retired police officer. We figured Dexter was intimidated by his presence.)

For the last few days, we've been having issues with Dexter's naps. He has issues with being swaddled and he'd squirm and work himself into a state. We're hoping this is also another phase that he will soon outgrow. Maybe the extra feedings and new schedule is throwing him off a bit. Or maybe it's the gas. Poor thing.

The good news is, despite his fussiness, I managed to keep him alive all day yesterday, my first day alone with him! We were going to add a new feature on the blog, a counter that says Number of Days Without Dropping Baby (kinda like the Health and Safety thing), but we figured it might freak out a few people and perhaps prompt calls to social services.

My other boys

Fergus and Cinnamon are starting to get used to the idea of this new needy creature in our house, but they are still not very happy about it.

Unfortunately, the new arrival coincided with a few new house rules. The first rule: some interior doors are now closed. This is not very popular with our free-range cats. The cats have responded to this with vocal protests and scratches at the door.

Another rule: certain things are now off limits including the bassinet and crib. Cinnie has been kicked off the crib a few times and Fergus has been caught once or twice in the bassinet. We keep a spray bottle handy just in case a "correction" is needed.

Next rule: baby's needs come first. Gone are the days when their humans leapt into action when Fergus and Cinnamon needed things. Nowadays, the cats are learning that if the humans are in the room with the crying one, their requests for food and the opening of patio doors need to be repeated over and over again. For the first time, they are hearing: "Later, boys, after we feed this one."