How Things Have Been

I can't believe it's been almost a month since our new little star, our second daughter, was born. The Little Star is a completely different baby than Miss M was. Miss M never slept. NEVER. I used to want to slap the people who said "you need to sleep when the baby sleeps." I was up a million times a night, and never got to nap during the day, because the child simply DID NOT SLEEP. It was rough.

The Little Star, on the other hand, is a good little sleeper. I chalk it up to the fact she was almost two pounds bigger than Miss M at birth. She is already sleeping in 3-4 hour chunks at night! It's heaven. She's a great eater, too, and up over nine pounds already. She is a mellow, lovely baby. It's almost shocking how different things are.

It's different this time, too, in terms of social interaction. When we had Miss M, we were living in the cold, frosty north, and the weather was bad, so it was tough to leave the house. Basically the only place I could go was the mall. T was finishing a big project and commuting an hour each way, so I hated to wake him to help me. My friends were all working and had older kids, so I had no one to hang out with during the day. I was pretty much alone. This time, I have T home with me, as well as my stepsister. The weather is great, so we can get out and about a lot. We have lots of friends with little kids, so we hang out with them during the day. There are tons of parks where we can let Miss M run around and socialize with other parents of little kids (while breastfeeding). It's been a completely different and wonderful experience.

Of course, it's not all perfect. I was MUCH more beat up this time around. I had a great birth (birth story to come), and an easier one than with Miss M, in many respects. However, the fact that Little Star is a bigger baby definitely came into play in terms of my physical recovery. Things are waaaay more stretched out. I basically gained the same amount of weight with both of them. However, the weight this time was mostly gained in my belly, and it hasn't bounced back as quickly. For about three weeks, I basically felt like I had no core muscles. I couldn't use my stomach muscles, because they basically didn't exist. I still am carrying some weight in my belly, and I have some pretty ugly stretch marks. I confess that it's been a bit discouraging. I snapped back so quickly after Miss M's birth that I just thought that it would happen again. It didn't occur to me that I might be facing more of an uphill battle. Especially the stretch marks! I had none with Miss M. Sigh. On balance, it's totally worth the physical pain to have a bigger, healthy baby who is a good eater and a good sleeper. But it would be nice if I could have had the big baby without paying the price!

Miss M has been an amazing big sister. She loves the baby, kisses her (and tried to feed her Goldfish crackers once. . .oops! But at least she was sharing), and tells people about her. So, all is pretty good here.