Kansas-bound

We're busy gearing up for Evelyn's first plane travel--well, okay, her first travel of any kind--this weekend. It'll be a whirlwind weekend packed with a wedding, two showers, and various immediate and extended family visits. I'm trying to figure out if we really need both a stroller and a baby carrier while Craig is trying to figure out how to arrange drop off and pick up at LAX when we need a baby carseat. Neither of these hurdles should be too difficult to work out. We'll see how it goes. In the meantime, we're getting Evelyn excited to visit the Little Apple with the KSU apparel some old coworkers of mine sent our way. Go CATS!

Our BIG Bundle of Joy

Well, it's been 9 weeks and our new life is finally starting to feel like a real life again and not just some some strange aberration. I zip out 2-3 freelance articles a day while scarfing down salads at lunch and banana bread at breakfast. I make sure Evelyn gets a little tummy time (despite her wails of protest) during play time and I try to get her to bat at various toys. Mostly I'm just happy if she waves her arms and grins. When she loses interest, I read to her, and what I read to her depends entirely on the day. Since today is grocery day, for instance, I just finished reading her the Mirin Glazed Salmon recipe from Nigella Lawson. Yesterday, because I was tired of the "Icky Sticky Frog" and the "Icky Sticky Anteater" (yes, they both have basically the same title and are about various sticky-tongued creatures' eating habits), I read Evelyn a chapter or two from East of Eden. She shows equal amounts of interest in all these books. I read that babies just like the sound of their mother's voice and, since I rarely go around the house talking to myself, decided reading anything I could grab would suffice. It seems to. I think she seems to prefer those books with poetic cadences, but maybe that's just my preferences coming through.

Apparently, though, I need to start encouraging more tummy time and other active types of play (despite her squalls). At her last appointment Tuesday morning, she weighed in at 12 lbs, 13 ounces and 22 inches long. Apparently, these measurements put her in the 50th percentile for height and the 99th for weight! Our doctor told us that if Craig and I were overweight or if Evelyn was on formula, she'd tell us to monitor her food intake and weight closer. But as it is, she said I just have particularly rich milk and Evelyn's weight is entirely healthy. Unfortunately, that evening I read an article claiming that babies who weigh more tend to develop such motor skills as turning over and crawling later than other babies. Apparently that additional weight is a bit much for them. Which could explain why Evelyn gets so worn out when I put her on her tummy. 

My life ... again!

We found a "new" cheeseburger joint over the weekend. I know I should be ordering salads and, in fact, this joint has some pretty amazing salads on the menu, but when it comes to cheeseburgers and pizza I just have a really hard time saying "no." Thankfully, most of the pregnancy weight slipped blissfully away while I continued to eat cheeseburgers and failed to do anything more strenuous than walks around the park a block away. But that seems to have ground to a halt and I find myself hovering at five pounds left to go before I'm back to my pre-pregnancy weight (and 10 pounds left to go to my ideal weight). So I ordered a new Tae Bo workout video. I told Craig, while eating my cheeseburger, that once it's apparent the video alone won't be enough THEN I'll start ordering salads like a good little almost-29-year-old-trying-to-stay-25-year-old female.

Yes, it seems my days of eating like I'm pregnant are numbered. I suppose they should have ended weeks ago (9, to be exact) but pregnancy creates terrible habits that are hard to break when you find yourself breastfeeding and still every bit as hungry (maybe even more?) as when you were pregnant.

But I think I'm glad that my diet life is about to return to normal. It seems to symbolize a return to normalcy in general and, really, this past weekend saw a lot of "normal" return. For one thing, Craig and I returned to the movies! Our last movie was in early May when I was weeks away from delivering and we sat through almost 3 hours of Robin Hood; I thought I was going to die I was so uncomfortable! This time around was much better. We left Evelyn with some friends (her first time staying with non-family) and went to see "Inception," which is also almost 3 hours long but was much more bearable--even enjoyable.

Also of note: we left Evelyn with the church nursery for the first time. Since she's getting her two month vaccines tomorrow, I'd planned to keep her with me, but when I headed to the nursing mother's room, I found the nursery workers standing around twiddling their thumbs because they didn't have any babies! So I decided to give them something to do, dropped her off and asked them to feed her her bottle. Which meant that I actually got to sit in the sanctuary with the adults and take notes ... though I didn't actually take notes because I'd mistakenly left my pen in the diaper bag with the nursery workers. Well, getting back to normal can't happen all at once.