Laela and I had our two week postpartum doctors visits today. I’ve been looking forward to today for quite a while now actually. I’m not 100% sure why. Part of it is probably that I was so used to seeing my doctor every week, haha! I missed her maybe? But also, I wanted to hear from my doctors mouth that Laela is in great health.
She is 🙂
The little Miss is back up to just over her birth weight. 9lbs 12oz. Everything looks and sounds perfect, as far as she can see. Dr. Guselle had only good to say, really. She commented that Laela is a mover and it seems like she already is trying to roll. She was impressed with her sleep schedule, and the fact that we can put her down for night awake, and she’ll put herself to sleep, tear free. Something I really enjoyed which may seem small to everyone else was just hearing Laela called by name. She wasn’t just “the baby.” She is a person, our daughter, and her name suits her famously. It just sounded so natural, and I loved hearing it.
I was really hoping to get myself weighed in today but its not mandatory at all and I forgot to ask. Oh well. I’ll try to remember to ask at our 6 week appointment. But for myself, I asked Dr. Guselle a few questions and she asked me some, but I seem to be recovering nicely. We talked a bit about postpartum depression, and she gave me some insight about it. As far as I can tell, I don’t have it. I genuinely don’t think I do, and she doesn’t either, but having the amount of anxiety I had all through the pregnancy, plus the delivery, has made me want to know more about depression in a way to be able to keep an eye on it, if that makes sense. Dr. Guselle gave me a few things to watch for and then she sort of let me spout a bit. I told her that I’m not losing sleep (not any more than the mother of a newborn will anyway) or having fears of people hurting my baby, but I start losing grip if I let Laela’s birth story play over in my head too many times. She was very understanding and didn’t make me feel silly at all. She gave me some tools and ideas of how to react in those instances. She was very clear that I was likely experiencing post traumatic stress, and that actually made me feel very sane and normal. Labor and delivery are unpredictable things. They’re great, and they can be peaceful and beautiful and memories you want to relive over and over. Or they can be scary. And she gets that. I appreciated her concern so much!
All things considered, the appointment was a success. My mom had come over to help me get everyone on the road, and then I brought her to the city with me. On the way back home, she even bought lunch 🙂 It was a completely successful outing. Except that we forgot to pick up more patches for Dekker. That was kind of a lame brain moment on my part, but one day I’m hoping my brain will come back. When my youngest child is twelve maybe? Who knows. That milestone is a looong ways off! Sorry, readers. If that is the case, and if I actually keep daily blogging for years to come, they may get worse and worse for repetition and grammatical errors. (Geez, leave it to me to spell “grammatical” with one ‘m’ and stare at if for three minutes trying to figure out why it didn’t look right…)
Insanity is my life. But I love it!
Time for snacks and a bath for me! And the little Miss who just puked all over herself. Poor dear. Poor dear with crusty hair. At least this one likes water so far!
Sleep in peace, friends.
