Thanksgiving

There is so much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving.  It's my favorite holiday because it's all about family and food... two of my favorites.  It turned out to be one of my favorite weekends ever.  Here's a rundown:

The weekend began on Tuesday for me when Cassius and I went over to Moraga to make some desserts for the weekend.  Sue and I made a Caramel Apple Pie and Pumpkin Ice Cream pie.  Cash was in the wrap the entire time- sleeping, of course.

Brett and Jody arrived that night.

Wednesday, Brett, Jody and Sue picked Cash and I up and we all went to Berkeley.  First stop was Cultured- the Pickle Shop.  Brett and Jody (and Sue) love exotic food, so they enjoyed all the fermented stuff.  I tried a dill pickle, but that was it.  Cash slept through the entire thing.  After the pickle shop, we headed to my kind of shop- Ici, the ice cream shop!

I had one of the best ice creams ever- Brown Sugar Oatmeal Raisin.  So delicious!  Cash slept and ate in the sling the entire time!

Matt met us in Moraga for lamb meatballs (can you see a food theme here?) while I enjoyed my Mango sausage since lamb is not on my favorite list.  Still, it was a great time and enjoyed the Caramel Apple Pie a day early- yummy!

Thursday we enjoyed a morning together, and then headed back over to Moraga for a round of disc golf and Thanksgiving with the Bennetts and the Robbins.  Chuck and Marby's son is engaged and Beth and Collin are pregnant with a boy!  Yeah!  The food was delicious but Cash didn't really want to cooperate at the table!  He woke up just as we were sitting down, so Matt and I ate in the kitchen and I swayed and walked to keep Cash quiet.  After some Pumpkin Pie Ice Cream (amazing!), we headed home.


Friday, Matt and Brett went into the city with Bacony to play disc golf at Golden Gate Park while Jody and I went up to the Glenview to get pedicures!  We both got variations of red- which is a rarity for me, but festive none the less.  Sue stayed at home with Cash, where he proceeded to sleep in her arms the entire time!  We went back over to Moraga for leftovers and then came home and crashed.

On Saturday, we went to Pacifica to the beach and the pier. It was Cash's 2nd trip to the beach since his birth and his first to the pier and he, again, slept the entire time.  We finished off the evening with Sushi at Samurai Sushi Boat.  Cash was actually awake for the entire time and content looking at the lights.  At Samurai, they sing dim the lights and play some funky music to celebrate people's birthday.... after the 1st celebration, the waitress came by and was worried about him, but he did just fine. 

Sunday was a lazy day at home filled with sleeping in, a bit of shopping and putzing around the house.... A perfect and busy weekend, in deed.

Cash's Coos

Cash started cooing just the other day and he has quite the repetoire already.  I was able to capture a few of the sounds on video... of course he was on his changing table thingy... his go-to happy place.

It just melts my heart :)

1 month

Dear Cassius,

It is my intention to write you a little letter each month... a love letter of sorts and to document your life.

You are now 1 month old. It's been a great month getting to know you. It seems like a distant memory that you were in my belly. It doesn't seem that you've established any kind of schedule that I can tell but we are getting to know what you like. Here goes:

* Being nudey on the changing table. It seems you like to look around without your pants on. In the last week, you've decided that you don't like a dirty or wet diaper- which is a change from the first few weeks. Maybe you are just trying to get undressed?

* Eating. You are now 11 lbs. You love boobs (or at least mine). If all else fails to calm you, the boobs will usually do the trick. You also tried the bottle for the first time in the last week. Once you realized there was food inside, you seemed more into it. You drank 2 oz for your dad last night and he was more than tickled.

* Being worn in various carriers. This might have something to do with boobs, but I don't think so as you like to be worn by your dad too (and he doesn't have boobs, just FYI). Thus far you've been worn by many people including Brooke, Abby, Grandma Peters, Grandpa Peters and of course, Dad and Mom. You like to face out and look at the world but you also love facing inward and falling asleep. In fact, you are asleep in the wrap as I type.

* Being outside. Maybe it's the fresh air or all the new sites and sounds (and smells) but you seem to like it outside. We've gone on many walks as a family but perhaps the most special is the mornings that you walk with your Dad. He takes you out on a daily basis so that your Mom can get a few more minutes of sleep. You guys walk all around the neighborhood... My guess is that he's talking or singing to you the entire time.

Speaking of sleeping... you are just starting to sleep more during the night. Last night we had our first 5 hour stretch of time followed by a 3 hour stretch. Thanks Cassius! I seem to have a hard time getting you to go to sleep and stay asleep but your Dad is a pro. He has the sleepy touch in that way.

It seems that gas gets in your way a lot. It gets in our way too since we don't really know how to get it out of you. We're trying gripe water and other things. Bicycling your legs seems to help... or it helps push the farts out anyway.

Speaking of farts... although you do that a lot, farting hasn't made you smile, but we have. Grandma, Grandpa, Mom and Dad have each gotten 1 smile from you so far... and we can't wait to see some more from those chubby little cheeks and cute little lips.

And finally... speaking of body parts... You've got your Mom's chin (actually your Great-Grandpa Dohlman's chin) and your Dad's eyes. So far, your eyes are a dark steel grey/blue and we are just waiting to see what color they will be!

Cassius D., you are the love of my life (along with your dad and your dog, Sibley). I can't wait to watch you grow up to be a little boy. Welcome baby!

Love,

Your Mama

Back to "Normal"

It's been just over 3 weeks since Cassius was born and things "down under" are just getting back to normal. Not having sex normal, but not alien feeling anymore.

I went on a few walks in the first week after having him, which left me feeling "heavy" to say the least. It felt like a giant weight was pulling down on my vagina/uterus/?? and it was not a nice feeling.

The bleeding is finally down to "not much" which is an improvement from marble (and sometimes bigger) clots and regular bleeding.

I can finally walk and sit down and stand up and lie down with normal feeling.

I was finally able to do some trimming without being frightened.

These are things that no one told me about. So I'm telling whomever is going to listen. Here's my advice for new moms in the vagina department.

1) 2 weeks or so before your due date: Trim. If you are at all used to being trimmed below, have someone help you now for you certainly won't want anyone (even yourself) touching anything in the general vicinity for quite some time. This becomes a problem because of a fore mentioned bleeding. It's gets cakey and gooey and gross if there is excess.... so recruit someone to help you. Also, holy cow, batman... this area now seems ginormous after not seeing it for so long. Much bigger area then I remembered!

2) Don't get out of bed/off the couch/up from the chair except to go to the bathroom for the first week... no matter how good you feel, the farthest you should travel is 30 feet. If you need to get outside, sit on the front step or on the back porch or whatever... but dont' travel far. The more you rest now, the better you'll feel later and the sooner you'll be able to resume "normal" activity (of walking across the street and through a parking lot).

3) Sitz baths are your friend. You can buy the fancy ones or use epsom salts... but do what you need to do (ask for help) to sit in the tub for 10 minutes a day. This helped tremendously and wasn't that big of a pain. I read a magazine and was able to leave my shirt on half the time (undressing is such a hassle!). I even was able to breastfeed while sitting in the tub all for the sake of healing the va-jay-jay.

4) Not sure if this is recommended, but if you get itchy/red/rawish... use your baby's diaper rash cream. It feels good.