Paying for 9 months of no periods

Man, I'm tired of bleeding. It'll be three weeks tomorrow that I had my c-section, and I'm still having a lochia flow. Lochia is the lining of the uterus that is of course no longer needed after birth. As the uterus contacts back to its original size, the lining sloughs off, basically making a flow like a period. But three weeks? Sheesh. I was very happy to not have a period for nine months, but do I really have to make up for it by having nine months' worth of periods all at once? Bleah.

Also, I had to go in to the same-day care clinic yesterday to have them look at my incision. Twice it has "leaked" a pinkish yellow fluid, and I still have some pain (sort of a burning sensation), especially if I'm moving around after being in one position for a while (like going from sitting to standing). My husband looked at it and thought it looked a little funky, so I went in to see if there was an infection. The nurse took a culture and then squeezed a few spots to drain some fluid (that was a blast, really). She felt that the fluid was probably just a by-product of the healing process rather than being pus or anything like that. They'll call me today and let me know if there actually is an infection, but just in case they gave me a prescription for Keflex. Yippee.

I'm getting the hang of things, slowly. We're still not on much of a schedule, really. The only thing that is mostly assured is that the baby generally only wakes up once in the middle of the night. He'll wake up around 2:30 or so, and be up for 1 1/2 to 2 hours based on how much he eats and how long it takes to get him to go back to sleep. Of course, we're cheating a little bit, because we're giving him formula at night along with breastfeeding. Since formula digests more slowly, it keeps his tummy feeling fuller and so he sleeps longer because he doesn't feel hungry yet. I'm sure at some point we'll wean him off of it completely (most of the time he doesn't get any formula during the day, or at least not more than an ounce or so), but it sure is nice to know that he's going to sleep most of the night. My husband is no longer getting up with me when we feed--we're mixing the formula ahead of time, and I just heat the bottles and set them next to where I'm feeding so I can reach them easily--so it's taking a little bit longer to get through a feeding than it was, but overall it isn't too bad. I'd love a little more sleep (sometimes we go back to sleep in the mornings; I didn't today, even though Brendan's been sleeping here beside me; I'm just not feeling super tired right now. Maybe I'll nap later), but I think we're really pretty lucky.

That's not to say that I don't get super-frustrated when he's fussing and I can't get him to calm down. There are whole periods during the day when I basically have to just sit there and carry him around and rock him. I'd love for him to be able to entertain himself so I could just pop him into a playpen and let him go, but it's going to be a while before that happens. I'm a little resentful of my husband, simply because he doesn't generally have to deal with the fussiest times of day. He's not home for the middle of the day fussage, and then since he's not getting up with me at night, he's basically sleeping through the attempts I'm making to get the boy back to sleep. I don't get it; the baby can be practically unconscious while feeding, but as soon as I carry him back into the bedroom he's wide awake and ready to rock and roll. It takes about half an hour of rocking to get him back to sleep. Meh.

Anyway, I haven't snapped yet or lost my mind or anything like that. And hopefully it will continue to get easier. Hopefully.

One step forward, two steps back

I am flying solo today. My husband went back to work at the beginning of the week, and my mother-in-law went home this morning. We're still on the multi-method feeding schedule--breastfeeding as long as possible, then bottle feeding breast milk, and then bottle feeding formula (both while I'm pumping for the next feeding). It's time-consuming enough when my husband is available to split the work with me. It was difficult the past two days, when my mother-in-law did everything else around the house (laundry, cooking, vacuuming, cleaning, making me lunch while I fed the baby, all that good stuff). It seems nearly impossible, doing it all on my own. I have to breastfeed, then have two bottles ready, handle the burping and the changing (and does this kid ever go through diapers! Holy cow!), pump breast milk for the next feeding, sooth the baby when he's crying and fussing, and deal with the dog who wants to go out and go for a walk (which of course we can't do; even if the weather were really nice, which it isn't, Brendan's only a week and a half old and not really ready to be exposed to the elements). Somewhere in the middle of all this, I'm supposed to be making sure I'm drinking lots of fluids, keeping my feet up as much as possible, eating sensibly, getting a little exercise (like walking), and getting lots of rest. When the hell am I supposed to do those things?