My Life These Days*

As my friend who visited the other day with her new dog said, "Most of our conversations revolve around whether or not she is the cutest dog in the world." I relate to that. Right now so much of the space of my life is taken up by my daughter -- all of the "baby appliances" all over our house, all of the time spent feeding, holding, and soothing her, all of the parts of my brain anticipating her future needs, our new life as a family, the moment to moment excitement of getting to know her.


Becoming a parent has brought a new importance and excitement to family for me. It's one area of my life right now that feels complete. Part of it is probably just having all this time off from work, but I have never spent so much time with my family and been so happy to be a part of it. I like to think we are a real life version of the Bravermans (if you are not watching the show "Parenthood," you really should be.) Getting together at my parents' house for big sprawling family dinners with both of my brothers and their kids is a really awesome way to spend a Sunday night. We pass the little kids around and the big kids help out. In fact, my oldest niece opted to have a quiet dinner with me while I was feeding little P-- and even cut my meat -- while the rest of the family ate in the other room. You never feel left out.


Everyone says "you sleep while they sleep!" but since my little one is not the best napper that means I just go to bed around 8 or 9 when she calls it a night. So I've started watching movies (and Masterpieces, why are British mysteries so good!?) around 4pm since I can't stay up for anything after dinner. So going out for a dinner date with Mr. SevPrez is a tremendous treat (we've only done it once so far) but also makes me feel like I'm living on the edge since it cuts into my sleep time.


Everyone also says you lose weight while breastfeeding and I'm not sure that's true for everyone. I think you lose weight because you don't have two hands to eat with once your spouse goes back to work. Seriously. If I have to choose between eating and taking a shower, I'd rather take a shower. There's just something about keeping myself clean that makes me feel like I have everything under control.


And last but not least I am getting my running legs back. I went for my first jog/walk three weeks after giving birth, which is not really recommended or endorsed by any of the books. But everyone is different and I felt pretty good. I knew to go slow and give it a rest if my body sent me signals that it was too much. But now I'm jogging pretty much every other day, enjoying the time outdoors to myself and the feeling that I'm getting back into my old groove and, slowly but surely, my old body. I have a 5K picked out for October 9th and am looking forward to just completing it and having a good time. (I say that but I'm sure I'll end up setting a time goal for myself and as a result will be dry-heaving at the finish line.) But little P will be there to cheer me on and that will make me feel like a champ no matter how slow I go.


Motherhood is an awesome thing. I still can't believe we made a human being (and one who's so cute!). Right now she depends on us for all of her needs, but one day she'll go off into the world as her own woman, with her own opinions, hopes, and aspirations. It's pretty wild. But for now, I am pretty sure that all she dreams about are milk, swings, and bouncy balls. So we'll just take it one day at a time.




*I don't really want to give into to blogging about motherhood and kid clothes (there are so many other mom bloggers out there who do a great job), but right now my life revolves around parental concerns and experiences, and I felt I wanted to post something, so this is what you get. More diverse posts to come as "the first trimester" comes to a close and I go back to work.