2 weeks in

Charlie is two weeks old and I'm so thankful to be done with pregnancy and enjoying my sweet newborn.  Last night he did two 4 hour stretches, which felt like heaven after several nights of two or three hour stretches.  I'm enjoying this sweet, short-lived newborn stage so much more this time around.  Even though I'm still carrying around a lot of extra weight and living in leggings and yoga pants, I'm so glad this is done...

12 weeks.18 weeks.20weeks.24weeks.35weeks.38weeks

It's interesting... I feel like I didn't get much bigger towards the end of my pregnancy and several people told me I looked smaller towards the end then I did weeks before.  (I mean.. check me out the day I delivered giant Emma baby....)  After reading more about cholestasis, I'm convinced Charlie's small size was due to the lack of nutrition he was getting towards the end of my pregnancy.  Cholestasis can be very dangerous and even fatal to a fetus because they stop getting nutrition from their mama..  PRAISE THE LORD we caught it in time and were able to safely bring him into the world.

In other news, remember the other major issues I had with Emma?  I was terrified that my body would way overproduce again and guess what?  It did. I was super painfully engorged for the first couple of weeks.  I did some serious online research, desperate to avoid a  full month of engorgement again.  I came across this case study  which gave a detailed description of how to handle overproduction.  I'm happy to report that it WORKED!  I'm finally feeling better and I think the engorgement is behind me.  Whew!

I survived my first outing with all three kiddos this morning.  We met friends at the mall play area and it feels good to have that first outing behind us.  Next week is the true test, though, as Justin will be heading back to work.  Having him here has been SUCH a blessing.  The girls have been getting plenty of attention, he has finished lots of house projects, and I haven't lifted a finger in the kitchen.  (Other than putting a frozen pizza in the oven last night. ;)  Hoping and praying for lots of extra patience next week and thankful for friends who are delivering meals for us.  ;)