The post partum me

Having Nina has turned my whole world upside down in such an amazing, incredible way.  I can’t imagine not having her in my life and not a day goes by that I’m not eternally grateful for her.

But having a baby has changed me in ways I never expected, and I’m not talking about all of the mushy goodness I alluded to in the above sentences.  I’m talking about the new me.

The new me has bumps on my upper arms, my upper thighs and even my butt.  I have no idea what these bumps are.  I’ve never had silky smooth flawless skin before, but these new bumps bring my crappy skin to a whole new level.  Sadly, these little buggers don’t go away with exfoliation so I guess they’re a part of who I am now.

Along with the bumps, the new me also has a few skin tags too.  They developed during pregnancy and I had hoped that they might just go away, but no such luck.  They’re tiny and I’m probably the only one who notices them, but I’ll probably ask to have them removed next time I see my doctor.

Dry skin, oh the dry skin.  I’ve always had crazy dry skin, but during pregnancy it seemed to go away.  I was able to take a shower and not immediately have to put lotion on my face after getting out…it was fantastic.  Birth of the baby brings all that dry skin back with a vengeance. 

The new me is also losing hair like a mad woman.  I thought the hair loss while I was pregnant was bad, but this is ten time worse.  Poor Nina always seems to have a stray hair or two of mine on her somewhere.  I have no idea when, or even if this will ever stop, but I sure hope it does.  I feel like I’ll be bald in another week…

My pregnancy induced SPD is mostly a memory, thank god.  There are still moments when I will try to move something heavy with my foot and I’ll wince in pain from it, but for the most part I feel great.  I was really worried that I would have lingering issues with this, but so far so good.

My mind is a mess.  An absolute mess.  I can’t remember anything anymore.  I have problems remembering the names of people that I’ve known for years.  I can’t even blame it on a lack of sleep as Nina has been sleeping from 8 or 9 at night until I wake her up at 6 am since she was 3 months old.  I’m constantly fumbling around for my words too, and mixing up the order of my words in a sentence.  It’s embarrassing and a little bit unsettling and I only hope that someday my memory and brain function will find its way back to me someday soon.

I’m chubby.  Yup, I’m not doing such a hot job on losing the pregnancy weight.  People tell me that I’m looking good and that I must have lost weight since I saw them last, but the reality is that I haven’t lost a pound since about five weeks post partum.  Quite honestly, I haven’t made any bit of effort to lose weight, so I guess I’m not surprised that I haven’t lost anything lately.  It would have been fantastic if the weight would have continued to fall off like it did the first few weeks, but I guess I’m going to have to make some sort of an effort.  Healthy diet and exercise, here I come!

I’m certainly not complaining though…all of these changes were well worth the reward.

A week of Nina

Sadly I’m back at work now.  Away from my sweet baby for at least eight hours a day.  Happily, my husband is at home with little Nina.  To keep me going during the day (and because I’ve threatened him if he doesn’t), he sends me a daily picture of Nina from his iPhone.  Here are the photos from this week.

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Things are going great.  Nina is such a doll and we can’t get enough of her.  She will be four months old next week and I honestly have no idea where the time has gone.  We are trying our best to savor every moment with her, and I think we’re doing a pretty good job of it.