It’s been over two months since Dash was born and I have so much to tell you. I thought that I would have more time to blog after having a baby because I would be working less, but I ended up returning to work only two weeks after Dash was born and I am working almost full-time again. Now that I have a few snow days to stay home, it’s time to catch up!

The first few months were a whirlwind of holidays. First, Thanksgiving… then my sister’s birthday, my birthday, Christmas, and New Year’s. I assumed that we’d be homebound with a newborn, but it seems like we were constantly away from home attending family parties. Having a baby meant that our attendance was mandatory rather than exempt.

But let me start at the beginning… the day that we brought Dash home from the hospital. He slept a lot, and we didn’t quite know what do to with him other than look at him which was just fine by me. I’d never seen something so precious.

He was a bit jaundiced when we left the hospital. We had to take him to his pediatrician every day to get his bilirubin levels checked. His pediatrician loaned us a biliblanket (which was really just a panel illuminated by UV light that we tucked between his back and his shirt) to zap his bilirubins away. It made him glow like a glow worm.

We gave him his first bath in our kitchen sink when he was ten days old. It took both of us to wash him – one person to hold him because he was so slippery and the other person to scrub him. Dash didn’t like it very much, but he seems to enjoy baths now, so maybe the water was not warm enough. Poor baby!

Breastfeeding was difficult at first. My nipples were chapped and bleeding, my boobs ached, and Dash wanted to eat every two hours. He frequently fell asleep while he was eating, and I even fell asleep while feeding him once or twice. It was a physically exhausting exercise.

I think we figured it out after two weeks, though. I bought some lanolin for my nipples and a heat pad for my boobs, and as Dash got a bit older, he needed to eat less often and became more efficient at each feeding. He weighed a full pound above his birth weight when we took him to his pediatrician for his two-week check-up. Since I am his sole source of food, I considered that a personal achievement!

In addition to taking Dash to his pediatrician several days in a row because of his jaundice, then for his two-week check-up, we also left the house during those early weeks to go to Target and to Cici’s pizza. He didn’t mind being out at all. In fact, he slept the entire time. I think that the snugness of his car seat and the vibrations of movement in the car and in shopping carts put him to sleep.

I returned to work part-time after Dash’s two-week check-up. I work at my parents’ company, and they were more than happy to be able to see their grandson every day. I have flexible hours, a private office, and plenty of help between my mom and two other ladies who work there. It’s a really great situation, and I feel so lucky to be able to work and take care of my baby.

My office is pretty awesome. I have a big window, a Pack ‘n Play with a changing table for Dash, and lots of plants. I also have an orange betta fish named Benjamin (seen in this month’s masthead), but more on him in a later post. Did I mention that my commute is only ten minutes?!

As for me, I recovered from giving birth immediately. Because my labor and delivery wasn’t treated like a major surgery, there was really nothing to recover from. I was out of bed and full of energy just hours after Dash was born, and I had no problem walking up and down the flight of stairs to our condo or leaving the house every day during his first week to visit the pediatrician. I felt indestructible. There was nothing that I couldn’t do.

It wasn’t until the second month that my vigor and vitality wore off and the lack of sleep caught up to me.

Two big things happened during his second month. He started interacting with the world and with us, and he got CHUNKY. He grew so much that most of his 0-3 month sized clothes became too tight. When I weighed him at my grandparents’ house two weeks ago, he weighed 13 pounds. That’s almost double what he weighed at birth!

He doesn’t cry very much. His cries during the first month were mild and even amusing, but he started getting loud this month like he means serious business. But when he cries, it’s always for a legitimate reason – his diaper is dirty or he is hungry – and we resolve it immediately. Rarely have we been unable to temper his cries.

Actually, Dash is a very happy baby. He smiles so much! At first, his smiles correlated to pooping and to eating. He was happy because his body felt good. But now he smiles when he sees our faces, when I toss him above my head, when I turn on the musical mobile above his Pack ‘n Play, when the flash on my camera surprises him, when he’s laying naked on the changing table, and sometimes for no apparent reason at all. Probably gas!

Eric and I continued to get out of the house quite a bit this month. With both of our parents, my sister, and my grandparents living nearby, we’ve had more offers for babysitting than we can take advantage of. Dash has been staying with babysitters while Eric and I go out with our friends or when we go climbing at the rock climbing gym where we signed up for a membership last month.

We’ve also taken Dash to restaurants with us numerous times, and he is so well behaved! Initially, I was nervous about taking him to restaurants because what if he started screaming and was inconsolable? What if he needed a diaper change? What if I needed to nurse him?

Luckily, it didn’t take long to figure it all out. Waiters were quick to show us how to set his car seat in an upside-down high chair, and seeing that they didn’t mind accommodating a baby eased my anxiety. Changing his diapers in public restrooms turned out to be no big deal, and feeding him discreetly in the back seat of my car allowed us to be away from home for longer durations. Having a baby hasn’t prevented us from doing anything that we used to do.

Before Dash was born, I read an awful book that portrayed motherhood as so time-consuming and emotionally draining. The mothers in the book lacked personal hygiene and self respect. They were so frazzled! So I am quite pleased with and proud of myself that I’ve not only been able to take a shower and get out of the house every day, I’ve been able to return to work and resume exercising so soon after giving birth. I am awesome.

We are awesome.

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