I’m wearing my first pair of pre-pregnancy jeans today. I have to wear a long shirt, mind you, but I’m just happy because I wore the same black maternity pants for two weeks straight because everything else was too big, too small, or pajamas. Even that one pair had become loose enough that I kept pulling them up yesterday.

To balance out that joy, I was dressed less than five minutes when I had to feed Breanna and I promptly leaked two gallons of breastmilk all over my shirt. Alas.

Breanna had her first check-up today. She was 8 lbs 5 oz at birth and dropped to 7 lbs 8 oz when we came home.

Miss Piggy is apparently a highly efficient nurser despite her tendency to doze off after only ten minutes – she weighed in at 9 lbs 8 oz today!

Everything is going really well, she shows no signs of a cold THANK GOD (George and Hayley are both sick with icky colds), and I was right in my opinion that her eyes are straight so no eye surgery like Hayley needed to have!

We go back in January for her and myself; it’s nice to no longer need to go in weekly.

Funniest picture I have taken of Bree thus far. Poor little girl was sound asleep at a birthday party so of course I slipped a big hat on her head for a photo op.

Hayley tried on the dress she’ll wear to see Santa. The hard part was getting it off and explaining it’s not a costume and so she can’t wear it all day (at least not until the pictures are done!).

Hayley’s “big sister” gift was a Cinderella princess costume with the dress, purse, ring, and “glass” slippers. She loves the glass slippers in a serious way. Our downstairs neighbors probably HATE the glass slippers.

I can’t believe how big she looks in this bouncy seat compared to Hayley at the same age. This seat rocks just because it allows me to pee in peace.

Anyone who has been a long-time reader has heard similar requests from me before and it’s that time again. George and our friend Perry are starting a production company and have a number of songs and snippets already done. They’ve put two of the full songs up online and would appreciate it if any of you could just take a quick listen to them and let us know what you think.

If you go to this site you’ll find two songs that you can stream. The song “If I Had” is sung by our friend Fil and “My Michelle” is sung by George.

Please take a few minutes to check them out. Also if anyone is interested in obtaining an actual copy of either song let me know as well. It would be most appreciated, thanks!

Just for the record, I haven’t actually dropped off the face of the planet. Granted, it’s certainly more difficult to find online time these days (I haven’t read a single one of my friends over on LJ in ages, for example), because I’m either taking care of Breanna, playing/doing crafts/entertaining Hayley, or trying to keep the apartment from looking like a post-apocalyptic site. It would be easier to throw a quick post up though, if my computer hadn’t decided to fry itself this week. I asked George to take a look at it but it’s so bad that it keeps freezing up, rebooting, or going to the Blue Screen of Death before he can get much repair work done. (I know, there’s a recent virus that causes rebooting but we checked that already and that’s not it – George knows what the problem is but just hasn’t been able to rectify it.)

Anyway, he’s going to set me up with something soon and in the meantime I’ve used his computer the past two nights once Hayley has gone to sleep and Breanna is having her first stretch of night time sleep. However, I’ve been so busy reading everyone’s weblogs in an effort to catch up that I haven’t written anything.

Everything is going well. Taking care of two kids is so much harder than taking care of one but we’re all slowly adjusting – we’ll see how I do tomorrow when George heads off to work. Oy. Hayley is getting used to being a big sister and even when she’s crabby about it, she sure loves that baby. Breanna has clearly been here before, and is a fairly quiet and easy baby to care for – partly because it’s her personality and probably partly because I’m just not as nervous this time around. Either way, she only cries when she’s super hungry and I’m not fast enough for her or when she’s hungry and I insist on *gasp* changing her diaper first.

Nothing exciting is new since I haven’t been out of the apartment since this time last week for our friends’ daughter’s third birthday party, though Hayley has gone out a couple of times with George. I’m starting to go a little stir crazy so I think it’s a good thing that we have Bree’s two-week check-up tomorrow morning just so I can go somewhere and see people. It’s also good since I can ask why my stitches are suddenly hurting more than they did the first week and I can find out if the horrible stomach ache I had last night (that was bad enough that I could barely walk and that has lingered somewhat into today) is unrelated to that pain. Post-partum healing is almost as insane as pregnancy itself.

And that’s that. Time for some lunch before Breanna wakes up from her normal 2- to 3-hour midday nap!

It’s a shame that although I’ve lost most of the weight, I have that post-birth floppy stomach that should never ever be seen in hip huggers and crop tops, and it’s too bad that I have the traditional new mom dark circles under my eyes. Because you see, Breanna is such an expert at nursing that my milk was starting to come in by the second night, and was in fully the day I came home from the hospital, and these days I have so much milk that I could definintely be a contender for a Hooters poster girl. Alas.

Seriously though. I have enough milk to feed my baby, your baby, the baby down the street, the baby that my hospital roommate kept neglecting to feed (7 minutes each breast the ENTIRE NIGHT from 11 pm until 7 am!), and all the babies in the third world country of your choice. It’s a good thing, obviously, but ouch. It makes those nice long 3-hour stretches of sleep that she gets in two or three times a day/night a little, er, uncomfortable towards the end.

This may fall into the category of too much information for some people, but you know, too bad. Birth = lots of blood loss = the use of pads. That’s just a fact. Anyway.

Tonight I was in the bathroom with Hayley and realized that my pads were all the way over on the dryer and I was already in mid-pee. I noticed one was out of the bag and sitting right near the edge. I asked Hayley to go get it. Figuring I’d need to describe it, I said, “I need that yellow thing on the dryer. See the little yellow square package that looks kind of like it’s wrapped in a plastic bag? Yeah, that’s it! Can you bring it to me please?”

She then walked over with it and passed it to me, saying, “Here’s your pad Mommy.”

Oh. Well duh. I guess she did know what it was after all.

It’s funny how things can change from one child to the next. I still remember so clearly – even though it was over three years ago – giving Hayley her first sponge bath. George and I did it together, clearing the dining room table, laying down one adult towel to put her on, setting out a baby towel for afterwards, and we had a basin of warm water, a couple of washcloths, some baby soap, and nerves galore. We were so careful and slow and nervous, bathing that little tiny baby and it was exhausting.

Today I was alone with Bree, and while changing her, she peed. Usually I see it happen and can “catch” it with the towel or blanket she’s lying on, but this time I was in the process of reaching for the new diaper and only noticed when it was too late. It turned out she had gotten it all up her back, so I decided to bathe her. In comparison to Hayley, I took Bree into the bathroom, laid her on a blanket on the counter, ran a washcloth under a stream of warm water, and quickly wiped her down from head to toe. Then I bundled her in a towel with one hand while supporting her with the other, dried her off, and diapered and dressed her. Altogether, it probably took five minutes, if that much.

I guess the second time around, you just don’t get as worked up or nervous.

It only took me five hours to write up Breanna’s birth story. I haven’t really read it over, just skimmed it, so please excuse any typo problems. Also, I have to double check with George later on my timeline since my grasp of time was tenuous at best; the only time I was fully aware of the clock was when it was time to push because it was 9:30 and I was wondering if I could have the baby out before 10. You can check back if you want, but I’ll only post about it if there are any major changes.

GOD I wish Bree would wake up to eat. Ouch.

Someone came to this site after asking Google why is it when i sit my pregnant belly fold in half at the belly button?

My answer would be: Because there is no dignity whatsoever when you are pregnant. You’ll pee when you sneeze, make unladylike noises when you try to turn over in bed, and your belly and bellybutton will both do very strange things. Just accept it. It will make things easier if you end up pooping on the delivery table or discussing treatment of hemhorroids with a nurse in front of a large audience. Pregnancy and birth are miraculous. But dignified they are not.

In other news, my new goal in life is to be as insanely relaxed as Breanna is. I know that it could all change next week and I coul wind up dealing with five months of colic, resulting in my development of a binge drinking problem, but at this very moment in time, having observed her since Sunday, she is so laid-back and calm and tolerant. I need to develop that in myself.