Postpartum Week 11 by Teresa Palmer

What week

11

How big is baby

13.8lbs

What’s something new this week

Less poopin! I keep expecting poops in his nappy but it’s just pee, so his very regular newborn poops are going away. I absolutely cannot believe he is almost 3 months, it blows my mind! He is also just about out of his 0-3 clothes.

This week we bought the sweetest playmat which he has been loving, he has started pulling the toys down to get them close to his face. His go-to is sucking on his hands and I’ve noticed he has started to want to grasp small things now so he might be transitioning out of sucking his hands and wanting to use them to touch and grasp things.

Most challenging moment

The dreaded car seat! It’s so hard to predict when he will be happy or unhappy in there. I’ve tried giving him a huge feed right before we go in the car seat, I’ve tried playing music, singing to him, putting him in there sleepy and it’s just really hit or miss. Sometimes if he is over tired it’s the worst and he will scream cry until he falls asleep in there, other times he isn’t sleepy, isn’t hungry but just does NOT want to be cooped up in his car seat, then sometimes he just happily looks out the window. Go figure! Today I’m going to attach one of his Lamaze toys that he loves (a pink bird with a chew part, a mirror and crinkly ears) and I’ll see if that makes a difference. A lot of the time I’ll pull to the side of the road and feed him if he is crying. I also drive with one hand on the wheel one hand rocking his car seat which helps too but isn’t the best option. Poor guy! What helped your babies like the car seat more? (I had the exact same problem with Bodhi until he grew out of it around 7 months!)

Something you loved this week

Special one on one time with my little Forest. When Bodhi is in preschool I’ve been loving having those 3 hours just Forest and I. I remember absolutely stressing about the age gap between them, I always thought I wanted them closer in age, but now I’m loving the age gap because it means Bodhi is happily playing with his friends at school while I get to have this quality “just us” time with Forest. Locking eyes and smiling at each other snuggling and kissing and cuddling him is so so lovely. It’s crazy how much you love them. It’s the greatest love I’ve felt and the newness of him and getting to know him feels so magical, I’m all butterflies and giddiness, I’m just really loving it. He has also been loving the Tula ring sling, its so easy to use and he is snug as a bug in it plus its a beautiful pattern and its easy to breastfeed in there, so I’ve been wearing him in that this week.

Mama time?

I took a long bubble bath two days ago, also the mornings when Bodhi is at preschool feels like Mama time- like right now I’m at Cafe Gratitude sipping a hot cacao drink whilst Forest is asleep next to me and I’m blogging, this feels like Mama time for sure! I go every day and sit in the same place and get some work done, its really nice!

What am I eating?

Avocado smash sandwiches in the AM with a green juice, bread and dips, pasta that I have been cooking which I make with tomatoes, onion, garlic, sundried tomatoes, olives, broccoli, pine nuts and Parmesan!

What’s working? 

The 8:30-10pm has been hubby and wifey time has worked ONCE this week but boy was it glorious! That was Monday night and we watched Big Little Liesand passed out, Tuesday night Mark worked all evening, Wednesday night I had a screening, tonight I actually think we will get another evening to ourselves and tomorrow I’m going to Paris with Forest! Throwing tremendous love at my threenager has been helping too, hit em with kindness seems to be most effective strategy haha! He is now back to his laughing happy self with only just a few reminders about not hurting feelings during the day.

My Body

My body is feeling good, although I’ve been suffering from a sore right knee! I’ve lost a lot of muscle tone since not exercising regularly over the last 3 years after Bodhi was born. When I’m not strong I can get injured easier so I’m trying to make an effort to carve out time to rebuild some of the muscle I’ve lost. Sooooo did Mama work out this week? NOPE! but I did hike once with a journalist for a magazine interview and we made it to the Hollywood sign (1.5hrs round trip!) and I had a 13.5lb baby lump strapped to me so that’s something!

I had big plans this week to work out during the 9:30am-12pm that Bodhi is in preschool (not possible to work out after he is home) but Monday I slept during that time after getting home from the Oscars at 2am and needing to take B to school that next morning at 8:30am. I literally woke up like a zombie, dropped B off, parked in my garage then Forest wanted to breastfeed so I just pulled him in to the front seat, he nursed and fell asleep on me, so I laid my seat down and napped with him in the car for an hour then strapped him back in and it was basically time to get Bodhi again! I’m also so behind on YZM emails that I did those on Tuesday and Wednesday AM. Today (thurs) I’m doing this blog post and tomorrow I have Bodhi’s birthday celebration at school at 10:30am and then I leave for Paris straight after! So there goes my morning workout plans for the week haha!! ahh well there’s always next week.

Checking in

This week has been really surreal. Ever since I was a little girl I’ve been dreaming of attending the Oscars. I got to attend on my 31st birthday on Sunday. It truly was an out of body experience for most of the day. I had to go solo but it was actually kind of nice because I had a lot of time to reflect on what was going on around me, I had an internal monologue going on all day that consisted of things like “oh my god, oh my god!” And “if only I could go back and tell my 15 year old self this was going to happen!” Haha. I took a lot of pictures and videos as I’m not sure if I’ll have the chance to attend again but I was happy that I managed to stay really present. Over the weekend Mark and I attended a few Oscars events, it was so nice to do that together. We were probably only away from the kids for an hour and half each night (Friday/Sat/Sun) but it was time that we really needed to reconnect, have a laugh and feel like we have a life outside of our life as parents. It was healing and a special time for us. I came away from the weekend feeling lots of gratitude. Grateful for the experience and having the opportunity to be apart of such an iconic day but mainly grateful to be able to come home to a gaggle of boys who love their parents and couldn’t care less that their parents are in movies!