Checking In

Almost a week old and I am completely in love with little Leah, and so is everyone else. Ellie can't stop wanting to help with EVERYTHING. Annie just likes looking at her and giving her kisses. Matt and I LOVE the fact that she sleeps all the time and hardly ever cries. And I just like staring at her and holding her close. I am not usually a "baby person," but I just find myself completely and utterly enamored with this little perfect angel. She is just so sweet and even tempered. How did I get so lucky to have such a wonderful little baby?

It's a really blessing that she has been relatively easy to care for, because I am ripped to shreds. The pain from my incision has been really, really bad. I don't remember it being this bad with Annie. Every move was unbearable in the hospital. I still have extremely intense stabs of pain despite the fact that I am taking as much percoset as I can.

My blood pressure spiked the morning of the delivery and it is still elevated. So I am on medication to treat it and hoping that it will go do soon. This happened with Ellie's birth too.

I am still very bloated and swollen. The nurse said it would be two weeks before I lose all of the water retention, but I'm telling you, I look really, really bad.

Matt has been the best husband ever. He has essentially put me on unofficial bedrest. I am not allowed to bend down to get anything. I am not allowed to pick up anything besides Leah. He has handled feeding the girls, cleaning up, getting the girls where they need to go and - get this - every night feeding since we've gotten home.

He has become my own personal nurse - washing my legs in the shower since I can't reach them. He inspects my incision to make sure everything looks right. He helps me get dressed, get undressed, and everything in between. When I got married, I guess I thought that someday either Matt or I would do these kind of menial tasks for the other when we were really old. You know, helping someone go to the bathroom, etc. Old age, that's when you can't do even the most simple things. But I never considered that after major surgery - like a c-section, you really can't do a lot of things for yourself. And while I feel degraded and humiliated that I can't do even the basic things like clipping my toenails. I feel so fortunate to not only have a loving husband who does it for me, but tells me he loves me while he does it and doesn't even seem to mind all of the icky parts about it - the blood, the stretchmarks, etc. All of my thank yous seem hugely inadequate to the sacrifices he is making.

But everyday is getting better. And that's what counts. I guess this is why they often refer to the month after delivery as the tenth month of pregnancy. Recovery can be so difficult. I just hope that we don't run into any healing issues like I have with my other two pregnancies. If my incision can heal without reopening, I will be one grateful girl.

Here are some more photos of everyone with our sweet, sweet Leah who has completely stolen our hearts.