I am feeling better, still sore but able to turn over in bed without whimpering in pain. My back still hurts, but is also improving. I didn't take any Motrin today, and I still feel OK. Everyone warns me about the dangers of overdoing it though...my midwife came by to check me over today and told me some horrific stories about C-section incisions opening up, guts falling out, bad scarring, nasty horrible stuff like that. Way scary. Apparently I am supposed to totally avoid stairs and bending over to pick things up...ooops. Impossible around here, unless I had a little trained monkey to pick up all the things that I drop. I drop EVERYTHING lately. And I can't just live in the bottom part of the house. The shower is upstairs, for one thing. The doctor who did my C-section said to just let pain be my guide. If it hurts, don't do it. So I'm following his advice, I guess. So far I am healing up decently. My guts haven't spilled out of my incision yet or anything. That seems to be a good sign.

Angel Baby got devilish two nights in a row. I ate some sausage and pepperoni pizza and then a friend came over and made German sausage with cabbage. Not friendly foods for a breastfeeding mom. My stomach was upset, so you can only imagine how Julian reacted. The first night he would be fine for a few minutes and then all of a sudden it was like someone just kicked him in the stomach. Broke my heart watching him...I tried to comfort him as best I could, but nothing realy worked. Then yesterday he slept too much during the day and was awake and fussy all night long. Arrgh. Very challenging. Totaly exhausted, shifting him from position to position, patting and kissing him and saying, "There there, it's OK my sweet baby..." like a mechanical robot after a while. Constant diaper changes. The kid poops at least ten times a day. No worries about malnourishment here. I got the famed Water Weenie treatment today while I was changing him, and nearly got blasted with an explosive poo as well while his diaper was off. It was more funny than anything. His poo is just like grainy mustard and doesn't smell bad at all...maybe a little yeasty if I would have to name a smell.

My stomach is still shrinking down on a daily basis, thank goodness. From that big ole belly that I had in the hospital, I just have what looks like a beer belly now, ten days later. Another few weeks and it will supposedly be gone completely. I have already lost 25 pounds, mostly water I think. All my puffiness is gone. Now another 35 to go...ugh. But it shouldn't be too hard. May insatiable hunger is gone, along with those sweets cravings.

Yesterday Dan and I were out walking, Dan with Bugs on his leash and me shuffling along behind with the stroller. We passed our neighbor Pat coming towards us on the other side of the street and she called out to me, "Trying to lose that baby fat, eh?"

Yeah Pat, thanks for reminding me. Uh, lately I'm really just focusing on feeding the baby and changing his diaper 24/7, then getting some sleep, relaxing my painful back, not having my stitches pop open and spill my guts into the street at any point, and getting in at least 5 minutes of conversation with my husband a day, but yeah, I'll work on losing that baby fat too. For cryin' out loud!

Totally funny clothing situation. No one, including me, bought any 0-3 month clothing for Julian. I think we were all planning on him being huge. I have some kimono T-shirts that I bought for him to wear at the last minute, and a wonderful baby gown that I wish I had ten of, because it's soft and comfy, keeps him warm without being too hot (which happens often, he gets all sweaty, that thing about having to bundle babies in a zillion layers is definitely not true), and is a piece of cake to change his diaper in. He has a few onesies too, but only about three of them. I'm not a fan, because the snaps are industrial-strength for some reason and it takes brute strength to unsnap them. It's like they're childproof or something! And while I am at the changing table furiously yanking on his crotch trying to unsnap the onesie it gives him extra time to get fussy. Contrast that with the gown, where I just slip it up and down and it keeps him warm and stays put and is fuss-free and you see why I'm a fan. Plus he looks really cute in the gown, like a little baby worm.

I just ordered more of the fabulous gowns, because they are really the most perfect clothing for him and definitely the easiest for me. So if his one gown is dirty then he wears a T-shirt, a diaper and is wrapped up in a receiving blanket to keep warm enough. Which is fine, it's just funny, because he has such a limited wardrobe right now, but when he finally fits into his 3-6 month wardrobe we're going to have to change his clothes every hour just so he can wear everything. He has TONS of clothes for 3-6 months. A whole drawer full, and then some. And plenty of clothes for 6-12 months even. But for right now, he's the Baby With One Gown. Good thing he's just a newborn and can't hold it against me. Well, this is Silicon Valley. Plenty of smart successful people wear the same T-shirt every day around here. At least I give him a *clean* T-shirt every day. He smells good, too.

He does have one glamorous item of clothing, which is the miraculous SwaddleMe wrap that my friend Mimi O'Connell (a new mom herself) sent me. That is the blue fleece wrap that you see him wearng in the Snapfish photos, the ones where he is making the funny expressions and propped up next to a pillow. That wrap is the bomb. He loves it, he looks cute in it, and it's easy to put on him. Dan and I were asking nurses in the hospital, "Wait, HOW do you do that swaddling thing again?" and sort of doing a half-assed job of it. When a hospital nurse hands you your baby, he's wrapped up as tight as a FedEx package. You can toss him around like a football. He's this bullet-shaped package that you can bounce quarters off, with a baby head on top. But even that is encompassed somewhat by the swaddle, so you barely even have to support his neck. He's a baby mummy. It's kind of creepy and kind of convenient. I always unwrapped him a little so that his hands were free to touch and pat things, and then the nurses would come in and sigh like I had undone all their fine work. They would put his hat on and then I would take it off so that I could pet his soft Woodstock-like fuzzy head. My little bird.

Dan and I were both attempting to swaddle Julian in several blankets at home when Mimi's SwaddleMe package arrived, just in the nick of time. Thanks Mimi! Not like he is always swaddled up or anything, he likes to use his hands and move around way too much, but sometimes you just want a newborn to be chilled out and semi-immobile at the same time, and swaddling is definitely good for that. In fact, I think I am going to swaddle him up tight tonight so we can both get some sleep. They are tightly constrained in the womb for a long time, then they get used to it and can feel all disorganized and freaked out by having their limbs able to move around so freely. So the swaddle mummy wrap is comforting.

Time for dinner...and there's a new episode of Keen Eddie on Bravo tonight. I am totally not a TV-watcher, and consider watching TV in general to be a waste of time, but this show is SO great. I just adore it. It's funny and original and hip and stylish and modern and smart and has good plotlines. Sort of a detective/cop show, but with a twist. The lead guy is a New York cop working for Scotland Yard in London, where the show is set. I really like the characters. Since my main excitement consists of hanging out with Dan in the evenings keeping the baby awake, I am happy to have something good that we can watch on Tuesday nights. And thank god for Netflix too! Keep those movies coming in...