should have been this week

Daniel's birth should have happened this week.  He is 37 weeks 2d gestation today.   He is doing very well out of the uterus, but I am pretty sure he would have preferred things to happen differently, and so would I...differently better, that is, not differently worse, as that is always another option that I have to keep in the back of my mind :) lest I forget to be thankful!

I am profoundly happy still, I don't know what exactly happens to me when I have a baby, but I am ecstatic. In addition, I am falling more and more in love with little Daniel, who is so cute when he looks at me, and tries to punch me when he wakes up so that I give him milk, and makes all sorts of funny sounds...he even sings with me and Emma at bedtime.

The only thing that I am working hard on and not seeing any results yet is weight loss.  I am doing a 1500 calorie intake/200 cal exercise/breastfeeding, and from the point of view of calorie intake/expenditure, I should be losing about 2 lb a week, but so far nothing happenin' over here.  I am a bit impatient because I only have one pair of mommy jeans in size 12, and don't really want to spend more money on a second pair, rather I have several pairs of skinny jeans in size 10 that are waiting for me to lose about 5-6 lb to fit into them.  I am going to look at this store today and see if I can find a tight fitting pair in size 12 that I might be able to take in at the seamstress when I lose the weight.  I am not going to drop to 1300 calories until about two months post partum, when the milk supply is well established.  At this point, I have about 30 lb to lose to get to my pre-Emma pregnancy, and about 16 lb to get to pre-Daniel pregnancy weight.

Breastfeeding is going extremely well.  He gets tired and wants to sleep after about 3/4 of a feed, but I use the SNS to push him a bit to take in a full feed, and yesterday when we went to the paediatrician, she said he gained 36 g per day on average, which is extremely good (they expect 15-30 g a day).  Obviously the system is working.  I seem to be making enough milk, which is such a relief.  I have rented a breastfeeding scale, and it is so much peace of mind, I highly recommend it to all mothers of preemies that are breastfeeding, as it is very unreliable to go by baby's clues before their "due date" age, since most of the time they would rather sleep than eat.

The one other thing I wanted to mention is that being in a big city is full of shopping temptations.  I went into l'Occitane and walked out 160 $ poorer.  I buy the bum cream there (I use the mom and baby balm, which is pricey but works very well with cloth diapers), and also the hand cream which has been my favourite beauty product for the past 10 years in a row.  This time, my mom was with me, and she was very excited about the Divine serum, which promises to get rid of my melasma spots (yeah, right) so we decided to give it a try.  A 110$ try, that is.  Huh.  Also, Craigslist is not helping my case any.  I needed a camera flash and am meeting this photographer who is selling his used canon flash for half the price that I would pay in the store.  Unfortunately, he is also selling a fabulous zoom lens that I want want want.  There is NO END to wanting in this city.  How do you guys living in big cities not go broke?  In my small town, I go for months not buying anything other than basic food and some books/toys for Emma to spice up her life a bit.  Crazy.  I think I am going to succumb to the zoom lens charms in the end...wish I were made of stronger stuff...