Two Weeks | Postpartum Update

How in the world has it already been two weeks since my c-section? How is it possible that our family of four already feels… natural? How did I get to have a two-and-a-half year old and a two week old?! HOW IS LIFE JUST MOVING ON LIKE NOTHING MAJOR HAPPENED IN THE LAST 14 DAYS?!

I have so much to say, yet so little to write about.

With my first pregnancy, I did nothing but sit on the couch for weeks after I had Dorothy. I had nothing to say on the blog because the only thoughts running through my skull were about sleep and Sex And The City. I saw SATC for the first time while on maternity leave, and literally watched every episode. Not my finest accomplishment. 

The last two weeks since having Frances have also been unremarkable… in a way that life really is just moving on. The day we came home from the hospital, my husband left an hour later to go to the state track meet. In the last two weeks we have hosted family and friends at our house, attended an anniversary party and a conference track banquet, taken big sister to dance classes and I even made an appearance at color guard practice last night – with the baby in tow.

It’s safe to say we’re no longer rookie parents who need a full two days to plan a Target run.

I plan on writing more about my vastly different postpartum experiences, and my thoughts on having two children (and Frances’ birth story, and my c-section survival tips, and our favorite newborn accessories, etc.), but that all can wait. Today, there are a few things that I really do want to say. Things I want to remember down the road about this season in our lives. Like…

• I didn’t know they came this content. Frances is the most chill baby on the planet. Seriously. She eats. She sleeps. She poops. That’s it. I never thought Dorothy was a difficult baby… until Frances came along. The only times Frances cries are when you change her diaper, and when she’s getting a sponge bath. She adores when I wash her hair under the sink faucet, she loves to be swaddled, and she prefers to be stretched out on my lap while outside in the 90 degree heat. She’s sleeping in 3-4 hour stretches at night, and eats her bottles like a champ. She’s just so… mellow. This family needed that.
• I was expecting worse. Dorothy is adjusting shockingly well to being a big sister. If you would have told me how well she would do at sharing her momma and daddy two weeks ago, I would have laughed in your face. She likes to help with Frances – giving her a bottle, taking her diapers to the trash, or sharing her cool pink sunglasses – but generally she kind of ignores her and goes about her day. Sure, she’s two and she has her moments (she has solidified her status as our “high maintenance child”) but I’ll take it over what I was expecting any day of the week.
• My husband is not cut out to be a stay at home parent. Mr. Cotten has an insanely long paternity leave… and he’s already bored out of his skull. I love him, but it’s safe to say my family contributions are slightly more appreciated now than they were two weeks ago. Also, I truly don’t know how anyone is supposed to wrangle a 35 lb. tornado toddler after a c-section, so thank the Lord he is around to help.
• I now can recognize how postpartum depression affected me. I still need time to process this, but looking back at this same time period after having Dorothy – I was not okay.
• We’re getting this. Maybe it’s because we’ve been around this block once before, but this second kid thing is almost… dare I say, easy?! *gasp!* I jinxed us, I know. Week three is about to be hell. But we’re not freaking out over every noise, we’re not waking her up to eat every two hours, and we’re not stressed about poop. We’re totally winning at this parenting thing.

But really. Where have the last two weeks gone?