Screaming Stroller in Safeway

Going places with baby has become less of a daunting experience. Our stroller is divine, my diaper bag is the height of fashion, and I'm far less squeamish about nursing in public that I thought I would be, using my special nursing cover-up of course. I'm not going to just whip my boob out in public, that's nonsense.

But, I am still struggling with how to cope with a crying (screaming) baby in public. At this age, I have a hard time letting her cry-it-out for any unnecessary length of time -- she's too little to be crying for any reason other than legitimate ones, nor is she old enough to be reasoned with out of a crying jag. However, when she starts crying in her stroller the second we approach the doors to Safeway, I'm not going to turn around and go home -- I'm already there and I have things to buy. Most of the time I will try to pull us to the side and take her out of the stroller and hold her to calm her down before laying her back again, which usually works after the second time. But it's still embarrassing when people walk by and everyone stares cause everyone has to be all up in everyone else's business these days. And on top of that she's a little newborn so she attracts attention. But you know, go away, I'm tending to this crying infant.

Finally, yesterday, though I hated to let her cry, I just carried on with my shopping. She's a baby, she cries, it's what they do, and I needed to get my shopping done, so everyone else can sort of suck it, really. But even though a fair number of people did in fact turn to look as my screaming stroller went past them, most people were in their own worlds and didn't seem to really notice it much. There was the one old lady, of course, who called the baby a "he" and kept trying to peer into the opening between the two roofs on the stroller to look at her, and when I said the baby was 7 weeks old, she said, "oh, I thought she was a newborn." In my opinion, babies are newborns until they're three months old. Clothes for babies goes from 0 to 3 months. So, they're either 0 or 3 months and above. And while she is still pretty smell compared to my friend Janet's son who was born only a few days after her and is huge, I've noticed that she's getting bigger than the little bitty newborn I brought home from the hospital. Aw...

Post-Partum Update

As most of you already know, Miss Violet made her appearance four days early, on April 2, 2011, at 1:47 am. Labor and delivery went well, I only had to push for 18 minutes, though I can't really say if it felt longer or shorter than that. It all went by in such a blur, and not only because of the drugs. The stay in the hospital seemed much longer than the two days it really was. Now that we're home with baby, Shawn and I both are, I think, settling in nicely to our new normal. And I think that's really the weirdest thing about this new stage of life -- how NOT weird it seems. It feels like something I've been doing all my life. I guess I was just mentally ready for this part of life to happen. Or perhaps it's a testament to how rapidly we humans adjust to new and drastic changes in our situations.

However, now that baby is born, there's little need to keep up a pregnancy blog. So I have changed the theme of this blog to Domestic Goddess, and will post on all things related to the further growth of the little bean, now alternately known as one of the following: This Baby, Baby, Little Squeaker, Squeaker Monkey, Squeaker Fish, Time Child (it's from South Park), Little Girl, Little Bug, or Monkey, (t really depends on the expression she has on at the moment), and my new MILF-like ways.

This week my efforts to lose the baby weight have begun in earnest. I worked out four days in a row before the baby forced me to take a day off -- she was just not okay with being put down yesterday -- and I got another good workout in today as well. I've been trying to get her on a regular, if flexible, schedule, now that she's at 6 weeks old, which has afforded me 1-2 hour periods of free time at several periods during the day, so I change into my workout clothes when I get dressed, to I'm ready to spring when the time is right, hehe. I went to the gym on Monday and did 30 minutes on the eliptical, and it was much harder than I'd thought, but it felt great -- not only the workout itself, but the act of putting on gym clothes, packing a gym bag, and getting down to the gym again. It was lovely, I felt incredible productive and healthful. Since I have my days free while I'm on maternity leave, I might as well get in as many workouts as I want. Once I'm back to work, I'll have to squeeze them in around working and commuting, so I want to take the opportunity to get a jump start now.

My goal is to lose 55 pounds and get down to 145lbs. I was 162 when I got pregnant, so that's the baby weight, plus the last few pounds I had been working on losing before the pregnancy. I'll basically miss this summer, but I'll be in tip-top shape for my wedding next summer. Yay!

Of course, after eating well and working out all week, I totally caved tonight and ordered pizza. After consuming and getting the Guilty Bloat, I chugged two huge bottles of water and did another workout -- 8 Min Abs and 8 Min Arms. I feel better about myself now. I intend, weather permitting, to take baby for a nice long walk in the stroller tomorrow, up the beach and back, which is 3 miles and takes me about an hour to complete.

I vow to have more exciting things to say by the next time I post.