Day 1

O is 14 days old today and it's my first day on my own with her and Sebby. The past 2 weeks were a blur of excitement as we adjusted to becoming a family of 4. We are so thankful for the great support we received following O's birth including tons of meals, visitors and help with Sebby. Our friend, Joyce hung out with Sebby for at least an hour every day, giving us a little break to get things done and giving him some undivided attention. (He loved it!) Our church arranged to have several families deliver us meals and most of them stayed to eat with us, which was an added treat as it gave us the opportunity to visit with some great people. Some people brought gifts and flowers, one couple even brought Sebby a gift, a flute set for the bath that has been a HUGE hit with him! All of this in addition to having Darren around 24/7 was almost too good to be true.

This morning I woke up realizing that today would be a bit of an adjustment since Darren was starting back at work. I wondered how I would manage even simple things like showering and getting out to the clothesline, although I knew I could do it. When I got up, I noticed I was bleeding a bit more heavily, which the midwife told me was a sign that I was overdoing it a little so although I felt like yesterday hadn't been particularly strenuous, I took a cue from my body and asked Darren if I could sleep a bit longer. When S woke me at 9:30am, breakfast was on the table, S was dressed and diapers were in the washing machine (we now wash diapers every day!). I was thankful for my super helpful husband, realizing that he'd given me a huge boost to start my day. He left for work and we were on our own.

I fed O then spent a bit of time with her because she was awake and S was playing well on his own. I decided that the most strategic way to shower was to leave O in her chair in our room with the door closed since S can't open that one door. I thought about putting O's chair in the bathroom and closing the door but thought S might not like that as he's used to me leaving the door open. My strategy worked, and when I finished showering, I still had 2 happy kiddies.

O was sleeping in her chair so I put S on my back and went out to hang out the diapers on the line since our backyard is a total mud pit these days. I had hoped to go pick up a few things at at Tesco but it was too late to go out before Sebby's nap. Instead, I did the breakfast dishes, put away the 2 loads of laundry that were hanging in the living room then changed the sheets on our bed. After lunch, S went for his nap but I couldn't fall asleep so I rested in bed for awhile then hung out the second load of laundry then our grocery delivery arrived so I started putting that away.  I was in the kitchen when I heard Darren's keys in the door.

Not bad at all for day 1 on our own! The house wasn't a total disaster, I was showered and dressed and I was feeling quite relaxed overall. I was a little disappointed that I didn't make it outside to enjoy the sunshine today but I'm trying to not be too hard on myself. I'll work on getting out of the flat with the kids but for today I was really thankful for the sunshine coming in our windows and S who contentedly played inside all morning.

To top off a good day, a couple from church brought us a really delicious meal, homemade chicken pie and mashed potatoes. We loved it, even S liked it, especially the pastry! What a great meal to end the meals that our church had organized for us.

I'm so excited for our friend, Karen, to arrive tomorrow for a week. I'm looking forward to catching up with her and I'm sure she'll be able to help me get out of the house too.