Metal Meredith

...slept 12 hours straight last night. I am not a religious person, but HALLELUJAH!

I am not sure how this happened, but he truly is the cutest child on the planet. He makes my whole world smile on a daily basis. In the morning, even after waking up 2 or 3 times that night, screaming in my ears when I am half awake, pulling my hair with his flailing hands, he always manages to win me over in a matter of seconds. I walk in, he turns his head and in one sideways look, I am smiling.

I don’t remember Vivienne being this sweet or precious. Of course, there were many other factors going on then. I was trying to work from home and take care of her at the same time. I was suffering from a pretty bad bought of post partum depression but hadn’t quite realized it yet. She would screech ad cry when you placed her in the carseat. Traveling made my blood pressure rise so much I stopped going out altogether if I had to take her along. It was a good 6 months before I started taking Zoloft and felt normal again. I actually remember her being cute around 6 months. Before that, I was too hard on myself and her to enjoy it.

But Henry, he is a peach. I wanted to enjoy this experience fully, seeing as it is obvious we won’t have another. I started on Zoloft 6 weeks after giving birth to ward off any possible depression. I simply didn’t want to take the chance. We can go out and do pretty regularly. Vivienne is helpful for the most part which makes this time a bit easier, even if I have another child to take care of.

Henry likes to smile and talk. He has giggled a few times, but his happiness is evident without it. He turns his head, looks up at you from the corner of his eye and gives a wide, sideways grin. He is such a flirt. He somehow manages to look surprised when you walk over to him, as if to say “Hey! Its you! I like you!”

I haven’t written a lot about him because there isn’t much more to say. For those with kids, you know the milestones that he is hitting; clutching something in a fist, kicking things with his foot, recognizing faces and sounds. Looking around and scooting on his back. Those things thrill me but aren’t such a big deal to those without kids. Phil and I clapped and laughed ourselves silly when he first made a giggle sound. Vivienne was startled and didn’t understand the fun of it all.

But here are some recent photos. He is a huge boy, weighing in at 15lbs at his last doctor visit. We have another in a week, so I can only imagine he is 17-18 now, if not more. In fact, we just started him in size 3 diapers, which are for 6 month old babies...good grief.

Honestly, I have a hundred million things to write about and just no time to sit down and hash them out. I think I will try to spread them out so it seems like I am giving this thing love.

We are in a nice holding pattern right now with the family. It seems like we have settled in to a routine that works for us. Thus far, we have been good at adapting when it was needed. Hopefully we can continue down that path.

Henry is a little over 2 months old now. The kid weighs a 14.5 pounds. He is a over 2 pounds more than Vivienne was at this age. I am amazed at the fact that he has outgrown his 0-3 month clothing and is snugly into 3-6 month. He eats every 2 hours during the day and just started sleeping more at night. He has just started watching us eat with such intensity it is scary. Phil was eating a cupcake last night and he was licking his lips. I fear we will be poor from his food habit by the time he hits 2 years old. We will now be referring to him as “Hank the Tank”. Pro-wresting, here we come!

Vivienne is more girly with each passing day. She fell in love with Toy Story and Peter Pan this month. However, she just really loves the female characters. Peter Pan is known here as “The Tinkerbell Movie”. She told me her favorite color is pink (there ya go, Ronni!) and has insisted on having 2 ponytails every day at school because a few of the other girls have them. (Insert massive eye roll here).

All in all they are a fun bunch of kids, Phil included.

Here we are at the almost one month milestone of the birth of our dear Henry. I am not yet feeling sentimental about the birth and time flying past me because I am still dealing with lack of sleep. This is why you will not find a detailed entry about my birth story on my site.

I will tell you that it was one of the strangest things I have ever done. Giving birth to Vivienne was empowering and life affirming. Having a baby pulled from a slice in your abdomen didn’t give me that same feeling of euphoria, but did feel just as pleasant when that 9 pounds was removed from its place on my bladder. The recovery was more annoying, only because I felt like an invalid. It is quite interesting that at 34 and after having 2 kids, it is no longer humiliating to have someone wipe me down from head to toe while I bend over to brush my teeth in recovery.

Now that Henry has been home for a few weeks, I have been lucky enough to hear everyone exclaim how much he looks like Phil. Yes, another baby that I carried for 9 months that looks just like Phil. Maybe one day, one of my children will resemble me in something more than their bad attitude. Until then, I will have to just thank the universe that I think Phil looks good to me and there are things much worse than having kids that look just like the man I chose to marry.