The day before our wedding three years ago, we were asked when we were going to have kids. I felt the question was a bit hasty considering we were still 24 hours away from being married, but we said we'd wait three years. And after our wedding, on our "getaway" car were the words "three years till kids!" Today marks our three year anniversary, and we did, in fact, stick with our three year plan. A year ago, I never would have thought that we'd have a beautiful baby boy by our next anniversary, but God's plans are always best. And while being stuck in the "postpartum" phase of child-bearing on our anniversary isn't exactly the greatest, I feel safe in saying that I'll spend more anniversaries NOT recovering from childbirth. (Although the truth is, I recovered from my childbirth ailments weeks ago--at least in terms of pain--so all that's left now is convincing my body to handle breastfeeding a bit better than it seems capable of...)
In keeping with the tradition I started last year, here are a few more things I've learned about marriage since last year:
1. Buying a house and having a baby at the same time is stressful.
I don't think this needs explanation. Just don't do it. (Especially if you're buying a house that needs some fixing-up.)
2. Pregnancy is hard for husband and wife.
While my dear husband never complained about my inability to do anything early in pregnancy (thanks to morning/all day sickness) or late in pregnancy (thanks to my giant belly), I know it gave him a lot more work to do. And, of course, I would really like to skip the first trimester of all future pregnancies I may or may not have.
3. If you want something done in a certain time frame (or at all), do it yourself.
Our electricity went off on Tuesday at 12:30. I asked Travis to call our electric company and find out why. He didn't. Two hours later, I was at the point of total meltdown (literally melting), so I got the information from Travis and called them myself. For some reason, the company thought we had requested that our service be cancelled on July 8th, but couldn't figure out why they thought that. Moral of the story? Listen to your wife. Hah. Or in my case, make the call yourself. Otherwise, you won't have electricity again and you'll never know why.
4. A newborn can bring out the best and worst in you.
I find myself feeling completely unsympathetic (in the sense that I want to physically hurt him) anytime my dear husband says he's tired... after getting 7+ hours of uninterrupted sleep. But then I also refrain from waking him up in the middle of the night to help me when I know he has work the next day. It's a vicious cycle. :)
But I sure do love being married. God gave me a good one. ;)
Now for the "I have a new baby and it's all I can think/talk about" update:
I am a mere three days away from being six weeks postpartum. I'm hoping that the miracle "week six" will literally hold some kind of miracle. I've had two bouts of mastitis and am rather susceptible to thrush now. Breastfeeding is slowly becoming less painful, but it's not as easy as I was told it would be once the first couple of weeks passed. However, I have noticed less engorgement, so that's one positive thing.
Logan will sleep at night for longer stretches as long as he's tightly swaddled. His arms startle him. The few times I've let him sleep on his tummy during the day, he sleeps so well and for quite a while. It's really a pain that tummy sleeping is so widely discouraged. He also loves looking at the ceiling--especially if there are lights on. And he's going through a phase (his phases change quite frequently) where he doesn't want to sleep during the day unless he's being held. Silly baby. I'm hoping the phase will have passed by the time my sisters leave, because I don't know how I'll get anything done if he needs to be held all day long. Although I'm looking forward to using my baby carrier, as soon as my chest isn't hurting all the time. Ah, the joys of breastfeeding.
Other than all of that, I can now sleep anytime, day or night. The dog fur is getting to me again. My mom left a week ago and it was the hardest goodbye I've ever said to her. When my sisters move back to Dallas for school, we're not going to know what to do with ourselves. And it's time to feed my sweet baby boy again. :)
