4th trimester update & going back to work from home
Lucy is 12 weeks old now and I go back to work on Monday. Whew. It flew by but also, with Otto too, I feel like the newborn phase (the hardest) just lasts foreeever. Here's how we're doing!
Pregnancy 4th trimester
I had a really rough time physically recovering the first ~2 weeks (final pregnancy update here, birth story here), and weeks 1-5 or so Lucy's sleep was so bad, I was so exhausted. Lots of naps. She'd sleep for a 3-hour chunk, then wake up every 1.5 hours after (till I taught her to go to sleep by herself). She's much better now. Bed at 7:30, dream feed at 9:30, wakes up once, then wakes up again around 6:30. I just read back to my post like this about Otto and he slept in later than that! I'm also trying to soothe Lucy if she wakes up way early for a feeding, or way early for the day, and she can often go back to sleep without feeding again if it's only been a couple hours.
So sleep is a major issue, again. I swear it's the hardest part of parenting for me so far, both times.
Other issue I've had both times: low back pain and a really stiff, painful neck. I'm doing PT and getting care for them but mainly the issue is lack of strength from taking too long off of working out. Now it's inflamed so it's hard to do much to strengthen, and I have no idea when I'd find time for regular working out right now!
But I'm feeling good emotionally! It's been really wonderful to have more time with Otto at this age (2.5) and I've definitely enjoyed having less on my mind and plate without work stresses.
What else? Weight loss after baby has been a lot more work this time around. After Otto I blinked and lost all 30 pounds. I did nothing and it all just came off. This time, I lost 15 pounds right away (Lucy was almost 10 pounds at birth so a lot of that was baby), and then stopped for weeks. I waited a bit but at 8 weeks postpartum I did some research and talked to my doc and Lucy's and started counting macros, making sure to maintain my milk supply. I've been losing about a pound a week since. It's no fun typing my food into MyFitnessPal and eating only high-protein snacks, but hopefully it's temporary. Thankfully my body image issues, which I've had since I was a kid, went away when I got pregnant with Otto. I haven't had anxiety and self image issues since then, been focused on growing and feeding babies instead. Even now I feeling healthy about it, I still love my body!, I just don't want to buy new jeans and right now I can only wear what used to be the loose ones. (Update: Here's my postpartum weight loss post after Lucy.)
Hey, but I really won't have to wear real pants much for a while anyway... I'm going back to work remotely for the foreseeable future!
Going back to work after baby
I'm going back 30 hours/week over 4 days, working from home. Compared to what I did when I went back after having Otto, it sounds practically relaxing. We're wrapping up moving our bedrooms around and setting up a dedicated office for me again (we just turned this one into Otto's room), so I'll hole up in there from 8-4:30 or so and hopefully Jason will be able to handle this chaos by himself in the rest of the house.
Real life behind these photos... toddler who won't stop moving, and rolled up poster inside a vase in the background. It's a bit of a mess over here right now!
Jason just graduated physical therapy school a couple weeks ago (delayed due to COVID) and isn't working yet unfortunately, but that means we don't need childcare for now. My parents hang out with Otto for a couple hours twice a week which has been a lifesaver for me these past few months of watching two kids by myself all the time!!, and I'm sure will really help Jason too.
One big thing about working from home with a newborn is I plan to feed her on her regular schedule instead of pumping. Pumping is a huge drag and it's very hard to do it enough to keep up supply (I found last time, anyway), and hopefully this sweet baby can calmly breastfeed while I take my pumping/feeding breaks and we can get it done in 15-30 mins as if I was pumping.
Pre-second baby I was really good at boundaries when I was working from home, staying totally out of the way of Otto and whoever was watching him, and only coming into the main space to eat lunch when the house was quiet (naptime). It really helps me to totally focus on work during work hours and step away mentally from all the stuff at home. Hope I can do that again but I'm sure it will be harder, if I hear Lucy waking up early from a nap or Jason struggling with two kids crying at once or something. Here goes!
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