Third Culture Kid(s)

We’re one week and one day postpartum, and I’m finally starting to see little bits of my old new life there in the cracks of the insomnia.

We welcomed C.H.M. - but always affectionately known here as 2.0 - into the world at 10:01 am on Tuesday, Dec. 18, 2007.  He weighed 8 lbs. 11 oz., of which approximately 5 lbs. had to have been his head, and it turned out that he was so wedged into my pelvis (I knew it!) that they had to use a little vacuum suction to help him out.

The repeat c-section was happily uneventful, but I feel like the recovery is taking me a little longer this time around - no real surprise, I guess, given that I’m over 40 this time around.  But I’m getting there and I have to admit that, as hard as having two little people is, the baby thing itself is a hell of a lot easier the second time around.  I’ve been riding the hormone rollercoaster from hell ever since my milk came in, and it’s mostly triggered by cheap sentiment (which, you know, makes going through it at this particular time of year especially fun).  I’ll just be standing around minding my own business, hear or see something that triggers something else, and I’m off on a 20 minute crying jag.

On the plus side, C. is far more interested in my boobs than MM ever was, so I think we’re making a go of the nursing.  One side is a relatively easy latch; the other is frequently painful, but I’m hoping that that will abate as C. gets bigger.  He’s ravenous, though; as I pretty much expected, he came into the world unwillingly and, once here, starving, and he’s been eating ever since.  He also has a very low threshold for discomfort - does NOT like gas, does NOT like hiccups (which is a womb carryover) - and grouses in this kind of baby hawk cry whenever they show up.  But he poops and pees like a trouper, and we’re starting to make something of a schedule together, so I can’t complain.

But, without further ado, here are a few pics of the new little guy (and one of MM, who’s settling into her new role with relative aplomb - she did have one GIGANTIC poop a few days after we got home that made us realize just how much she had been keeping in, so to speak, but ever since then she’s started the slow path back to normalcy).  Enjoy, and more when the brain-fog clears a little.