Decline and Fall of Me

One day near the end of Robert's paternity leave, I turned to him and said, "You know-- I don't feel that tired.  I think I'm doing really well."  Famous last words, right?  The two weeks since he went back to work have seen me not quite so chipper as my energy and good spirits have ebbed a bit.  Rob worked that first weekend so it was 12 days in a row of just me with the two lovely girls.  I am fortunate that he was able to come home every evening in time for bedtime routines, that friends have been bringing us meals several times a week, and that my mom was able to help out with some shopping.  Still, this past weekend found me calling people the wrong names and not quite able to string words into sentences and desperate for naps.  I'm a little surprised that I'm so tired because Violet is sleeping quite well for her age, going almost 5 hours overnight between nursing sessions, and is easy to return to sleep when she does wake up to eat.  I guess the tiredness isn't all about waking up to nurse, but also about the demanding daytime hours and just still healing from childbirth.

I am not about to tumble over any postpartum precipices or anything-- just more tired and stretched thin than I was two weeks ago.  It's somewhat discouraging to feel worse and worse as the days pass, but this past weekend with Rob home did a lot to halt my decline and surely soon life will get easier and things will start to turn up.  I remember the six-week mark being a big milestone with Grace when things started to feel a lot easier; that's only two weeks away!  Surely I can manage until then, staying even-keeled and content and just a bit worn out.

This morning I rubbed olive oil all over Violet's head and eyebrows in an effort to banish the cradle cap. She doesn't have a terrible case of it or anything; it's not even bad enough to really show up in pictures.  However, I have olive oil so I thought, "Eh, why not?" The general idea is to rub some olive oil on the flaky bits, let it sit to soften things up for 30 minutes or so, use a fine-tooth comb (like what comes in those baby toiletry kits) to loosen and brush out the flakiness, then give the baby a bath and shampoo out the olive oil and everything. I have to say that the process was quite dramatic in its effects when I started in with the comb.  A TON of gunk came off her, although I think I'll have to do it a few more times to really clear up the bit of seborrhea she's got. And as an added bonus she smelled like a delicious salad for a while. She is delicous, you must admit: