Playful Rooted

Postpartum hormones are INSANE, pals, and here’s why:

Logically, I KNOW that I never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever want to be pregnant again. Never. Never ever. And not just because this pregnancy caused me enough trauma to last a lifetime; even the easiest pregnancy is HARD. It’s hard physically, hard emotionally, hard mentally. And I’m done. I’m so done. Finito. Forever. Consider me retired from growing humans.

BUT,

knowing these are my very last newborn snuggles? Ohhh, it’s difficult.

It’s difficult enough that the tiny lizard part of my brain is like, “welllll…..maaayyybe we could have another one.”

HAH! Haha! Hahaha. Ha. No. Pipe down please, lizard brain.

I’m sure a lot of this has to do with Pria’s birth and how traumatic that was for me. (I’m procrastinating on writing her birth story because, frankly, it sucked, and I don’t want to think about it.) I wanted to do it right, to make my vision of birth a reality, and it just didn’t happen this time. So my brain is creating a theoretical future in which I could do it again and do it “right.” Even though I never, ever, ever, ever actually want to do it again.

Here comes the part where I compare myself to an Olympic athlete.

Regarding my disappointing birth, I’ve been weirdly comforted by Simone Biles getting the yips (or the “twisties” as they’re apparently called in gymnastics, which is still hilarious to me) during these Olympics. You can train and practice and visualize and plan and do absolutely everything in your power to make something happen the way you want it to, and sometimes…..it just doesn’t work out. For reasons beyond your control, you sometimes have to adjust your vision, change your plan, do what’s right in the moment despite everything you’ve spent so long working for. It’s disappointing and unfortunate, but it happens, and now we just try to accept it and move on.

(Or go to therapy, which is what I’ll be doing.)

All one million percent worth it for this sweet miracle:

Okay, enough “Dear Diary” stuff. Here are some things actually worth sharing:

Body Safety rules.

Meghann from Rooted Childhood recently created and shared this fantastic PDF of Body Safety rules for kids. She recommends not only reading through this often with your kids but also displaying a copy in every bathroom so that any babysitters or other visitors to your home know that your kids will not be made targets of abuse. Brilliant. Keeping my children safe, PLUS an excuse to use my laminator? Count me in.

Postpartum Belly Wrap.

I didn’t use any type of support gear after the boys were born, and guess what? Postpartum life is better when you do. I’ve been LOVING this Luxe Belly Wrap this past week. I’m not too worried about “getting my body back” quickly — it will happen in time — but the wrap has been awesome for supporting my back and abs, which have forgotten how to function without a million pounds of baby in the front. It feels shockingly good to have better posture in these early post-baby days. Highly recommended!

A Nice Cup of Joe.

Oh, you guys. What a glorious thing it is to have a nice cup of coffee from the comfort of home. Ben got me this French press for my birthday, and it’s seriously a game changer. It makes SUCH good coffee. (Plus, so much prettier than our old drip machine!) I also bought myself this milk frother as a “push present,” and hello, where has foamed oat milk been all my life?!

Body After Birth.

I started doing this Body After Birth rehab program at a week postpartum, and it’s great. I’m already starting to feel better, which is important to me because I want to be as recovered as I can be by the time Ben’s paternity leave is over and I am on my OWN with three small children, omg.

One of my friends who’s also doing this program said that after just a few weeks, she feels stronger and more stable than she did before pregnancy! I wish I had been prepared with this after Sawyer was born; that was a rough postpartum recovery. Thankfully, I’m optimistic that this one will be much smoother.

Goodbye, Money.

When the calendar turns to August, it always makes me want to cozy up our house in preparation for fall. I’ve been scoping out new throw pillows and am now drooling over a bunch of these ones. (We haven’t had pillows on our living room couches for five years because of our two heartless beagles who destroyed every throw pillow I previously owned. However, since Sawyer was about nine months old, we’ve had a giant baby gate that blocks the dogs from getting into the living room, so what have I even been doing since then?? It’s time to pillow.) Also crushing hard on this mug. $4.99?? Practically free.

Also, as a summer baby with plenty of gender neutral hand-me-downs, Pria needs nothing in the way of clothing. But….are you kidding me? So cute.

Also! I was devastated when these mules sold out so quickly during the first part of the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale, but I checked again on a whim and found them IN MY SIZE as well as several other sizes that had already sold out. This means that people have been returning them, like a lot. This may mean that they’re actually terrible. I ordered them anyway, so time will soon tell.

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All right, time to go snuggle my sweetie.

xo!