Postpartum second time around

Today I am 3 weeks postpartum with my sweet second baby Houston. 

I truthfully thought about skipping blogging about my postpartum experience second time around because I don't feel like I have a lot to say... but I know how much I appreciated reading back over my postpartum experiences with Leo and figured - it's my blog I can talk about whatever I want, as boring as it may be... and even if my experience is atypical - it is my experience.

Pretty much by recovery with Houston has been amazing.
I don't know if this is typical of a second baby or if perhaps I was just really, really sore after having Leo, but pain/uncomfortableness level between the two is not even comparable.
After Leo it took days and days before I could even sit and stand without pain and I had muscle soreness all over my body.  Literally the hour after giving birth to Houston I felt almost completely normal.
I had 0 swelling, 0 pain, and very minimal bleeding. I felt good enough to start going on walks right away and even went swimming 6 days pp.  That would not have happened after having Leo.  At just a few days pp I started aiming to walk a mile each day and then around 2 weeks pp I've upped it to try to get at least 2 miles in and also doing other light exercises.  Tomorrow at 3 weeks pp I'm going to start the Jillian Michael's 30 day shred that I had success with after having Leo.
I feel as though my stomach has gotten flatter much quicker the 2nd time, although at the doctor for Houston's 2 week appointment I weighed myself and still weighed 15lbs more than I did before I got pregnant!  I was truthfully pretty surprised, but I guess that's one of the things about being tall is that you can gain weight and spread it out more.  The majority of my pre-pregnancy clothes fit again within about a week, despite these extra 15 or so pounds.  I also think this time I gained my weight more in my lower half... I can tell my hips and thighs are bigger. Maybe Jillian can help with with that. lol.

As I mentioned in Houston's 2 week update - the ease of breastfeeding this time has been a huge part of my great recovery.  We haven't had any issues for which I am thankful for literally every single time he nurses.  I had a terrible first couple of months feeding Leo. Not having to worry about that this time is the biggest relief.

I have not felt emotional or as though my hormones were out of wack at all.  I distinctly remember one time(and only 1 time thankfully) after having Leo where I just felt like crying for absolutely no reason and didn't feel like myself.  It only happened once, but I think it must have been a small glimpse into what some women deal with after giving birth.  With Houston the transition has been so amazingly smooth.  The closest I have come to crying or feeling overwhelmed has been watching him and Leo interact and just thanking God that these two blessings are mine.

People keep asking me how I am doing and how I am adjusting to motherhood with 2 and it's like I feel a weird sense of guilt over how well we are doing.  I'm not going to say it's super easy, it's not.  It's a lot to have two people completely dependent on you, but it's no where near as hard as I expected it to be, or how hard others scared me into thinking it'd be.  I was especially nervous knowing that my family wouldn't be able to visit right after having Houston (long story but dad has broken leg and my mom has a broken arm....) and that Lee would only have a week vacation, but Houston has made life easy on us.

I don't know if it's just my personality.  I've always been a go with the flow, adaptable kind of person. I don't get stressed out by much.  And i'm pretty sure that I must have 2 extremely easy children... so the combo of those things - and my amazing, helpful husband (when he's not at work) - has made this seriously as easy as I make it look on my instagram account. haha. Sometimes you can believe everything you see on the internet.
And really - we're still only 3 weeks into this family of 4 business. I know it's going to get harder. I know we'll have rough days.  We have had a few of those already. One day last week Leo literally pooped his pants 3x. The kid who poops once a day every single day without fail found it in himself one day to poop 4x... 3 of which were in his underwear... but you know what it's just poop.  You can flush it and throw underwear in the washer (or trash, lol) and it all goes away.

I made myself crazy the last few weeks before Houston was born preparing "busy bags" for Leo.  I did every pinterest thing I found... and 3 weeks later I haven't pulled out a single one of them yet. I will and I should... but I still find plenty of time in the day to spend quality time with Leo.  We do all the activities that we did before Houston was born and more now!  We just find ways to include Houston - we read together and Leo reads to Houston.  We play doctor but do a check up on Houston too.  We play with the superheros and explain to Houston who each of the guys are. We take walks together.  We even all 3 took a bath together the other day... haha.  And it wasn't that hard and we all 3 got clean at the same time! 

My motto since I first found out that I was pregnant with Leo has been - if so-and-so can do it so can I.  Almost all of the couple I know have at least 1 kid and they make it work.  And out of those people almost all of them go on to have a 2nd kid and they just figure it out.  We're all just learning as we go.