I had a healthy baby boy on June 5! I expect to write a more detailed birth post eventually, but in summary, C3 (as I’ll call him here for now) was born after a 36+ hour induction ending in a c-section. It’s been the longest month of my life and I usually don’t know what day it is… but overall our little family is doing pretty well, thanks to A LOT of generous help from our families and friends. I’ve gotten an advanced crash course in accepting help, especially during the first week-ish when I could barely take care of myself, much less the baby. But life is slowly improving as we all heal and get a better grip on things. There’s not much you can do to create stability or routine when they’re this little, but we’re trying. In general, he’s a good (and very cute) baby. I can’t believe I successfully grew him in my body.

Taylor is a great dad and co-parent (as I expected ;)). He had to go back to work after a week, but continues to participate fully in baby care. I have not missed a meal or gone one day without a shower (take note: “never showering again” does not have to be a thing!). I’m still only getting two or three hours of sleep most nights, but one of our moms comes over almost every morning so I can take a nap. Basically, Taylor and our moms are standing between me and postpartum depression. When we take C3 to appointments and everyone calls me Mom, I’m still surprised they’re talking to me. Having a baby really is like throwing a live grenade on your life. I suspect it’ll take a long time to figure out how all the pieces fit together now.

It’s taken all week to piece this short post together, but here’s a very abbreviated What I’m Into. I might want to remember this stuff from this first foggy month!

Reading:

When I started claiming the overnight feeding hours as my Kindle time, it was a game changer. I fall asleep if I either sit in silence or try to watch something. Reading keeps me engaged enough to stay awake with the baby, and I can manage the Kindle one-handed.

• All This Could Be Yours by Jami Attenberg (4 stars) (this is what I was reading at the time C3 was born)
• How to Be a Person in the World: Ask Polly’s Guide Through the Paradoxes of Modern Life by Heather Havrilesky (4.5 stars)
• The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel (4 stars)
• And I Do Not Forgive You: Stories & Other Revenges by Amber Sparks (3 stars)

Watching:

• The Americans – After feeling meh about it at first, I got hooked. We watch a few episodes a day and are almost done with season 3. Kind of a dark show to be watching with a brand new baby, but *shrug emoji*
• Loki – The highlight of my Wednesdays… and reading tweets/memes about it afterwards is the second highlight.
• The Bold Type – I feel like this final season was kind of a dumpster fire, though I did like the twist of who ended up in charge.
• The Friends reunion on HBO – I am concerned about Matthew Perry.
• Taylor just finished the 18-hour Ken Burns baseball documentary. I saw some of it and it was pretty interesting, although they must have used every interpretation of “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” ever recorded.

More later.