Push Presents

Are you familiar with the concept of Push Presents?
They've become increasingly popular in the last few years and seem to be a somewhat polarizing topic.  There are those that expect some expensive blingy something and then those that find the idea distasteful, claiming that the baby is the only present needed.

I "get" both responses.  Linus is the ultimate present.  He is amazing and I can't imagine my life without him.  It's incomprehensible to me that he's only been in the world for 11 days!  It feels like he's always been here.  I certainly didn't need anything to reward me for bringing him into this world.  The sentimental side of me, however, thinks that having some small something to commemorate the birth of a child is nice.  It doesn't have to be something expensive or fancy...

Ross and I had talked about push presents before I gave birth, but nothing specific.  I knew he was aware of the concept and that he knew my thoughts on them.  A few days after we got back home from the hospital, my push present was delivered.  Ross had warned me that he'd gone with a practical one and that he may have taken "push" literally.  I was intrigued.

The items that arrived may have been offensive to some women, but I was SO excited.  It wasn't exactly a sentimental piece of art or jewellery like I might have imagined (but there's always Mother's Day for that... hint hint), but... it was totally awesome!

Behold:

I've hated (HATED!) our vacuum cleaner ever since I moved here.  It's clunky and the canister is difficult and messy to empty.  I'd put this Dyson Digital Slim on my Amazon UK wishlist a while ago, without any intention of actually getting it, just because I thought it was cool.  Let me tell you- this thing is AWESOME! (AWESOME!!)  It is cordless and light and handles great and does a great job.  The filter canister empties easily and the attachments all store neatly.  I love it.  Whenever I've used it, Ross smiles at me and makes a joke about pushing the vacuum cleaner.

The other item is the Vax Home Master.  I haven't gotten it out of the box yet, but I am super duper excited to try it.  According to the internet reviews, this thing can clean anything- from carpets to the oven.  In keeping with our efforts to eliminate as many chemicals as possible from our home (especially now that Linus is on the scene), it doesn't use any thing besides steam to get the job done!  No cleaning solutions or products required.  We already have a little handheld steam cleaner thing that I've used in the kitchen, but this is going to take it to a whole new level!  I'm pretty sure Ross is nearly as excited to play with this thing as I am.

I decided, before Linus was born, that marking the birth of a child isn't something just for mommum.  I decided that Ross needed something special to mark his becoming a dad.  I thought for a long while about what I could get him that would be sweet and appropriate to him.  I found just the thing!

They say "Simply the Best Daddy"

Now, you may be thinking- "Socks?  Seriously?  That was your big idea?"  If that's what you're thinking, then you don't know that my husband loves socks.  He doesn't have a sock drawer- he has an entire dresser full of them.  He says that his ultimate luxury would be to have new socks ever day.  I presented them to Ross when we brought Linus home.  He gave a very sweet smile and put them in a special place to "save" them for a special occasion.

So that's how we did push presents at our house.
What do you think of push presents?

What about doing them in a non-traditional way?

Tales of a New Mommy

My recovery has been great and I feel about 95% back to normal.  I'm already in my pre-pregnancy jeans!  It's pretty crazy.  Linus has been sleeping well and we're getting this nursing thing down.  The most helpful thing is that he likes to cluster feed (feed A LOT for a few hours) right before bed, so I can get a 4-5 hour chunk of sleep at night.  Hooray!  Usually then he'll feed at 6AM or so and then sleep for 2-3 more hours, so my sleep deprivation isn't bad at all.

Yesterday we went on our first family outing.  We took Linus to The Trafford Centre and then to Asda.  He slept through the whole thing.  It was insanely easy.  Ross and I walked around the mall and had a nice lunch together.  Our stroller is awesome and I could steer it with one hand and hold hands with Ross too.  I was a little nervous about how much Linus was sleeping, but I'm trying to take a laid-back attitude and assume that (in general) it's best to follow his lead on when to eat and when to sleep instead of forcing anything this early.

Then this morning.  This morning he woke up and wanted to eat for the Olympic trials.  I'm assuming he was making up for yesterday and tanking up.  I feel like I did nothing but feed him, switching sides back and forth for several hours.  After he was finally satiated, I handed him off to Ross and got in the shower.  While in the shower I discovered that the conditioner I bought at Asda yesterday is actually shampoo, so I'd shampooed my hair twice (but with different kinds of shampoo) and had no conditioner in the shower.  I was able to reach out and grab a little bottle of conditioner that I'd used in the hospital to save the day though!  I took my time luxuriating in the hot stream of water.  I turned off the water and realized Linus was crying.  Time for the milk machine to jump back into action.  I grabbed the towel and put it to my head only to find that I'd never actually washed the conditioner out.  Ugh.  Back into the shower I went.  A quick rinse and then I was back in action for another marathon feed.

So, what I'm saying is- I've got this motherhood thing down already!  See how smooth I am!?
I can't really complain as I feel like I've got it easy with a great husband and an adorable baby.  We're getting it.  Blogging isn't making the cut every day like it used to, but hopefully I'll be back more regularly soon.

Until then, here are some pictures:

love at first sight

teensy little man

first family outing

"Down There"

During my pregnancy, I noticed that women in the UK seem to be much more uncomfortable with the idea of pelvic exams than Americans.  I mean, not that anyone really likes a pelvic... but Americans have them annually in most cases.  Here in England, pap smears are only every 3 years.  During my pregnancy, I never once had to take my pants off-  until my water broke.  Some of the women in my aqua aerobics class were expressing concern about having to have a pelvic when they went into labor.  This struck me as funny.  I mean, they know that having a baby means pushing a person out of their vagina, right?  It's a little late to be precious about it in my opinion...

But, during my labor experience, I found that this attitude definitely continued.  By the time I was ready to get going in the delivery room (full TMI birth story to come), I wasn't too concerned about my modesty.  I mean I was getting ready to squeeze a child out in front of these midwives.  They were going to see stuff eventually.  They've seen lots of other's people's goodies before and they'll see plenty more to come.  The midwives were very nice, but seemed to think I was a modest flower.  Maybe that's part of their training, and I'm sure many women appreciate that approach.  I simply found it funny!  

After I'd given birth and was ready to take a shower, the midwife asked if I had a robe or something that I wanted.  I guess she thought I'd want to cover up to walk the 10 feet to the bathroom in front of my husband.  I was fine doing it naked.  He's seen it before.  In fact, he just watched me push our baby out of it.

After I moved to the post natal ward, the midwives made the rounds checking on us.  My room on the ward consisted of 4 bays separated by curtains, so there was some privacy, but you could hear everything going on around.  As my stay continued, I noticed that the midwives continued with their modest approach.  I heard women asked if everything was ok "down there"- accompanied by a vague hand gesture, raised eyebrows, and hushed tone.  Why are these medical professionals unable to say the word "vagina"?  

When we were being discharged, a midwife was going through all the official talking points.  My favorite one included that the post-birth period is a highly fertile one.  She advised us to be careful if we were "feeling romantic" and to use birth control.  Ross and I found this hilarious.  (Aside from the exceedingly humorous notion of being in any mood to have sex immediately after getting home!)

Ross declared that if he were a midwife, he'd have fun using a different euphemism every time.  And so, we've been on a euphemism kick.  Ross has been asking me about my "down there" in various ways.  So far, we've had my "attached veranda", "underwear filler", "family vault", "lady town" and many others.

Do you prefer when medical professionals use technical words or euphemism?  

Bonus points for best "down there" euphemism!

Cheerful Sunday

Seeing my husband hold our son is, by far, the most cheerful thing ever!

my two sweethearts

We're settling in at home and things are going well!  Thanks for all the kind thoughts y'all!

I hope you'll pardon the broadcast interruption...

I've been a little busy.

Meet Linus

March 1st at 8:24AM