Milestone: Vacuuming (Oh Yeah...and Smiling...)

One of the strangest - and oddly, most frustrating - things about the last six weeks has been being unable to vacuum.

The general rule of thumb is that vacuuming is one of those things it's wise for a mother to avoid doing for about six weeks after the birth of a child.  Apparently, it uses many of the abdominal muscles that are still healing and irritating those can make the overall recovery longer and less successful.  I'm all for healing up properly, so I haven't vacuumed since Abby was born.

Now, our house isn't spotless, but I really like when things are clean.  I even like the word "clean".  It just sounds good to me.  Before Abigail, I vacuumed (well, took the vacuum around for a quick trip through the rooms) every day because every day I emptied the dirt catcher and it was full of dust and dirt and junk so I figured I should just keep vacuuming until I didn't see as much.  Unfortunately, what happened was that I got used to our floors being nice and clean...and then I had to go on a six-week vacuuming break.  

One of the things I notice about having to sit and nurse Abigail all the time is that I see the things that need to be done that I can't do right now.  Vacuuming is apparent because I started seeing all the little crumbs and things on the floor.  Ben vacuumed for me a few times, but he was stepping in the gap in lots of different ways and vacuuming every day is an awful lot to ask.

However, Abigail and I had our six-week checkup this week.  Six weeks is the mark when moms can often resume normal household stuff like vacuuming.  So even though yesterday was really only 5 weeks and five days since Abigail was born, I put her in the carrier and vacuumed and washed the kitchen floor.

I feel so much better now.  Next I'll need to scrub the bathtub.  Yikes.  HOW do things get so dirty in such a short period of time, especially after I cleaned them so thoroughly just six weeks ago?

Hey, I knew this break was coming up and besides, if a little cleaning got everything in gear for Abby to come out, so much the better.

Abigail and I also went for our first walk.  We haven't gotten a stroller yet (though we have enough gift cards to be able to just go get one, as it turns out - thanks to Turner and Myers families!) but Abigail is pretty happy in the Baby Bjorn carrier, so I bundled her up and took her for a brisk step around the block.  Brisk because 45 degrees with a light breeze is still a little tough for Abby to handle with equanimity.  She did pretty well, though, only catching her breath a few times and looking around with her usual expression of puzzled concentration until she fell asleep with her cold little nose on my collarbone.  She's been pretty unsatisfied with anything except being walked or carried in the baby carrier over the past week, though she's been making up for the constant crabbing by tossing out the odd grin or two like the one Benjamin captured in this photo.  

I'm really looking forward to seeing that face more often instead of the scrunchy red "I'm-not-too-happy-with-this-situation!" one.

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