Moving In

Today is the third day we've been in my new apartment.

I love it!

There's just so much more space. I feel like I can breathe, even when things aren't entirely neat. And Calliope having her own room is a game changer. Having her toys corralled in one place... wow. And she already understands that the toys are there, and will crawl in there to play. Once I figure out how to install the baby gate in front of her door, I will try to relax into letting her play unsupervised.

The light is great. The in-wall (instead of in-window) air conditioners are so much quieter and they actually cool the apartment very effectively -- what a concept! (Although they seem really dusty, despite my attempts to clean them, and being in a small room with one gives me a headache sometimes.)

Still, the mess and chaos of moving is hard for me. I can't think straight when things are a mess. Not a helpful trait, especially when living with an inquisitive crawling baby.

Luckily I had a day and a half of paid help, including a few hours of childcare. Plus various friends pitched in to help, which was incredible. I'm so grateful and so lucky.

The boxes were all gone by the end of the second day, except for one I forgot about in my bathroom. Of course, I have almost zero storage in both bathrooms (can you believe I have two bathrooms???) so that one box has been consolidated and moved to my bedroom for the time being.

I asked my helpers to just put things away wherever they saw fit, so now I'm working on the slow process of organizing everything. Today's project was sorting through bags of baby clothes -- some too small, some too big, some to donate, some to save, some to turn into rags. That was it for today, given that I had no childcare and used Calliope's morning nap to work out and her afternoon (all 30 minutes of it) to relax in front of the computer.

I know I'm doing really well in how quickly I've gotten a lot done, but it's also easy to get a little discouraged about how much I have left to do to get things the way I want them... and how soon I go back to work (five days). I'm starting to get sad about that, being away from Calliope five days a week again. But I also suspect I may enjoy it more than I anticipate.

In addition to unpacking, Calliope and I went to see the midwife today for my one year postpartum visit. I was a little worried about the state of things "down there," a la The Old Grey Mare She Ain't What She Used To Be.

But she assured me that, despite my infrequent Kegeling, that everything looked fine. And should I decide at some point in the future to have sex again, she doesn't forsee me having to anxiously ask, "Is it in yet?"

So that was reassuring.

Having a pelvic exam with Calliope's participation was amusing. She couldn't play on the floor unsupervised, given her penchant for climbing and exploring, so she sat on my chest. She didn't seem to notice what was going on while I was having the Pap Smear, but she was completely fascinated by what she could see of the bimanual exam (not all that much) -- mouth agape, staring wide eyed.

I'm so glad she can't talk and that her long term memory isn't fully functional yet.

And of course she thoroughly enjoyed watching the breast exam.