Out of the Frying Pan

Out of the frying pan and into the fire!
Just as soon as my body starts to feel a bit more normal, my emotions go HAYWIRE!
The good news? This seems to be par for the course for me postpartum. The first week is a bit of "la la land", enjoying the miracle of the new baby--seeing what they look like, getting high on the smell of a new born baby, getting spoiled at the hospital and having all the time you want to just sit and hold the baby. The next week things get a bit hairier.
Then the emotions go wild. Laughing one minute, raging ticked off the next, resentful of past grievances the next, cooing over the baby the next, crying the next. I am exhausted today of my own emotions and I know my family is avoiding me--with good reason. I am unpredictable. I am scary.
I am putting this out there for the world to see in the hopes that I can steady myself by thinking it through enough to write about it. Like I said, this is pretty normal for me. I haven't suffered much in the way of long term "baby blues" with any of my babies. But the short term--- YIKES--- be afraid, be very afraid.
Besides little neighborhood walk-abouts, I haven't left the house all week. It was time.
Abe and I wanted to test out our new car set-up. No, there is no new car, but we did get another 3-person bench to replace our captains' chairs. So here are all my people in the 8 seater mini-van. I am now starting to fantasize about a HUGE 15 passenger van. I don't want to birth enough people to fill it-- although it appears we are well on our way! I just would like to be able to transport all of my people and a few friends along the way.
I won't name names, but I'm not the only grouchy one in the family these days. This person, who shall remain nameless, but whom you all know anyway, described the first family outing in the suped up swagger wagon as "boring and squishy". Whatever. I suppose it is a little squishy for them, but it's not that often that we all go somewhere together so we'll make it do.
One more thing to note for the day. Elinor got a "new" bike yesterday. New, as in, new to her. She's been riding the same bike since she got it when she was FOUR! Now she is a ginormous seven year old and she looked rather comical pedaling like a mad woman to make the little bike go fast enough to keep up with the other kids. All the kids have functioning bicycles right now and they've discovered the joy and independence of the neighborhood bike ride. Hooray for me--- uh, I mean them.