the 4th trimester

I've heard the first 3 months of a baby's life called the "4th trimester" because the babes are developing so many basic features that other mammals would have developed in utero. Unlike a horse, Z is months from walking because we're waiting for his big noggin to fill up with brains. Humans birth our young earlier because if we had to wait until our babes were as ready as other mammals...ouch.

At any rate, the fourth trimester is also about the length of time it takes mom's body to return to a non-pregnant state. My two favorite moments so far:

1. Yesterday, I wore my shoes with socks and tied with pretty bows. I had been wearing my sneakers Run DMC style for several weeks (months?) - untied and as loose and floppy as possible with no room for socks. (Run DMC removed the laces to their Adidas, I didn't go that far.)
2. My stomach bump is about the size it was at 5 months, but I've already lost 22 pounds. 10 of that was obviously Zeb and the rest must have been a combination of water (I have ankles and toes!) and afterbirth (my super efficient placenta and umbilical that allowed me to grow a 10-pounder).

Birds seem to be in Z's future. The day before he was born we saw a young bald eagle sitting about 10 yards away from us and an adult flying overhead. Since then, we've been naming his different sounds after bird calls. So far we have "the quack" which is his Daffy Duck impersonation that he makes when digesting (and is sometimes a cue for a spit-up) and "the hawk" which seems to be the joyous "cawing" that follows a successful fart.