Swimmy-- Such sweet news about your friend. I hope the rest of her pregnancy goes oh so smoothly. Congrats also on your little girl being 2 years old now! Man, time flies. It does feel like you just had her a couple months ago. Lol. And here you are expecting her little brother!
Krissie-- Oh my gosh, she is such an adorable little chunk. Love the photo! And love hearing that her big brother is getting along well with her. That stresses me out about the idea of having a second (if we even can)... how will my son take it. He can't even tolerate the cat sleeping on my lap... he climbs up and sits on top of the cat. Lol. Definitely a mama's boy. Dad's great and all and he's crazy about him, but he wants to be on me non-stop.
IRYM--- Oh my goodness! Look at you and that little girl! Such a beautiful duo. Congratulations on getting her here safely and soundly. I'm sorry things didn't go as you hoped. Not that it helps you feel any better, but I had a 4th degree tear with my natural delivery of a big baby, and healing from that was oh so awful. Most women do an elective c section for subsequent children when they tear that badly, so if we have a second baby, there's a good chance a cesarean is in my future, due to risks of repeat tearing. And that stresses me out and makes me sad, but the idea of tearing like that again majorly scares me. Not sure it was worth it, even though it went perfectly otherwise. I still don't feel "right" down there post tearing... over a year later and I still have pain.
So perhaps it's good your 9 pounder didn't come out vaginally! And breastfeeding, I'm still nursing my 15 month old and for me, it was DETERRENT to weight loss, not a helper. Up until about 10 months of age, I felt non stop ravenous due to breastfeeding... couldn't eat at a deficit at all. Like at all. Now that my milk supply is super low I can finally restrict my eating a bit and am finally starting to lose the baby weight... from 15 months ago (can I even call it baby weight anymore, lol?). With Krissie saying she thinks formula feeding contributed to not getting PPD with her second, I can totally see that. Breastfeeding was such a hard fought journey for us. Painful, he nursed every 45 mins, I had back to back clogged ducts and mastitis, off and on undersupply where I had to pump every 2 hrs plus constant nursing to get it back up each time, he had a tongue tie that had to be repaired. Just, whew. It was not easy. We trialed formulas and I kept a canister of the one that worked best for him in case we ever needed, but surprisingly we made it through. But if we have a second, I think I'd be less nutty about it, and more willing to just use the darn formula. I bet that process is much smoother, once you stop mom-guilting yourself.
Your body made and carried that beautiful perfect baby, so it's definitely doing plenty right!!
About your nephew, that's really sweet that you're making his bday special. What a disappointment that his mom isn't. It's nice he'll have you there to celebrate with him.
And the comments about your husband... screw that. And those stupid comments. I hate the idea that anything a dad does is automatically deserving of accolades, but it's the default expectation that mom does those things. I hear all the time how lucky I am that my husband cares for our son as an involved parent, but that's because he's his freaking father. And I set that expectation. That both of us are parents. I of course do more of the work because we nurse, and when there's a problem, little one wants mama, but I totally think dads should be dads and not "bonus" parents. So silly that you got flack for asking him to feed HIS child. And I don't even know your husband but I'm mad at him that he botched your first mother's day and didn't think of it as important, yet made his mother have a special day. That's pretty clueless of him.
Congrats to you on not strangling your husband, and for doing nearly all of the baby care on your own. Those first months are so hard.
As for me, I ovulate tonight or tomorrow. I'd say this is the first month since we've been trying that we've had good timing with intercourse. The past cycles we've only BD'd once in the fertile window, at the very end of the window. So maybe we'll get lucky this time. But if we don't it'll give me time to lose a few more lbs hopefully before trying again the next cycle. Still about 6ish lbs away from being at pre-pregnancy weight. Getting close though!
The best thing you can do is track everything for awhile. I use an app called cronometer which breaks down net carbs. There is so many hidden carbs in stuff so it is good to get use to knowing what is in your food. I plan to track for a couple months and then if I want the break see if I can keep it up without tracking. 
He's my little buddy. For a long time, I was the only one who gave him any real attention. I'd sit down with him one on one and play, ask him about his day, things he likes, etc. It means a lot to me that the first thing he asked about for his birthday was if I would be able to make it. It's a 3.5 hour drive, but worth it!
How exciting!
