mama such good news! so great to hear little Alex's progress.
chickpea and chorizo stew is a favourite of mine weehans DH isn't impressed with it, but it's delicious with a hunk of crusty bread.
happy anniversary bird we are really crap at celebrating ours as well and a card is about as far as either of us get. We've been married 6 years but together for 15 years, we count the years together more significantly.
fluffeh definately don't use tampons even with a CS, you still pass the same 'stuff' as a VB, so there will be clots and they need to be able to flow out, you need to be able to check for significant clots. Plus it can cause infection, ack, the one they tell you about when you first start using them, is it toxic shock.
TBH for the first week or two I used the boots own brand maternity pads, the thick wodge ones, I'd had an episiotomy and the thick padding was a relief to sit on and didn't pull my stitches. I moved onto their own brand thin maternity pads too for a little while. They are breathable and a little rough because they use more natural fibres and have less of the chemicals to help the more liquid part of the period set. As you should be changing them quite regularly, rather than being worn for long periods. I kept them in the fridge, doused in distilled witch hazel [stocked in our Sainsbo's!] and applied them quite often. I did also rinse after each change as it's quite messy down there, I also had stitches to keep clean and found sluicing the area with the shower head and not using any products to clean, dabbing with a towel afterwards, letting air dry or your kind and loving DH using the warm setting on the hair dryer :) also helps. I also had arnica cream to help with the bruising.
Don't be a hard as nails type and take your painkillers on time, it really does ache for a while. Not that I was, but friends would moan about the pain afterwards and then not take painkillers. If you ask your pharmacist they can give you the stronger paracetamol so you don't have to take as many little pills. Also worth keeping some in your labour/ward bag as I found the reliability of being given painkillers when you need them was a little lacking.
My other tip would be to have a trim before labour 'down there', I bought a cheap beard trimmer and it's easier to keep clean afterwards, especially with the lochia. I still use it now as I think it looks neater and it's easier to keep under control. 
edin I have quite a few knitting/crochet projects on the go so I can swap and change. I do set myself aside 30 minutes for working on them though, so that I keep on top of it, otherwise it gets really depressing if you are using the same yarn, same stitch for metres. Sometimes I keep going and get a few hours in before bed. I was checking for cute hat patterns today as I want to make one for baby to wear [and I usually take a few extras in for the ward].