Toys

So the baby’s favorite toy is Dexter:

She stares at him and has big reactions any time he looks at her or gets closet to her.

Dexter’s favorite toy is anything that’s hers:

He curls up with the boppy whenever he can and has eaten 2 nipple shields, 3 pacifiers, and a parrot.

I’m just glad they like each other.

Happy Birthday to Us!

Right. I wrote this a week ago. And just now have my crap together to blog it. Better late then never!

So today (last Friday) is my 29th and my little girl’s one month birthday. Crazy how quickly time flies! And how different life was on my 28th.


Pic taken before my friend Jill's wedding. The baby is 11 days old.

This month has been bananas. I’ve meant to blog so many times but wow newborns are such a time suck. Either she needs something and I’m on it… or she’s happy baby and I just want to stare at her or play with her. Neither lends itself well to surfing the internets or writing anything more comprehensive than a tweet. So how about I just write a list of stuff I’ve learned?

1.) The only thing more pathetic than a guy with a cold is a newborn with a cold. And I wouldn’t wish being in a house with both on anyone.

2.) The suckybulb aka brain sucker aka I have no idea what the thing is actually called is the best parenting gizmo ever. Throw in some saline drops and even with the worst little sniffles you’re in business.

3.) For breastfeeding a dose of sudaphed has much scarier warnings than a half a shot of whiskey. Also hot toddy’s made with special organic mother’s milk tea are delicious. Oh yes they are.

4.) When the umbilical chord falls off (hers did on April 5) it’s supposed to leave behind a gaping flesh wound. And if you call your pediatrician on a Sunday afternoon and ask them “how much puss is too much puss” they will laugh at you.

5.) Newborns grow really quickly. She’s already starting to grow out of her 5-8lb size onsies which is a bit sad. Those were the only thing that even remotely fit when we brought her home.

6.) Newborns also develop really quickly. She’s already lifting her head all the way up and turning it from side to side during tummy time. And she coos at her little animals. But the best is that she’s so very VERY close to smiling it’s not even funny. Her face makes the motion and sometimes it’s situational. Like yesterday she was on my lap trying to tell me a story and Dexter came over and put his face in her face. She lit up like Christmas. I swear it was a smile. But I think it’s more involuntary than not. Soon it will be real, though.

7.) Everything takes about 5 times longer than it used to. For instance her baptism invites. Still not mailed out. And it’s only a month away (May 17th for all of you friends/family types out there!)

8.) It is possible to survive on less than 6 hours of very broken up sleep over a 48 hour period. Not fun, but possible.

Us on Easter. I am exactly as tired as I look in this picture, and she was flipping adorable in her little bonnet.

And that’s where I stopped writing. But with babies there’s something new every day so here’s a few more observations from this past week:

1.) It is possible to play Rock Band while nursing.

2.) Trust your instinct is still the best advice I’ve ever received. There was a whole thing that went down where after much research and googling and reading and agony we decided to blatantly ignore the pediatrician and stick with feeding her breastmilk exclusively. For so many reasons that was what seemed to be best for her. And since then she’s gained over a pound in 2 weeks time. She’s now up to 7lbs 15 oz. Exactly where she should be. So the pediatrician who told me to supplement with formula? Can SUCK IT. Boob food rules.

And finally:

3.) Curry stains look exactly like newborn poop stains.

Aren’t you glad I’m back to the blogging thing?

Sleepy morning

Baby has taken all of my blogging time… but since right now my world looks like this:


I thought I’d take a second and let everyone know that we’re doing well. I’ve even managed to sneak in a little knitting!

This sweater – just a basic top down raglan cardigan – was going to be my labor knitting but instead it has become my knit while nursing knitting. It’s going slow but at least it’s going!

Oh and just for the record? I’m much more capable of dealing with projectile vomit with a full night’s sleep. Yup. 6 hours. Uninterrupted. So right now the world is a bright, sunshiny, place. Even if it does smell a bit like spitup...

You know what mom? Just because your camera has a macro feature does not mean you have to use it.


I agree with the kid.

Also I'm not sure if she's been going for distance or volume but either way I'm impressed. Kid's got mad pukin' skilz.

Speaking of which - If I spend all of my showering time blogging I would seriously regret it so that's all I've got for now...

Tied in knots.

So yesterday I had both my one-week pediatricians appointment and my postpartum home nurse visit. It was a very rough day because the two of them tied me completely in knots. Here’s what they told me to do: Pediatrician in Red, Postpartum nurse in Blue.

Nurse her from ONE side first per feeding so that she gets the hinde milk. It’s the fattiest and without it she won’t grow as quickly. Nurse her from BOTH sides every feeding or she won’t get enough milk and won’t grow as quickly.

If you haven’t started her on a pacifier yet you should. Give it to her at night when she goes to sleep to prevent SIDS. Definitely don’t start her on a pacifier yet. She is too young and will have nipple confusion and won’t nurse as well once you give it to her.

Start pumping soon to stimulate your supply if you plan on both breast-feeding and bottle-feeding using breast milk. Don’t start pumping for at least 3-4 weeks so that your supply will regulate to the baby.

Give her a bottle with breastmilk sometime within the next week or she might get picky and later refuse a bottle. It is important to do both so that her dad can have that bond with her as well. Don’t even think about giving a bottle – even with breast milk – for at least another 3 weeks or she will get confused and have problems nursing.

She should be at her birth weight by 2 weeks or it’s a problem. Don’t worry about returning to her birth weight until the 3-week mark. Breast fed babies sometimes take longer to get back up to their starting weight.


Yeah. Yesterday was a clusterfuck of conflicting information. And all of it is supposedly “recommended” by the medical community.

So of course I did what any rational first time mother would do. I melted down, tried to apply all of it, and ended up with a kid who looked like this:


FAIL.

Luckily I have a good support system to talk me down. Because you know what? The one thing both the pediatrician and the nurse agreed on is that Nidea is beautiful. Both commented on how strong her little arms are. Both said she has great color and no sign of jaundice at all. The home nurse was impressed with her latching on abilities (even with, the horror, a nipple shield). And when she pulled her little head up off of the exam table the pediatrician said “Lifting up already? Wow she’s really advanced developmentally!”

So the bottom line is that we must be doing something right.

Even if we are doing things like gasp! Nursing from one side at a time or horror! Nursing on demand and not every 2-3 hours by the clock or fail! Offering her a pacifier when she’s squawky and not hungry*

So from now on the only piece of advice – assvice/medical/relative/friend/parenting book/etc. - that I’m going to take in full is this:

“Trust your instincts”

Because the only people who truly know what’s best for our daughter are me and Matt.


Period.

* I haven’t done a footnote in awhile… yeah so the homenurse gave me one stern lecture that I thought was all sorts of crazy: She told me that it is “strongly reccomended” that any time Nidea is fussy and wanting to suck on something I should ONLY offer her a boob. Um… what now? Aren’t those supposed to be for eating? So I would be training her to eat whenever she’s bored? That’ll work out well for her in 15-20 years. Plus I’d be letting her chomp on me for hours with no purpose? Um, Ouch! Seems like the Worst Idea Ever. But again, according to her if I don’t do it I’m thumbing my nose at medicine and not doing what’s best for my child. Crazy-making I tell you. Crazy-making.

Week one powerball winner

First of all - thanks so much for all of the well wishes! I haven't quite had time to process it all or reply just yet but it means so much hearing from all of you!

So today is the baby’s (still not sure if I’m going to use her name on the blog or what – don’t want her 2nd grade classmates to google her and have a full and mockable history of her life) one week birthday and honestly it feels like we’ve won the baby lottery.


She is just so … perfect.

It’s cliché, I know. But I just can’t even tell you how wonderful she is. And I’m so afraid to even say this in case I jinx it and the music changes, she start screaming inconsolably, spits out the boob, and sprouts a 666 birthmark but….

She sleeps like a champ. Or as good as you can expect a newborn too. Nursing hasn’t been too big of a problem (more on all of that later). And overall we’re starting to feel pretty ok about this parenting thing.

I also might be high on post pregnancy hormones, caffeine, and percocet.

Or it might have something to do with this:

Headed home from the hospital

Matt is amazing. I am so, so lucky. He is just as capable, willing, and happy to care for her as I am. He’s even gotten pretty good at multitasking:

And it’s not just the baby he’s taking care of. I’ve been… sore. To say the least. Labor was pretty damn rough (more on that later, too).

And after we got home he presented me with a pair of aquamarine earrings. Our daughter’s birthstone. To wear to all of her big life events.

Yeah. I’ve won the family powerball.



What about me? I’m awesome, too!

It's a...

GIRL!!!

She was born on Saint Patrick's Day at 5:25 pm. A St. Pats baby! We named her

Nidea Catherine.

after my great-grandmother (my mother’s mother’s mother), and Matt’s paternal grandmother. Catherine is also the patron Saint of the Arts – something we found particularly appropriate for the daughter of two architects.



She weighed 6lbs and 13 oz and came into this world facing up – making for a very long and tough delivery. She’s 19 inches long and seems to get more beautiful by the second.


So far everyone is resting and recovering well... and I'm starting to get pretty decent at typing with one hand so hopefully there will be more updates soon!