That'd be Molly, her father Zach, his mother Susie, and her father Henry! (or, L-R: Nana, Dad & Molly, & G-pa.
Wednesday, March 30, 2005
Four Generations
That'd be Molly, her father Zach, his mother Susie, and her father Henry! (or, L-R: Nana, Dad & Molly, & G-pa.
Life with Squeaky
Little miss delicious is also lovely miss squeaky, squirmy, grunts and gurgles. The noises are astounding, and often very worrisome to us newly-minted parents. The pre-birth classes may have prepared us for a funny looking newborn, but nothing prepared us for a funny sounding newborn! The nurses and doctors at the hospital assured us that these are normal newborn sounds. The lactation consultant assured us that these are normal newborn sounds. Our doula assured us that these are normal newborn sounds. Her pediatrician assured us that these are normal newborn sounds. But still, I worry every time I hear her make one of her more alarming sounds (and I appreciate that much more this quote from a "new mom humor" book: "Infants may technically sleep 20 hours a day, but they do it 10 minutes at a time while making strage, at death's-door kind of choking and gurgling noises.")
But mostly she squeeks. Little sounds with each breath, like there's a wheel turning inside of her as she keeps those lungs rolling. And it's very charming indeed.
Besides squeeking through this last week she's also done some meeting & greeting of friends and relatives and she's taken some nice strolls out in the rest of the world (including trips to Lake Merritt & Tilden - where I fussed over her almost constantly, but we all agreed it was good to be out). Among her admiring visitors was her east-coast grandpa who visited for several days (this is the same grandfather that made the lovely cradle). And yesterday she met one of her two great-granpas! What a lucky gal to enjoy her gpa!
Squeaky has also started really loooooking at things more and more. Yes, since she was a few days old she's had a strong interest in scanning faces. And now, in addition, she's taking an interest in things like the mobile hanging over her changing table. And she follows movements with her eyes as well. (Ok, I'm a brand-new mom and I'm easily impressed with my baby's development. When your day is filled with nursing, crying, pooping, but not much sleep, it's the little things that excite you!)
But mostly she squeeks. Little sounds with each breath, like there's a wheel turning inside of her as she keeps those lungs rolling. And it's very charming indeed.
Besides squeeking through this last week she's also done some meeting & greeting of friends and relatives and she's taken some nice strolls out in the rest of the world (including trips to Lake Merritt & Tilden - where I fussed over her almost constantly, but we all agreed it was good to be out). Among her admiring visitors was her east-coast grandpa who visited for several days (this is the same grandfather that made the lovely cradle). And yesterday she met one of her two great-granpas! What a lucky gal to enjoy her gpa!
Squeaky has also started really loooooking at things more and more. Yes, since she was a few days old she's had a strong interest in scanning faces. And now, in addition, she's taking an interest in things like the mobile hanging over her changing table. And she follows movements with her eyes as well. (Ok, I'm a brand-new mom and I'm easily impressed with my baby's development. When your day is filled with nursing, crying, pooping, but not much sleep, it's the little things that excite you!)
Sunday, March 27, 2005
Thursday, March 24, 2005
Tuesday, March 22, 2005
Week 2.5
Time flies when you're having ... a baby.
Little Molly is a whopping 2.5 weeks old now. Holy cow. She's getting bigger every day - mostly I think she's putting on the weight in her cheeks and belly, but she's also just growing! Which means that it's all that more fun to munch on those chubby little toes.
In this last week we had our 2-week doctors checkup (which determined that she's a healthy little girl!), all 4 grandparents have visited, and I had a wonderful massage (courtesy of my wonderful and very thoughtful husband). Oh, and we had very little sleep. Interestingly, the massage brought about one of the hardest parts of the week for me: leaving Molly. I realized that I hadn't been further than two rooms away from her since she was born (I guess technically I hadn't been away from her since she was conceived, but who's counting, right?). I did tear myself away for the hour and I'm so happy I did. The massage therapist is wonderful and has a special post-natal belly massaging technique.
As for that sleep thing, there's been a few nights were Molly let us sleep over 3 hours (!) but recently she's back on the +/- 2 hour cycle at night. We keep trying to keep her up during the day to see if she'll sleep longer at night, but so far not so much luck. Most days Zach seems to be doing okay with the lack of sleep. He's an amazing trouper (and good at hiding his fatigue from me). I've had a harder time, but that's another story. It's particularly hard when she sleeps for a few hours and then takes over an hour to get back to sleep (that's including the time for feeding & changing & fussing & feeding & changing & feeding & fussing).
But during the day she's usually pretty mellow (maybe she's tired from the night of feeding & fussing). And other than taking everything slow to take into account our general spacey-ness we're all doing well. She's doing fun things like staring at us, turning towards our voices, and generally being incredibly charming. I'll try to keep posting more pictures & thanks again for all the encouraging emails & love being sent our way.
Little Molly is a whopping 2.5 weeks old now. Holy cow. She's getting bigger every day - mostly I think she's putting on the weight in her cheeks and belly, but she's also just growing! Which means that it's all that more fun to munch on those chubby little toes.
In this last week we had our 2-week doctors checkup (which determined that she's a healthy little girl!), all 4 grandparents have visited, and I had a wonderful massage (courtesy of my wonderful and very thoughtful husband). Oh, and we had very little sleep. Interestingly, the massage brought about one of the hardest parts of the week for me: leaving Molly. I realized that I hadn't been further than two rooms away from her since she was born (I guess technically I hadn't been away from her since she was conceived, but who's counting, right?). I did tear myself away for the hour and I'm so happy I did. The massage therapist is wonderful and has a special post-natal belly massaging technique.
As for that sleep thing, there's been a few nights were Molly let us sleep over 3 hours (!) but recently she's back on the +/- 2 hour cycle at night. We keep trying to keep her up during the day to see if she'll sleep longer at night, but so far not so much luck. Most days Zach seems to be doing okay with the lack of sleep. He's an amazing trouper (and good at hiding his fatigue from me). I've had a harder time, but that's another story. It's particularly hard when she sleeps for a few hours and then takes over an hour to get back to sleep (that's including the time for feeding & changing & fussing & feeding & changing & feeding & fussing).
But during the day she's usually pretty mellow (maybe she's tired from the night of feeding & fussing). And other than taking everything slow to take into account our general spacey-ness we're all doing well. She's doing fun things like staring at us, turning towards our voices, and generally being incredibly charming. I'll try to keep posting more pictures & thanks again for all the encouraging emails & love being sent our way.
Monday, March 21, 2005
Saturday, March 19, 2005
More photos...
We had a request from a grandma for more photos, so here goes. Clickle her toes to see 'em... (previously linked to:
http://www.tuchus.net/galleries/Week2/index.htm, edited to put pictures in post)
http://www.tuchus.net/galleries/Week2/index.htm, edited to put pictures in post)
Sunday, March 13, 2005
8 days a week
... or, I suppose, 9, but who's counting, right?
It's been a whirlwind of a week, as only those who have lived through the first week with a newborn can imagine. It's been everything we had heard, and more.
Most of the week has been spent in a stupor of amazement. Really, neither of us can comprehend this little being that we have brought into this world. I won't even try to put that into words.
The week has also been spent learning the ropes of tending to Molly: waiting for my milk to come in; celebrating her first poops (ooh, there was just another!); learning to live on a 2 hour sleep cycle, etc. We've been "out in the world" 3 times already - all trips back to Kaiser to have the little one checked (standard post-natal visits). For the most part these visits have determined that she's quite healthy and a champion feeder, having already gained back her birth weight (newborns are expected to lose 10% of their body weight immediately after birth and then gain it back within 2 weeks - she was down to 6 lbs on Tuesday and up to 6 lbs 8 oz on Friday!). She also developed a bit of the typical newborn jaundice - not enough for real concern, but enough for them to send us back to Kaiser for another blood test. That has already started to resolve itself with just a little sunshine.
Family has been visiting - mostly the grandmas, but uncle Seth and Grandpa Charly as well. We've put them to good use helping us deal with little things like cooking, cleaning, and taking care of Molly. It's been such a relief to me, particularly to have my mother be able to come out so quickly and take care of me. I think she gets a kick out of mothering her daughter again (and, of course grandmothering Molly). She even jumped right in and finished painting our porch (a project we started last October) and weeding our front yard (which hasn't been touched since early last fall).
We've also had some friends visit (everyone is welcome, we just ask that you call first so you don't catch me in the middle of a treasured nap, although Molly is usually game for entertaining company at any hour) which has been a nice infusion of "life on the outside" for me.
And now to wrap up, I can't speak for Zach, but there are a few thoughts that stand out for me from this first week. One is that I absolutely cannot imagine doing this without Zach. He has been amazing and there is no way that I would be a coherent human at this point without him. He is an incredible father and has done a great job figuring out this little girl. Where I have what I call the "9-month advantage" he has the patience and love to just figure things out. The other thought is how amazing a woman's body is. The things that my body has done in the last 9 months, particularly this last week and a half, are beyond my comprehension. In these last 9 days I have often felt like I am a passenger watching my body take over (that could be the lack of sleep, but we'll pretend it's not). If I ever doubted it I must now declare that I believe the maternal instinct is real.
Thanks to everyone who has sent their love and support. I haven't had time to respond individually to each of you, but it means a lot to hear from you all.
And now, back to tending the sleepy-pee-pee. (uh-oh, we've fallen into the baby talk trap!)
It's been a whirlwind of a week, as only those who have lived through the first week with a newborn can imagine. It's been everything we had heard, and more.
Most of the week has been spent in a stupor of amazement. Really, neither of us can comprehend this little being that we have brought into this world. I won't even try to put that into words.
The week has also been spent learning the ropes of tending to Molly: waiting for my milk to come in; celebrating her first poops (ooh, there was just another!); learning to live on a 2 hour sleep cycle, etc. We've been "out in the world" 3 times already - all trips back to Kaiser to have the little one checked (standard post-natal visits). For the most part these visits have determined that she's quite healthy and a champion feeder, having already gained back her birth weight (newborns are expected to lose 10% of their body weight immediately after birth and then gain it back within 2 weeks - she was down to 6 lbs on Tuesday and up to 6 lbs 8 oz on Friday!). She also developed a bit of the typical newborn jaundice - not enough for real concern, but enough for them to send us back to Kaiser for another blood test. That has already started to resolve itself with just a little sunshine.
Family has been visiting - mostly the grandmas, but uncle Seth and Grandpa Charly as well. We've put them to good use helping us deal with little things like cooking, cleaning, and taking care of Molly. It's been such a relief to me, particularly to have my mother be able to come out so quickly and take care of me. I think she gets a kick out of mothering her daughter again (and, of course grandmothering Molly). She even jumped right in and finished painting our porch (a project we started last October) and weeding our front yard (which hasn't been touched since early last fall).
We've also had some friends visit (everyone is welcome, we just ask that you call first so you don't catch me in the middle of a treasured nap, although Molly is usually game for entertaining company at any hour) which has been a nice infusion of "life on the outside" for me.
And now to wrap up, I can't speak for Zach, but there are a few thoughts that stand out for me from this first week. One is that I absolutely cannot imagine doing this without Zach. He has been amazing and there is no way that I would be a coherent human at this point without him. He is an incredible father and has done a great job figuring out this little girl. Where I have what I call the "9-month advantage" he has the patience and love to just figure things out. The other thought is how amazing a woman's body is. The things that my body has done in the last 9 months, particularly this last week and a half, are beyond my comprehension. In these last 9 days I have often felt like I am a passenger watching my body take over (that could be the lack of sleep, but we'll pretend it's not). If I ever doubted it I must now declare that I believe the maternal instinct is real.
Thanks to everyone who has sent their love and support. I haven't had time to respond individually to each of you, but it means a lot to hear from you all.
And now, back to tending the sleepy-pee-pee. (uh-oh, we've fallen into the baby talk trap!)
Thursday, March 10, 2005
More Molly Fun!
Click on the face for more Molly fun!
(previously linked to: http://www.tuchus.net/Galleries/MollyAtHome/index.htm, edited to put pictures in post)
Wednesday, March 09, 2005
More Pictures
click for pictures...
(previously linked to http://www.tuchus.net/Galleries/HelloMolly/. Edited to include photos below.)
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