5 weeks, fish tanks, & feeding

With all the hullabo over the weekend I completely forgot that Monday marked Molly's first month! (but I haven't forgotten that this morning was her 5-week b-day) Congrats little one - you've done a great job. Like a champ she's making more and more baby sounds, growing faster than a fish (do fish grow fast?), and I even caught her sucking her thumb the other day! I swear she's gonna smile any day now. (Please?)

And I'm also growing as a mother - although not without some growing pains. But, as someone recently told me: as a fish grows to the size of its fish tank, so do people grow to meet their circumstances. So it was that last Friday evening I thought I could not take another diaper change or crying fit and on Saturday I found it in me to hang out in the ER while an orthopedic surgeon decided whether or not to put a pin in Zach's finger (they didn't, but they did immobilize his entire hand).

Yes, as Zach says, at a time in our life where we could use an extra hand, now we're down one. And usually a broken finger isn't such a big deal. But of course this one requires his entire hand in a cast! Luckily the doctor put on a new cast on Wednesday that allows Zach to use his thumb and forefinger.

So, you ask: How'd he break it? Well, we were having a lovely Saturday morning; Zach was playing flag football in the park, and I was watching from the sidelines with another mom & infant ... and then there was a broken finger.

Here's a shout-out to Tamara & Denise for their first aid, Robin & Betsy for dinner delivery, and Sarah for baby sitting me & Molly through a particularly fussy period this week. y'all are superstars.

In other very exciting news we introduced the bottle for the first time. After just a little cajoling, Molly drank right up. Here's to sharing feeding!

PS. Molly's perfect complexion has developed baby acne (yes, zits!) almost one month to the day after she was born. Apparently this is a rather common occurrence and has something to do with the hormones she got from me during the pregnancy. Go figure. I think it's funny to resisit the urge to pop the big one on her chin. tee-hee-hee.

Don't turn that dial!

We'll be riiight back.
(We've been a little busy with these two, but all is well and I'll try to post more tomorrow.)

(previously linked to photo below. Edited to include photo.)

How do you spell R-E-L-I-E-F ?

You can click on her face for more (!) pictures of the lovely lady & her visit with her Great Grandparents.

Yes, yes it's true, we've been overcome by the first-time parent syndrome (that is: photo-documentation of every moment of our first childs life - just be thankful that we don't have a video camera!!). But, in our defense, we do have several long-distance grandparents who are aching for more and more photos. If you're an innocent bystander (aka friend) who has stumbled accross this site, don't worry, we won't quiz you on these pictures! :)

(previously linked to http://www.tuchus.net/Galleries/GreatGrandVisit/. Edited to include photos below.)

Four Generations

That'd be Molly, her father Zach, his mother Susie, and her father Henry! (or, L-R: Nana, Dad & Molly, & G-pa.

Asleep with dad

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!)

Molly Out & About

previously, linked to: http://www.tuchus.net/Galleries/MarchOutings/