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Saturday, January 29, 2011

5 Short Videos

Here are 5 short videos of Abigail.

The first is after she figured out her bouncy seat (if you kick the fish, it makes a sound). Note how proud she is of herself:



Next is her talking to me:



Not taking tummy time very seriously:



This is her yesterday. She figured out how to hold and shake her rattle and pretty much hasn't put it down since:



And this is from today. She temporarily swapped the rattle for her keys.




Thursday, January 27, 2011

I'm not ready!

Despite all the books, websites, and advice, no one can really be prepared for having their first baby. Here are some of the biggest things I was not ready for.

1. Breastfeeding.  It looks so easy, when in fact, in the beginning, it was very hard and extremely painful. My nipples cracked and bled. I wanted to scream every time she latched on. Plus, you're supposed to feed a newborn every 2-3 hours. That's from the start of one feeding to the start of another. That means there's an average of about an hour in between feedings, night and day. Sometimes less. That's not a lot of time for eating, sleeping, bathing... or healing.  I'm really happy I stuck with it - it got a million times better!

2. Lack of sleep.  Everybody knows you don't get enough sleep with a newborn. What I wasn't prepared for was the complete absence of sleep all together. Between the feedings and diaper changes, there wasn't much time for anything else.

3. Recovery.  Recovery from the c-section was long and painful, yes. What I wasn't prepared for was the incessant itching!  It was almost unbearable some days. It was hard not to scratch open those layers of stitches. Of course there was also the 6 weeks of bleeding and the week or so of intense pain, but for some reason those didn't bother me quite as much.

4. Fingernails. Abigail was born with razors on the ends of her tiny fingers, but they were too small and attached to cut. Thankfully I figured out I could file them with an emory board, which worked pretty well. And I thought babies were supposed to be soft all over...

5. Sometimes babies just cry.  I thought if I ran through the list of what could be wrong (hungry? dirty diaper? gassy? tired? gushing with blood?) I would eventually figure it out and make it better.  Not always. Sometimes she just needs to be held, and that's ok.

6. How many diapers she goes through.  Seriously. I haven't actually counted, but it's a lot.  We buy the big boxes of 84, and we'll blow through it in just over a week. I'd also like to include here I wasn't prepared for the blowouts. For a tiny baby, she can produce a lot of poo in one go.  It's loud and squelchy and sometimes it's an epic diaper fail. I still think she's still the cutest thing ever.

7. Not using the nursery.  It was such a high priority before she was born to get the nursery finished.  3 months out we still haven't used it.  I use the glider in there sometimes for feedings, and it's where we keep her mountain of clothes, but that's about it.  She sleeps in our room in a bassinet thing.  I guess eventually she'll "graduate" to the crib, but it's easier this way with breastfeeding. Plus I like having her close.

8. Oh the boogers!  Apparently it's normal for newborns to be congested, which isn't a good thing when they need to breathe through their noses (otherwise it makes eating a real challenge). The nasal suction thingie was probably the best five-finger discount acquired from the hospital. I also never thought I'd be so excited to extract the world's largest booger from the tiny nose of an infant. So satisfying.

9. All the "advice".  Every baby is different, and everyone has their own way of doing things. Yet for some reason people like to volunteer "helpful" tips: Don't eat spicy food, don't eat dairy, don't feed your 2 month old sooner than 4 hours (this one came from a pediatrician who I won't be seeing again), etc.  Of course I value opinions of people who have lots of experience, however I will do what works best for me and my baby, and I don't need to be told what to do. We are finding our own groove and it's working great.

10. How much I love her.  I loved her the second I found out I was pregnant. However, when I look at her, I know it's a different kind of love. Complete and unconditional. It's nothing I've ever felt before. I'm thankful every day for her.

A Recap

Jelly (aka Abigail) is 12 weeks old already. It's hard to believe it's been almost 3 months since she was born. Here's a really brief recap of that time.

Pregnancy:  I really enjoyed being pregnant, generally. I had some nausea and was extremely tired in the beginning. Then it was awesome. I felt great, I had lots of energy, I had that "glow". Until about 8 months. Then I was so ready to have an outside baby. I was huge, swollen, and uncomfortable.


Birth: Jelly was born on 11/4/10, at 40 weeks and 1 day. To sum it up, I went in for an induction, it didn't go quite as planned and 15 hours later I was getting prepped for a c-section. It wasn't exactly the best 15 hour span of my life, and I took the news about needing the surgery very hard. Of course, it was for the best, and it went fine. She was born at 4:31pm, weighed 7lbs 10oz, was 20 1/4" long, and was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen (even if she was all blue and slimy).

Month 1: The first month was very hard, but we adjusted fairly quickly. The rare times she wasn't attached to the boob I could either a.) sleep, b.) eat, or c.) bathe. I usually opted for sleep. But those 20-30 minute catnaps really didn't put a dent in the sleep deprivation.


Here's Abigail at 1 month old:



Month 2: Everything started to get better at around 6 weeks. We both were way better at breastfeeding, she started sleeping in longer stretches, and started smiling. We had a great Christmas with just about the entire family in town. We even had a visit from Santa!


Here's Abigail at 2 months old:



Month 3:  She's so alert, and every day seems to be something new going on. She's grabbing things (usually to put them in her mouth), laughing, and "talking" up a storm. Sure what she says makes no sense. But it's darn cute.


And that about brings us up to date.