settling in: pictures

This is what we do from 8:30-10:30 every night. While watching The West Wing.

Every morning Dorothy runs in and grabs the baby.

Minnie's face after she spit up for the first time.

Those squishy feet!

so tiny! so much hair!

nightly view

asleep in her bassinet

Working out

My view most of the day

 

2 Weeks of Minnie Marigold

SHE IS TWO WEEKS OLD ALREADY!!!!!

And occasionally, she lets us put her down.  (Not very often).

My milk is finally great. It was dicey there for a minute. I credit the Mother's Milk tea I am constantly drinking and also these delicious lactation cookies (with raisins and coconut, no chips). Harry and Dorothy love them too which is good because I was worried I ate a whole batch myself. Since Sunday.

Omg she's the sweetest, you guys.

CAN YOU EVEN??

And! She had her 2-week appointment a day early and crushed her 6 pound, 13 ounce birth weight

To be honest, the appointment was a total shitshow. I summed it up on FB thusly:

It was actually lovely. Our new-ish pediatrician (we've been seeing her for 2.5 years) is awesome and has been practicing with our old pediatrician forever, so we have seen her a bunch. And! Her nurse yesterday was our same nurse we've had since Harry was born, so that was a total trip. Minnie is wonderful, and I am enjoying her SO MUCH.

Tipping the scales at 7 pounds means we could put her in the Ergo!! So she and I exercised this morning. I even lifted weights! It felt great.

I had to make a Target run for bunch-a-balloons because it was a thousand degrees in the shade today, and I can't take the kids to the pool anymore because GLOBAL PANDEMIC + NEW BABY.

Moby wrap = only way to get any housework done.

Dorothy comes in my bed every morning and snatches the baby.

Breastfeeding going well means we can try a pacifier! Minnie is meh about it.

Another enthusiastic baby holder

These guys have been trying to bake cookies on the dash board of the car all summer-- no dice so far.

Oh this baby!

She's the sweetest

We are also working on not hating the bassinet.  BABY STEPS.

She is slowly warming up to the car seat.

Omg. She's just SO SWEET.

He looooooooooves her

I mean, who wouldn't?

Notes on birth

 1. Do not ask anesthesiologists ANY follow up questions. When the doctor came to place my epidural, he asked me to stick out my tongue and say aaaah. After I did, I asked him why he needed to see my mouth, and he said calmly. "Just in case something goes wrong and we have to do an emergency c-section. I want to make sure I have everything I need to intubate you." I didn't totally learn my lesson from that exchange, though, and I asked the anesthesiologist who rounded the next morning what would happen if I developed a spinal headache, and he very matter-of-factly explained exactly how a blood patch works. NO THANK YOU, SIR.

2. Pitocin contractions? ARE NOT LIKE REGULAR CONTRACTIONS. Take it from me. I have had 3 non-medicated births and 2 with epidurals. Both epidural births were the direct result of Pitocin. Those contractions! THERE IS NO BUILD UP. No slow wave that you can breathe through while envisioning petals opening. Just panic-inducing agony. My mantra during contractions was Welcome, Baby, and I would smile very consciously while I thought it to relax my face and jaw. But once the nurses rammed the Pitocin up to 12/20, this mantra was drowned out by oh-my-god-I-am-going-to-die-help-me-oh-my-god while I practically bit off my own tongue. And the frequency! They were TRYING to get me to contract every 1-2 minutes, so there was no relief. It's both terrible and NOT THE WAY SPONTANEOUS LABOR IS at all.  So, listen, if you have only ever known Pitocin, and you feel like a wimp for getting an epidural, DO NOT. Those are demon freak contractions and not like natural labor.

3. Also, Pitocin is a miracle. I had some scary bleeding right after Dorthy was born, and I remember having terrible contraction-like pain every time she would nurse early on. This time? Thanks to the giant bag of hormones, my uterus shrunk down right away and didn't even hurt when  the nurses pushed on my stomach, and I barely had ANY post-birth bleeding at all. So freaky.

4. I got so lucky. The epidural at the exact time I screamed for it. That Minnie could handle all of the interventions. No complications from any of the drugs. And the biggest thing-- besides, of course, this delectable baby asleep in my arms right now-- I had absolutely no recovery pain of any kind. Right after birth, I started taking 600 mg of ibuprofen every 6 hours, and I kept this up for 2 days. And I felt NOTHING. No uterus shrinking cramps. No lower back ache from the epidural. No soreness ANYWHERE.  I did not even need an ice pack. It was my easiest recovery of any of the births. The worst part was waiting for the epidural to wear off so I could pee by myself like a big girl. HOW AMAZING IS THAT?!

5. It really took a little while, though, for my body to totally get its shit together after that 72-hour labor. Oh, no, sorry-- it was only like 68 hours. My milk did not come in as fast I was expecting it to, for example, and we really had to come home from the hospital because I could not sleep, and the lack of sleep was KILLING ME. So even though I didn't have pain, I did figure out pretty fast that I still needed to take it easy.

Stuck under a baby

Omg that pouty mouth!

What color will these eyes be?

So rosy!

One drink too many

Would only sleep if I was standing up

Getting by with a little help from our friends who drop off Culvers

OMG! Sisters!

This Instagram template is awesome, and I am ACTUALLY DOING THINGS thanks to it.

Um.

90-degrees today. Gulp.

And he chatted the whole time

Morning selfie

Not too cool for the sprinkler.

One Week of Minnie Marigold

 I am writing these lines from under a baby. Where I have been for the last week.

Ben goes to wrk on Monday. My classes start the following week. The kids start the week after that. Shit is about to get real.

Speaking of shit: 

Ok. So. Minnie was born at lunchtime on Thursday, and we were at home in my own bed by Friday afternoon. Because we left so soon, I had to do a doc visit and weight check Sunday morning with the family practice/peds doc on call, who happened to be my doc. I LOVE MY DOCTOR and have been seeing her for 17 years, so I was not at all stressed about the appointment.

Background: Minnie pooped 5 times in her first 12 hours of life. She also had her greenish brown transition poop on Friday before we left. And then NO POOP Saturday and NO POOP before the doc on Sunday.

More background: Minnie weighed in at 6 pounds, 13 ounces at birth. At midnight Friday (the hospital weighs babies around midnight because they hate to see moms sleep), she was down to 6 pounds, 8 ounces. I had SO MANY FLUIDS Tuesday-Thursday, so I wasn't worried, especially since I had colostrum, and by Friday morning it was becoming milk. And, despite the no pooping, she had plenty of wets diapers.

Still on Sunday, she was down to 6 pounds, 5 ounces, and my unflappable doctor told me to pump after feedings and supplement and come back the next day since she wasn't gaining or pooping.

Cue full panic mode. Because you guys know how I roll.

I stopped by the clinic pharmacy to get the double electric breast pump my insurance pays for, and we stopped at Target on the way home for a single battery operated pump, a single hand pump, and a Haakaa pump for good measure. Plus also bottles. And I asked for a can of the most expensive organic formula on the shelf and some nursery water just in case. Ben ran in while I sat in the car and fed the baby because of course.

I spent the rest of the day crying, pumping, and nursing. As soon as the clinic opened the next morning, I scheduled an appointment with a pediatrician and a lactation consultant. We went in Monday morning expecting bad news, but you guys! Minnie was back up to 6 pounds, 7.5 ounces!

The ped said calm down, stop pumping, enjoy her, and be careful what you wish for re: poop. Remember, a 3-day induction sucks, and neither of us was ready to be postpartum. Also come back Wednesday for one more check.

 The LC said try a football hold and really pay attention to active nursing time---make sure she gets 8-12 feeds in 24 hours. She also said that nursing an infant is different than nursing a toddler and I really needed to focus on her, which I had not really been doing. 

She started pooping Monday afternoon and has pooped um A TON since then. She eats every 2 hours all day and has had 3 and 4 hour stretches at night. I change her diaper between breasts, and she is wet every time.

Yesterday, she tipped the scale at 6 pounds, 9 ounces, which means she has 6 days to gain back the other 4 so she can be at birthweight by her 2-week appointment, which is one day early because we are trying to see her actual ped for the first time.

Have I calmed down? Um, judging from the excruciating detail here, it doesn't sound like it, huh?

Home!

Meeting their sis:

First feed in her new room

Middle of the night baby

Good morning crew:

First walk:

First matching outfits:

First side eye

Nursing entertainment

Cutest toss pillow

Biggest bro:

Just waking up:

Tummy time turned nap:

Seesters

Nope, have not calmed down:

Stuck under a baby

Good morning!

First stroller walk:

I love this headband

She sort of likes the moby. Just a half pound away from trying the Ergo!

In non-Minnie news, Dorothy finally got to have her socially distant outdoor dance recital!!

Wow!! What a week it has been!