Cheeeeese!

• The great cloth diaper experiment has begun. We've done them during the day for about four days now. Nothing to it. It's way easier than I feared. Upsides: Obviously cost and environmental impact. But I also think they look more comfortable than the disposables. And disposables smell funny to me. Even clean ones. We also started the cloth wipes with the homemade wipes solution. Also startlingly simple. Downsides: so bulky that a lot (most) of her clothes don't fit over them. This is a seriously big booty.Also, she feels the wet immediately, so we're changing diapers much more often. We've ordered some Fuzzi Bunz, which are more expensive (though still thousands less than disposables, in the end), but supposedly much trimmer and more absorbent, to try out. These may eliminate both problems. But the washing factor for the prefolds we're currently usingis a piece of cake. Don't know why cloth seems so scary now. We're still doing disposables at night for now, and when we're out of the house.



• Weight gain: we're up to 9 lbs 1 oz! Hooray! She's a weight-gaining machine now. Doc says we can cut the supplementing in half and quit the formula altogether. Sooo happy.



• The Papoose has been gassy as all get out. Poor thing was waking herself up, screaming randomly, and getting mighty squirmy at feeding time, all due to gas pains. The good news is that my support group and the pediatrician gave us all sorts of ideas to improve this, including Mylicon drops, which apparently break down the big gas bubbles into smaller ones. Holy miracle magic elixir of the gods. She's like a whole new baby. So apparently I don't need to cut out dairy (or any other foods), which I was afraid of given Ouiser's and Toddler Tamer's experience with needing to do that. Thank God. I already had to go dairy-free during grad school and I was not a complete person without cheese.



• Speaking of cheese...anyone familiar with Wallace and Gromit? The Husband and I cannot get over the Papoose's imitation of Wallace in the presence of cheese.

Thanks, Mom(s)!

We are officially on our own now. Three moms* have come and gone and provided invaluable help as we've adjusted to life with our new Papoose. They provided a constant stream of assistance with cooking, laundry, shopping, diaper changing, back patting (both the baby's and ours), reassurance, advice, chauffering, smiles, and more. We will be forever grateful.

The Husband's mother even cooked us Thanksgiving dinner, which was delicious. We would have been eating out of a box, no doubt, without her.

Even those of us who had no turkey, enjoyed a little post-turkey coma...


...and I was apparently the best spot for that after dinner nap.

*Addendum: There were, of course, actually four moms here, all told. The fourth was Toddler Tamer, who was equally helpful, if not more so, given that she's my age and just recently went through all this and so can relate more readily, perhaps, to my current challenges. I didn't think of her with the aforementioned moms, I think mainly because she's my age and so, though she's a mom, I don't think of her that way...we've shared one too many cocktails and venting sessions for her to sit in that category in my brain. I'm tired. I overcompartmentalize. Forgive me.

Heavyweight Champ

First wink? Actually, just caught mid-yawn.

Hooray! Five days, 10.5 oz weight gain. Pretty impressive for someone less than three weeks old, eh? We won't be back to the pediatrician for another week, and the lactation consultant says she's still a little behind in weight, but clearly on the right track now. So we'll keep on truckin' with the supplementing and maybe by this time next week we'll have the okay to start tapering off. Keep your fingers crossed.

Mini Me

My dad sent me some scans of a few of my baby pics for comparison with Liliana's. I was going to leave it for you all to guess which ones were her versus me, but I think it's too obvious which pics are scans and which is the higher res. So I'll go ahead and tell you: the first three are me, the last two are Lily.



Pretty striking resemblance, eh? The Husband thought the pics of me were Lily at first glance. Now I need to get my MIL to send us some pics of the Husband for further analysis. I don't think she looks exactly like me, but I definitely see the similarities. What do you think?

Uh-Oh

The husband is sick. Luckily, my mom is here, but I'm really not sure whether I should even sleep in our bed tonight...both of us sick? And not getting more than an hour and a half sleep at a time? With feedings currently being a two-person job (that he now can't participate in)? But if I don't sleep in our bed, will I be able to sleep at all? Time will tell. Pray for me that the Husband is merely sick with exhaustion (he's been getting less sleep than me) and not truly contagious.

In the meantime, I have no energy for creative blogging. What's that they say about the first two weeks being all about survival? We went to a nursing support group yesterday and I was able to see some light at the end of the tunnel, but make no mistake, we're still in the thick of it. Can't think more than three hours ahead at a time, so I hope some more pics of our beautiful girl will keep you interested until I have two thoughts to string together again.




Aunt Toddler Tamer is a great multitasker, wrangling baby and puppy simultaneously.

Quote of the Day

The Husband: "I just made my first mistake as a new father. I looked in the mirror."

Enjoying the swing and feeling a little more bright-eyed and bushy-tailed today.

Learning to suck her thumb. We swore we weren't going to do pacifiers, but hearing her cry unconsolably for hours in the bili bed in the hospital broke our hearts and changed our minds. She is definitely a suckler. Unfortunately, she's too young to hold the pacifier in her mouth by herself, and doesn't quite have the coordination yet to hold her hand in place either, so here she's getting a little help from Papa.

Asleep in the stroller after her first walk. The whole household ventured out: Me (not very far, lots of recovery still ahead of me), Mama Scarlet Lily, The Husband, Lily, and Chewy. Chewy's having a hard night. He's been very gentle with the baby, sniffing, occasional kisses. But he's a bit out of control excited and bored tonight. We're trying to be really careful about giving him lots of attention, but I'm sure he can still tell he's not numero uno anymore. And he definitely hasn't gotten his normal amounts of playtime and exercise. Plus there are two extra people in the house, one of whom makes strange new noises and smells. He's got a lot on his plate. Day camp for him tomorrow...

There's No Place Like Home

No, it's not a tanning bed. She and I have different blood types that apparently mixed at some point, causing my blood to attack hers, leaving her with a high bilirubin count. High enough that we had to spend two extra days in the hospital with our precious bundle in the bili bed. Luckily, she could still stay in our room, but she had to be naked, in the light bed, with light coming not only from above, but also through the transparent mattress below....

...She also sported a clear diaper, and opaque eye shield...
Her poor feet were turned into pincushions as her blood had to be tested twice a day tracking improvement. We had to feed her every two hours so she could get the stuff out of her system. She could only be out of the bili bed for feedings. Otherwise, we had to leave her under the lights, crying or not, with limited bonding opportunities. It was rough...
...but this morning we got the good news that we could finally go home! I didn't realize how much I needed to get out of that hospital until we were in the car, in the sunshine, returning to normal life (well, not normal as we knew it before, but more more normal than a hospital room).

(No, this is not us in the aforementioned car. I'm not Britney Spears. This is post-first feeding at home in her own nursery!)

We are so happy to be home with a now healthy baby girl. We're making up for the lost hours of contact, introducing her to her fur baby brothers and sisters, and learning to be new parents (changed my first diaper this morning with tutoring from Scarlet Lily's mama!).

You know there are more pics to come! This, I have no doubt, has just morphed into a full on baby blog, at least for a while. Forgive me for the one track mind I have certainly developed with nature's help.

And thank you all so much for all your heartfelt warm wishes! They were much appreciated through those couple of tougher days and nights until we got home. Things are looking much rosier now.

Baby in the House (almost)

Hello all this is the Husband,

At 11:19 pm on November 3rd after many hours of hard work my champion of a wife brought Liliana Jordan Strong into this world. She is a beautiful (of course, she is mine) 8 pound 0 ounces, 18 ¾ inch long baby girl. I wish I could convey to all of you everything that has happened in the last 48 hours, unfortunately I do not have the time or vocabulary. As a poor substitute I will do my best to show you what has been experienced during this time using pictures.

Excitement

Surprise

Elation

Unhappiness

Love

Calm

Curiosity

Tenderness

Bewilderment

Annoyance

Tiredness