17 days and counting
Hello everybody! Thanks so much for all the kind words.
Life is good. The three of us are doing well. I have to say, however... newborns are hard. Yeah, I know, now you're all laughing at me. This whole breastfeeding thing, though? whooooo. Not nearly as straightforward as you'd think.
No, we're not really getting any sleep. Yes, I got walloped relatively hard by the hormonal stuff despite being very much aware of the warning signs and my own tendencies towards depression. Fortunately, my husband is a saint (not to mention fastest diaper-changer in the West), my mother has the magic baby-soothing touch, and we have an awesome support crew right here in walking distance featuring redshinma, kevinarcher, and the FolkBabe, who've been most excellent about feeding and distracting us on short notice. Also, now I have a very useful book and am doing much better both at calming Mina down when needed and at not making myself completely psychotic about being a bad mother.
It helps a lot that she's so unbelievably cute, of course! We do have some pictures of her with her eyes actually open, but not on this computer yet. :)
This is us still in the hospital.
This is the little one getting prepped for her first stroller ride! She was six days old at the time. We thought we were just going to walk around the neighborhood a little bit, but we got as far as the main road and then decided we (well, me really) needed a sitdown and a drink, so we stopped at the outdoor section of the Drake. Then our walk turned into a party all of a sudden! Some people we were expecting and some just happened by, but we all had a lovely afternoon/evening hanging out first at the pub and then at our house. Mina loves having people around and is a little angel as long as she's either being held or is in close proximity to willing minions -- er, I mean, grownups. Visitors always welcome!
She's also been to her first music festival (the Jenkintown jazz/brew fest, held in the town square two blocks from our house -- she slept through the whole thing!), as well as to our favorite diner, where she slept soundly, and the local Italian restaurant, where she held out an hour and then got antsy. We decided trying to take her to Rosh Hashanah services would probably be a bad idea.
Do people want details of the whole birth process thing? I'm not sure how much to share or not; it got complicated (18 hours of unproductive labor, arrrggghhh) and there was much medical intervention. I'll put the story behind a cut if folks want to know. Likewise if you want to know about the state I got myself worked up into, because it seems to me that must be a fairly common phenomenon.
Anyway, as previously mentioned visitors are just about always welcome, especially if they don't mind rather frequent feeding breaks. More pictures coming soon... and if you happen to be going to our local fighter practice tonight, ask the Ladies' Champion to show you his arms. Turns out the little one isn't even remotely interested in pacifiers, but is willing to redirect her barracuda-like enthusiasm towards Dad's biceps!
Life is good. The three of us are doing well. I have to say, however... newborns are hard. Yeah, I know, now you're all laughing at me. This whole breastfeeding thing, though? whooooo. Not nearly as straightforward as you'd think.
No, we're not really getting any sleep. Yes, I got walloped relatively hard by the hormonal stuff despite being very much aware of the warning signs and my own tendencies towards depression. Fortunately, my husband is a saint (not to mention fastest diaper-changer in the West), my mother has the magic baby-soothing touch, and we have an awesome support crew right here in walking distance featuring redshinma, kevinarcher, and the FolkBabe, who've been most excellent about feeding and distracting us on short notice. Also, now I have a very useful book and am doing much better both at calming Mina down when needed and at not making myself completely psychotic about being a bad mother.
It helps a lot that she's so unbelievably cute, of course! We do have some pictures of her with her eyes actually open, but not on this computer yet. :)
This is us still in the hospital.
This is the little one getting prepped for her first stroller ride! She was six days old at the time. We thought we were just going to walk around the neighborhood a little bit, but we got as far as the main road and then decided we (well, me really) needed a sitdown and a drink, so we stopped at the outdoor section of the Drake. Then our walk turned into a party all of a sudden! Some people we were expecting and some just happened by, but we all had a lovely afternoon/evening hanging out first at the pub and then at our house. Mina loves having people around and is a little angel as long as she's either being held or is in close proximity to willing minions -- er, I mean, grownups. Visitors always welcome!
She's also been to her first music festival (the Jenkintown jazz/brew fest, held in the town square two blocks from our house -- she slept through the whole thing!), as well as to our favorite diner, where she slept soundly, and the local Italian restaurant, where she held out an hour and then got antsy. We decided trying to take her to Rosh Hashanah services would probably be a bad idea.
Do people want details of the whole birth process thing? I'm not sure how much to share or not; it got complicated (18 hours of unproductive labor, arrrggghhh) and there was much medical intervention. I'll put the story behind a cut if folks want to know. Likewise if you want to know about the state I got myself worked up into, because it seems to me that must be a fairly common phenomenon.
Anyway, as previously mentioned visitors are just about always welcome, especially if they don't mind rather frequent feeding breaks. More pictures coming soon... and if you happen to be going to our local fighter practice tonight, ask the Ladies' Champion to show you his arms. Turns out the little one isn't even remotely interested in pacifiers, but is willing to redirect her barracuda-like enthusiasm towards Dad's biceps!