Here are some recent pictures of our little lady...3 weeks old!
Links to Youtube videos showcasing our daughter's supreme cuteness:Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Musings of a brand new Mama
Our little girl is 2 weeks old now (16 days on earth, to be exact!) and we are both adjusting to our new demands of parenthood very well. We are fortunate, of course, to have been blessed with a very pleasant little baby who is happy and healthy and enjoys eating and sleeping and making faces. She is kind enough to sleep for long stretches during the night, which has let her parents avoid the stresses of insomnia. Tumi doesn't mind staying up late, and I don't mind waking up early, and while I used to think that this difference in our preferences was a bad thing for our relationship, it turns out to work perfectly when co-parenting an infant! She eats huge amounts in the evenings (who knew a teeny tiny baby could fit so much milk in her itsy bitsy belly?) and then sleeps for several hours into the night. I have been able to go to sleep after these marathon feeding sessions while Tumi soothes her to sleep. Then, when she wakes up in the morning, I am well rested enough to meet her needs in the early hours of the day. I am proud of my partner and the balance we've struck as new parents. Since my brain is still in 'Milk Fog' (aka 'Mommy-Brain') and not likely to clear up for a few months, I figured I could use this blog as an opportunity to expound on some random thoughts I've had recently about the adventures of parenting an infant....After reading as much as I did about pregnancy, birth, and parenthood, I considered myself well-prepared to take on the challenges of motherhood. Still, there have been several surprises I was not prepared for at all!
Everyone talks about how difficult labor can be; how painful it is, how challenging. With all the hype, I was expecting labor and delivery to be harder than it actually was. It's true that once it it over, it is hard to describe the actual sensations of labor. It was surely not comfortable, but as I remember it, I was very excited feel the contractions coming on, because it meant that the labor was progressing. After a particularly intense contraction, I remember feeling proud and excited that things were moving along. Labor hormones are amazing things, and I don't remember being aware of the passage of time (I'm sure Tumi and the midwife were more exhausted with the whole process than I was!) despite the fact that it was a very long labor. Surely the epidural and induction drip I received once we arrived at the hospital were a great help with the pain towards the end of labor, but I don't remember labor and delivery as being the hell on earth it's usually described as...
Nobody, however, had prepared me for the pain and agony of breast-feeding! My little daughter sucks like her life depends on it (cuz it does) and it has taken my poor defenseless nipples some serious drive to survive her enthusiasm. Nobody prepared me, either, for the amazing feat of the female human body that happens when new milk comes in...for a few days, I was walking around the apartment with breasts the could easily rival Pamela Anderson. Huge, square, and the hardness of a basketball, my ladies were quite impressive there for a while! Sadly, having breasts as hard and flat as a wall makes it really hard for little baby to latch on properly, so my nipples were shredded to bits. After a week of shear agony (I was afraid to feed her because it hurt so very much) and after trying all the home-remedies I could find online, we decided to visit a lactation consultant at the hospital. She adjusted our latching technique a bit, and gave us some cream to help the wounds heal faster. Since the visit, breast-feeding has become less painful, but sadly is still not without discomfort. I'm told that eventually it will be easy and painless, a time which I am really looking forward to. As of now, I am extremely mad at people who choose to pierce their nipples...why would people willingly choose to wound themselves in such a special, sensitive place? Be nice to your nipples, people! Think of the new mamas out there with cracked, open wounds on their nipples who have to face their hungry children's eager vigorous suck twelve times a day!
People also don't tell you how much new moms sweat. I can't take enough showers in a day to keep myself from getting funky. When I wake up at night, I often feel like I've just jumped into a pool. I've seriously considered sleeping with a towel under me so as not to damage the mattress...People also don't tell you how hungry you can be and how quickly hunger can come on. I've been sitting innocently on the couch (where I spend most of all day every day these days) and all of a sudden started shaking from hunger, and have the 'need to eat something right away or I'll faint!' sensation. People don't tell you how hard it is to be away from your baby. I've left her for only an hour at a time, and I find myself enjoying the first ten minutes or so, then I become really anxious, and can't hold a conversation because all I can think about is getting back home to baby. I hope that this anxiety will also improve with time :)
A few more random new-mom thoughts: I've never in my life been so blissfully happy to crawl into bed at night greeted by soft flannel sheets and ear plugs, nor have I been so excited for the first glorious sips of my morning coffee. I've gotten really good at typing with one hand. We've been listening to 'Lonesome Dove' during nighttime feedings, and I am feeling grateful for my subscription to audible.com which is allowing me to enjoy 'reading' without using my hands. I'm taking recommendations for what we should read next. I haven't had a chance to try my new post-natal yoga video yet (somehow all the 'free time' I have during the day is sucked into sleeping or cleaning) but I am really looking forward to trying it out. I apologize in advance for not responding to emails, letters, facebook posts, text messages, and other attempts to communicate....keep it up, please, and I'll respond eventually (maybe when we're more settled into a routine here at home!). Lastly, little baby girl looks so much like her dad, I've been asked if I'm sure she's mine. Also, we're still deciding on a name, but will have one soon!
Friday, April 9, 2010
Birth and the first week
This morning our beautiful little daughter turned one week old. She celebrated by sleeping last night from midnight to 4am and then again from 5 to 8. Her parents love her dearly and are blissfully happy with their new little family. Now that she is full of milk and sleeping well, there is time to sit and write about how she was born and the wonderful adventures of the first week on earth!
In the hospital after she was born, the midwife asked me how long I had been in labor, and I found it almost an impossible question to answer...I had been having irregular contractions since Monday (March 29th) and they were heavier and heavier since then, so I'd like to think that early labor started then. By Wednesday, I asked our midwife to sweep the membranes (when they separate the bag the baby is swimming in from the walls of the uterus) so we could encourage real active labor to begin. After that, the contractions were more steady and about 10 minutes apart, though I was able to sleep through the night, so they weren't that strong yet.
On Thursday afternoon, contraction were coming more frequently and picking up in intensity. The midwife came to our house to check me in the afternoon, and I was 3cm dilated and about 50% effaced, so real progress was finally starting to take place! I continued to labor into the night, contractions growing more steady and intense all the time. It is weird that they say your sense of time and sequence are disturbed by the hormones produced during labor and delivery, and I definitely found this to be true in my case. I have a hard time remembering what happened when, and during the actual labor itself, it was hard for me to tell how much time had passed. I know that the midwife came to our house at around midnight on Thursday, April 1st. When she arrived, I was about 4cm dilated and she and Tumi got to work setting up the birth pool while I walked around the apartment contracting.
By the time the pool was ready, my contractions were about 3 minutes apart, so I got in right away. While I enjoyed being in the pool, a weird thing happened, and my contractions stopped completely. I was in the pool for about 15 minutes, and had not one contraction the whole time! Birth is a mysterious thing, I suppose, but it was clear from that point on that this baby did not want to come out in the water.
Labor continued once I got out of the pool, but was going pretty slowly. The midwife broke my water when I was 6 cm dilated, but even that did not speed things up very much. Later on, after much intense laboring, the midwife checked once again and I had gone up to 8 cm, but the baby's head was in a strange position. She then checked the heart rate, and noticed that it had slowed significantly. It stayed low for long enough to make us worried, so the decision was made to call an ambulance and finish the birth at the hospital.
Tumi whirled around the apartment and packed our bag for the hospital. Even on such short notice, he grabbed absolutely everything we needed; extra clothes, baby clothes, blankets, food, camera, etc. By the time the ambulance arrived, the baby's heart rate was back to a normal pace, but she had turned in such a way that made the contractions really painful in my back. The ambulance ride was mercifully brief (we live about 5 minutes away from the hospital) although I was really feeling the contractions, and it was overwhelming that the conditions for labor had changed so quickly.
When we got to the hospital, they provided some nitrous oxide, which really helped calm me down (love that stuff!). The midwives decided since the labor was going slowly and was in my back that I would be induced and given an epidural. I was completely happy with that idea, since I know that babies come out whatever way they need too, and it had been so long was ready to be done. After the epidural, Tumi and I slept for about 40 minutes, which was a heavenly break that I am convinced helped me keep up my strength for the pushing phase to come.
After about 4 hours in the hospital, it was time to push. I started pushing at 9am, and little baby girl was born at 9:14. She was crying right away, and they placed her in my arms as soon as she was out. What a beautiful moment! We stayed in the delivery room for about an hour, and then we were moved to a family recovery room. There, Tumi's parents and my mom (who had arrived in Iceland just 2 hours before little one was born) came to visit us and check out their new granddaughter. Once they left, all three of us slept for a long time and left the hospital by about 10pm.
Little baby girl's first week of life has been an amazing adventure. She is a really good sleeper, eater, pooper, and face-maker...what more can you ask for?! Breast feeding has it's ups and downs. I was really surprised by how solid and huge my breasts got when the milk came in, and since their colossal size made it hard for little one to latch on, they have been a bit sore, but are getting better every day. In Icelandic, they call the forgetful, spacey cloud that covers the brain of new mothers 'Milk Fog.' I have noticed since giving birth how hard it is for me to remember things or to have a decent conversation with my friends. While I have found this stupidity difficult to deal with, it is comforting to know that it is temporary and someday I'll have my old brain back (fingers crossed!)
Name coming soon :)
Saturday, April 3, 2010
She's here!
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