Generosity from All Sides

One thing that has truly amazed me throughout this experience of having this baby of ours is the profound generosity coming at us from all sides! I had actually been concerned in the early months as to how we were going to acquire all the miscellaneous baby things one needs to raise a wee one - !?! Little did I know we would be showered with all sorts of things, including things we didn't even know we'd need and then some!

These darling, delicate hand-knit cable knit pieces were sent from Montreal from my honey-man's mum:

By the time we're in Montreal for a visit this summer, these will fit perfectly for their cooler nights.

I love how the word 'baby' is written in French!

Over the last couple weeks, my sister has dropped by the house unexpectedly to visit her lil' darling niece annnd she's done so bearing baby gifts, no less! Today, she came by and brought the hilarious 'Tax Deduction' bib, the 'Petal Pusher' to hang from the carrier handle of zah baybee's infant car seat, and the 'I Love My Aunt' magnetic frame (very nyce touch there - ha!). The Einstein Baby 'Photo Album' and the baby girl headbands were from her drop-by the week before... all very cute! Yes! Thank you, Auntie Ryner!

I plan to load this baby photo book with pictures of our baby girlie's out-of-towner grandparents so she can familiarize herself with all their faces.

Thank you to Patty and David for all the darling Carters outfits and the frilly baby girlie sockies!
Carters makes the cutest baby duds! And they're so sturdy too!

I ADORE these little dresses! The rickrack trim sewn on the hem of the lil' green floral dress calls to my own baby dresses, as does the detail on the bodice of this pink dress.

And our baby girlie will be absolutely killer cute in these Carters rompers, with her lil' chubby thighs exposed for proper parental nibbling access.

A ladybug on the bummy! I love it!

And this arrived in the mail from my longest-had childhood playmate, who lives right now in Madrid... I'm certain this lil' stationery card came from her time living in Tokyo though!

She knit this! Yes, she knit this uber, uber, most darling dress herself!
I'm certain that when we're in Montreal this summer, she'll be wearing this lil' number there as well.

She has crayzee mad knitting skillz!

And the same day the lil' knit dress mailed from Madrid arrived, we received this as well:

Thank you, Leslie, for indulging my love of of Beatrix Potter and her Peter Rabbit! Awesome!

And the very same day we received the Beatrix Potter DVD and the lil' knit dress, we received these as well!?!
Thank you again, so very much, Brenda, for these darling and lovingly-made hand knit items! This hat is way too cute!

This blanket is made of yarn made from bamboo! - It's remarkably soft!

And this lil' felted wool ditty bag, well... it's mine for now! Baby girlie can have it later, maybe.

And just today, FOUR MORE packages arrived!?!
The wrapping job on this one, alone, had me cooing.Love these lil' Mary Jane sockies! Thank you, Barbara!And some tees from Melissa Lyn ~ The first is for the angel boy-O...
And these are for our lil sweet potato girl...
All three tees are from Threadless.com ~ Check it out! Fun stuff!!
And this arrived from Auntie Mary P. ~ A classic! ~ She's gunna love it!
And this came from Grammie Joanie today... It means 'Super Mama' in French ~ hee heeThank you again and again to everyone!

Several Posts in the Making but Mah Baby Be Wakin'

I do have several posts under construction right now, but lately, unless her daddy is around to woo her to sleep with his mad, magic 'jello head' skillz, my lil' wee one prefers to fall asleep on me, which has never posed a challenge until this very week. Whenever I move her tiny sleeping form over into the Boppy or the bouncy chair or her bassinet or her Pack n' Play --you get the point-- no matter where I try to leave her for her nappy now, she almost always wakes up after the transfer either within that very minute or 5 minutes later!

Sooo, today, in order for her to get some decent nappy time, this morning I had her swaddled, placed in her Boppy on top of the dryer (while it was running on the 'fluff' cycle), while I folded our clean laundry... and just five minutes ago? Well, I actually resorted to the vacuum cleaner. Yes, the vacuum cleaner. I laid her in her vibrating bouncy chair, popped her binky in her mouth and turned the vacuum cleaner on about a foot n' a half from her head, roaring away. I kid you not, she was out in less than a minute!!! Nevertheless, I let the vaccum run a full two minutes before shutting it off.

She's fast asleep still, so I'm writing this post real quick inbetween mouthfuls from I bowl of cereal I hope to inhale in entirety before she wakes... And if I'm lucky, I also hope to make some more progress with my packing for this weekend in L.A. if she remains asleep.

Yup, we're venturing off to L.A. to see the angel boy-O, who's been involved with the production of a play since January (and it's not a school play - - he's been performing with Equity actors and the like!), and this is its closing weekend, so it's our last chance to see him in action! Sooo, off we go, baby in tow, to L.A.! Wish us luck with the car trip and babe.

Shit - she's waking up! ohh - wait... wait...

*sigh*

Nope, we're still good!

Sounds of Music

One thing I hadn't expected is that I can't really recall many baby/child songs to sing to our lil' babe, other than intsy weensy spider and a Mormon Sunday School song, "Popcorn Popping the Apricot Tree". In the last few days, I've had to resort to Beatles' songs, and this morning it was Oingo Boingo, of all things, and this afternoon, songs from The Sound of Music. Of course, she doesn't seem to care whatever it is I may be singing to her; she seems enthralled regardless, however, I do wish I could remember the many songs my mum once sang to me.

A New First for Owen

I went upstairs to take a shower last Wednesday, and at the top of our stairs, our linen closet was ajar, so I closed it, but then I remembered a set of clean bedsheets waiting in our bedroom to be put away... And look what I found when I opened the linen closet door again - -

"She's Mine Too"

Otis has decided (for now) that our lil' jellybean is a-okay -- he gradually laid claim to her over the past week... This picture was taken on Thursday the 16th.

Losing Track of the Days

I cannot believe our baby girlie is already three weeks old!? BTW, I took her to the peds office for another weigh-in today, and get this [drumroll, please]... In the last week since her 2nd peds appointment --it's been just 8 days-- she gained AN ENTIRE POUND!?! = that's an average of 2 ounces gained each day! TWO OUNCES PER DAY, PEOPLE!?!! And tah think, at some point last week, I was worried she wasn't getting enough to eat! Guess I was worried for nuthin', eh? She's growin' like crazy!

So yeah, she's three weeks old now... Over the last three weeks, especially after we brought our lil' baby home, I've had to seriously modify my expectations in terms of what I think I can (and should) get done in a single day. During the first week, of course, this was expected, and during the second week, still really healing from my c-section (plus that NASTY surprise allergic reaction to the steri-strips glue, what fun), well, there were physical limitations keeping my to-do list ambitions at bay. Over the previous weekend, feeling much better physically, I did become more active, and I did manage to get a number of things done... and then those things caught up to me, and I was exhausted the better part of this week.

I'm one of those personalities that really likes making lists (what an understatement this is), especially to-do lists, and I really like checking things off my lists (another understatement). Over the last three weeks, naturally, my to-do list has only gotten longer and longer, and the checking off of items from the to-do list, um, that's not happenin' so much these days. I've got to be okay with this, and I've been struggling with it over the last couple days. Today I finally came to the realize that my days and nights are now truly subject to a whole new set of standards --intellectually, I already knew this would happen, but I hadn't yet FELT IT until now, baby in arms. Tonight I realized the way in which I measure my days' worth needs to become more dependent upon how well I spent my time with my daughter, and not how well I may manage (or not) to whittle away at some ridiculous to-do list. Again, I knew this already, intellectually, but saying and thinking and then doing are different things.

So yesterday? Yesterday was absolutely wonderful, measuring the day by the 'time-well-spent-with-my-daughter' scale. We slept in together another couple hours after her 7am-ish feeding... I sang some songs to her from the Beatles' Sgt. Peppers album while cleaning up the kitchen... She had her first bath in the big bathtub with mommie... And we had an afternoon nap together on the couch while listening to some mellow Ray Charles tunes... The highlight of that day was definitely the bath though, for sure. Her lil' umbilical cord stumpy had finally fallen off on the 10th, so a real bath became do-able (no more sponge/washcloth baths). And what a lil' water baby she is, man! Nearing the end of bath time together, I gently poured water over her face four separate times, and other than some initially frantic (and adorable) blinking action, she was totally chill about it and she actually cooed the last 2 times I did it. Very promising behavior! At some point, I was holding her lil' head in my hands while supporting her neck and shoulder above the water surface, and I let her little body free float in the water... She closed her eyes, all slow-mo like, and practically purred! Tell me, how can she be so freakin' cute?!?

And today? *sigh* We had another wonderful day together... And again, I'm so dang proud of her ONE POUND gain over the last week!!! Have I mentioned yet that we've decided we're gunna keep her? ~ hee hee

What's in a Name?

Many bloggers have asked me what our baby girlie's name is... well, just as with my honey-man and our angel boy-O, I won't ever be referring to her by her name here - - it's simply an issue of privacy and safety. Speaking of which, at this point in time, my honey-man has requested that I end the posting of our baby sweet potato girl's picture here on my public blog, as she becomes more identifiable as the days pass. Of course, I'm a proud mommie, oh-so eager to show her off, and if I could keep it up, I'd post pictures of her for everyone to see every single day for the rest of her life... such cuteness should be shared! BUHHT if I were to do that, it'll hafta happen via our private family blog from now on. I'm sorry to disappoint, but her safety and security are of greater priority.

If I know ya, but you don't somehow have access to our family blog, please let me know [email me: annejelynn at yahoo dot com], and I'll be sure to grant you access to our private 'Vegas or Bust' blog.

Thank you for your enthusiasm, your support and your understanding ~

Day 14: Two Weeks Outta dah Womb

As of last Thursday (or does one count from the first full day after the birth, in which case, Friday?), our baby sweet potato girl is two weeks old!?! and I cannot believe it. Where does the time go? I kid you not, we were in the hospital only yesterday! The days just FLY BY now, more than ever before. The concept of time hardly exists. I can only measure the days by checking against the dates on the photos I take, oh, and having a calendar handy is essential now, speaking of which, today is Monday - ?!? oh yeah, that makes sense... was Easter Sunday just yesterday.

I now spend my days staring at mah baby girlie in total awe of her. I feed her every 2 to 4 hours (or every 5 hrs at night), and we change her diapers [BRAVO TO MAH HONEY-MAN, who dutifully changes diapers without a word of complaint! He VOLUNTEERS to do so! Bless him!], and we give her a bath, and we swaddle her, and we help her fall asleep when she needs our help... and we talk to her, and we sing to her, and we baby-talk her to death as well... and we stare at her... oh, do we stare at her, gaze at her, adore her. And we thank our lucky stars that she is whole and healthy, and she is eating (what a lil' piglet!) and sleeping so well, and she's growing like a lil' weed and changing by the hour!! We feel so blessed and fortunate to have her. I tear up at least once a day, so grateful for such a miraculous and wonderful, precious lil' gift.

This here is my honey-man's favorite onesie for her to wear, although the kid's got nearly enough clothes to last her a month without wearing anything twice!

At her 2nd peds appointment for her two weeks check up and weigh in - - She'd grown a 1/2 inch in that last week and she put on 2.5 more ounces. I love her lil' chinny chopper in this shot! She was just about to do a big 'both-arms-above-the-head' stretch here.

Trying out the 'Snug n' Tug' swaddler ~ and she's snug as a bug!
(Where does that expression come from? - anyone know?)

Really wish this was in sharper focus...

Day 13: What a Good Girl, She Is

I love how she'll lounge awake in the Boppy, just chillin' out ~

Off to the OB with mommie and daddy (where she had everyone's attention in the waiting room), to take care of mommie's NASTY allergic reaction to the icky glue used for the steri-strips placed over her c-section incision... [NASTY is short for: Itchy, totally on fire, red, swollen and peeling!] Once the strips were removed, the area oozed for 2 days. Nyce, eh? Yeah, just had to share that last lovely detail with ya'll! I'd post pictures for you (and you know I have them), buhht that's a bit much... plus they're plain NASTY!

Most of these photos taken in this way never work out so good, but I have a ton of 'em and this is the best one yet! And yes, my boobs are ENORMOUS now = I'm a living, breathing dairy walking upright on two legs!

More digicam admiration for the tinsy toes!

Our lil' jelly bean~

Day 12: Poochie Lips, Tinsy Toesies & Binky Action

I'm absolutely smitten: I love her lil' smootchie poochie lips and all her lil' tinsy toesies just kill me... and I adore her button-like chinny chopper, and her lil' nosey, and the furrow above her nosey too, and her lil' fuzzy head, and her tiny earlobes, and, and...and... I LOVE HER!

And after taking this picture, I accidentally nibbled off a chunk of her left cheeky...

Her daddy does a fabulous swaddle and great 'jello head'... gets her fast to sleep!

I've eaten each of her toesies several times over...

I'll hafta post a video of her binky sucking in action... it's adorable, the motion and the sounds.

She's soooo NOT a fussy baby at all. She'll lay there and just stare and watch and stare and coo.

Day 11: Sent From Heaven

Most of this day's pictures feature our baby sweet potato girl with either her daddy or an extended member of my mum's family... or a kitty cat (some of those were already posted a couple days ago), but I'll give ya this one:

She reminds me of some lil' cartoon character here...

I spent a lot of time that day thinking about my mum, missing her, wishing she were here to enjoy this lil' baby of ours, imaging how she would be. Since our baby girlie's birth, I've found myself wondering each day, throughout each day, whether or not my mum would like what I'm doing, what I'm trying to accomplish. So far, despite fleeting bouts of insecurity and hormonal imbalances, I feel I'm not doing a bad job, overall. And my mum? I think she'd be pleased and proud, pretty sure.

Day 10: Again! Again! Again?

I don't know what happened this day, but we have a number of repetitive photos taken, trying to get certain shots, taken again and again, but sadly, very few of them are in focus.

I woke up, looked down, immediately reached for and grabbed my camera with my free left hand, and did a 'point and shoot' from above, and all before budging anything but my left hand to grab and point the camera. This is what I woke up to that morning...

She's out cold here...

My lil' uber cutie patootie...

I have NO idea how this was even remotely comfortable for her...
We tried the sling that day for the first time, and for the first couple minutes, you'd of thought I was killing her (I was about ready to throw the thing in the trash), but once I stood up, she shut up and conked right out.

Why I Love Mah Honey-Man ~ Reason 38

It was one of my first trips upstairs to our bedroom since we'd come home from the hospital with our baby girlie girl, maybe our 6th or 7th day since she was born? Hmmm, in fact, I think it may have happened about a week ago, last Wednesday, April 1st...

My honey-man and I, we were both upstairs in our master bathroom. I was washing my face, and he was about to shave his... I remember that we were both really, reeeally tired.

Me (splashing my face with water): "So, Friday you can take her for her 2nd PKU stick?"

Him (hot water collecting in his sink, he opens medicine cabinet for his shaving cream): "Yeah, after I'm done with work that morning."

Me (toweling off my freshly washed face): - -

Him (totally alarmed and befuddled): "WHAT AM I DOING?"

Me (realizing what he's about to confess): *blink, blink*

Him (totally reeling): I just put DEORDORANT on my face?!?

Me (watching him rub at his cheek, trying NOT to double over, dying from laughter): - -

Day Nine: Doin' Just Fine

Okay, so these pictures are from her 9th day of life, but the following commentary relates to her first 12 days of life thus far...

I wouldn't dare call it a routine just yet, but over the last several nights in a row a definite pattern has developed ~ Our baby sweet potato girl has her final din-din of the night between 10 and 11 pm, and then she wakes for her middle-of-the-night snacktime between 3 and 4 am, after which she sleeps some more, usually until 7 am, but she could be up anytime between 6 and 8 am, ready and raring to go, ravenous for breakfast. She's become predictable enough that I can set an alarm for her feedings on my Itzbeen, so I can prepare myself and be all right and ready to meet her needs well before she has to get upset and cry. [SEMI-RELATED TANGENT: Do you know what an Itzbeen is? Oh. My. Goodness. Can I tell you just how much I AM SOOOOO IN LOVE WITH MY ITZBEEN!?! For an uber organization nerd like me, the Itzbeen sings to my heart! I can track how long ago we changed her last diaper; I can clock the duration of her feedings and the time since her last feeding came to an end; I can keep track of which side -as in right or left- I last fed her on; I can also track when I'm to take my meds; I can set either audible or silent visual alarms to go off whenever something is due to happen; I can read it in the dark; and I can actually use it like a quick flashlight, like when I'm trying to locate a misplaced breastfeeding bra pad in the middle of the night. I could go on and on... but I won't. I can't say enough about the Itzbeen - - although, I'm certain I could write an entire lengthy post about nothing but the Itzbeen, but I won't (I've come close enough to it anyhow). END OF TANGENT.] So yeah, so far she's been really easy. I'd expected things to be more difficult than they've been, honestly... oh yes, breastfeeding details to come later! Oh and I'm sure you're just dying to hear all about that!

I took this picture at nearly three in the morning, just before waking her to eat...

She slept in past 7:30 am

I love it when she yawns -- ya may have noticed this ain't the first pic to feature my baby yawning!

My lil' pixie

About to head off to her first social gathering in order to meet several visiting members of my mum's extended family, all staying at Aunt Radeane's

Day Eight: Ain't She Grrreat!

Her first peds appointment! And she was a total angel - didn't even cry once.

She regained all but one ounce of her 13 ounces lost since her time in the hospital, post-birth

2nd bathtime at home...

All clean n' cozy, and deliciously cute!

Owen & Otis and their New Baby Sissy

As we'd suspected, Owen is the most wary of our new, squeaky, wriggling baby girlie-girl. He'll sneak near her to sniff her head or her feet and then he'll slowly back away, or sprint off whenever she happens to either suddenly flail her tiny arms at that moment or sneeze, both of which have actually happened a few times now -- each time is hysterical! And Otis? He's wary of our baby girlie as well, particularly when she's loud and/or crying, but he's not at all wary enough to stay away. So far --fingers still crossed-- he hasn't gone far enough to lay on her, let alone lay right beside her... I'm watching out for either move. Overall, neither of the two fuzzy boys have really changed their behavior all that much, except for the fact that my lap space which once was theirs is now often occupied by this squeaky, wriggling thing we brought home nearly two weeks ago... this alone requires some adjusting on their part.

This was taken the 30th... she'd been at home for only 24 hrs by this time.

Apparently my legs are a good lap substitution.

Here's one of Owen's 'sneak-in-for-a-quick-sniff' moments.

If I'd had a wider lens, you'd be able to see the baby girlie lying in my lap, less than a foot away from the peacefully dozin' Owen seen here.

We came home from the baby girlie's first pediatric appointment to discover Owen had finally laid claim to her travel bassinet.

Loungin' the day awayOwen was actually the first to figure out my legs and feet are acceptable cozy-down locations.

Caught again! Of course, Owen believes anything for the baby girlie is really his...

Why I Love Mah Honey-Man ~ Reason 37

Because one evening last week (the 30th), he self-appointed himself a mission to wash and sterilize every baby bottle, binky, and Medela breastpump piece we own in one fail swoop:

Day Seven: Cute Lil' Mug

My guess is that only me - -an uber biased mommie, and a new one at that- - would find this so greatly amusing, but I really love watching my baby girl's subtle and not-so-subtle expression changes:

Day Six: Hanging with Great Grams

Although the day wound up going as smoothly as it possibly could have, we had my Grams, who'd been in town since Sunday, March 15th, come over for the day to help me out and keep me company while my honey-man returned to a full day's work for the first time since our baby girl's birth.

We lounged around and chit chatted most of the morning away, and then Grams made tuna salad sandwiches for our lunch, and we watched My Big Fat Greek Wedding, which my Gram's had never seen before and she really enjoyed it. And at one point, Grams held the sleeping baby girlie on her lap for nearly 2 hours straight... while we both had an afternoon nap as well. Grams also prepped a number of our fresh produce items in the fridge for us [She chopped and washed a head of romaine, cleaned and cut up two celery hearts, and washed and dried a bag of red grapes], and she made a ground turkey and vegetable soup for our dinner that night. It was really wonderful to have her with me and we really enjoyed our time together with zee cutie baybee doll.

Just hangin' out for a couple hours in her travel bassinet, swaddled and blinking, wide awake!I have nearly a couple dozen pictures of her laying like this propped in the Boppy while wearing this cute outfit, all of them basically the same, except a different expression on her face in each one

I have a number of these pictures as well with her swaddled and lying on a pillow and varying degrees of 'so peaceful and serene' shown upon her lil' mug.Grams has herself a mouthful of sugar cookie in this pic... one of those yummy "Cookies By Design" cookies!

Grams left Vegas just this morning to head back to Bear Lake, and I'm really pleased that she was here for our lil' juli-bean's birth, and to spend so much time with us. I really enjoyed our time together. We love you, Grams!

Day Five: Bathtime at Home

Her fifth day of life on this earth was her first full day spent at home...

And her 5th day ended with a bath!
This video is a bit all over the place (I was watching her more so than the camera's aim), but it's what I have:

Thanks to Rob & Lisa for this lil' newborn outfit!

Post-bathtime: Clean and cozy-warm, well fed and well swaddled and sound asleep. She didn't wake again until her middle-of-the-night 3am mealtime.

Cookies By Who?

The day after we came home from the hospital, a rather LARGE bouquet of rather LARGE (and uber adorable) sugar cookies was delivered to our home - - a bouquet of cookies? - - yes, it was a definite first for us! I'd heard about these "Cookies By Design" creations, and although I'd seen a couple promotional pictures before --always cute and well presented-- I had always been really skeptical as to how tasty a cookie that's sturdy and thick enough to be stuck on a stick could ever be... Man, I'm tellin' ya, these cookies were delicious! And OMG, more than ample, for sure!

Once we removed the cookies from their sticks and stashed 'em in a Tupperware the following day to keep them fresh, we were able to satisfy our daily cravings for something sweet for over a week! BTW: The bouquet was too large to store in any of our kitchen cupboards, so we'd first had to stash the entire thing atop the dryer in our laundry room, so our kitties wouldn't be able to paw or nibble at it in the night.

Thank you so much, Suzanne & Jason,
for the nummy and generous treat!

Bringing our Baby Girlie Home

Getting baby girlie into her 'take home' outfit...

Although we'd attended the "Hospital Discharge Class" at 10am that morning, and we saw one of my OB's partner docs early on, given the green light to have my c-section staples removed so we could head home, we didn't get to leave the hospital until 5:30-ish that Sunday... Wound up having to ask/remind our nurse, Priscilla, four different times to come remove my staples.

Lil' baby girlie girl wound up dozing most of the day away... About to loose her yellow hospital security ankle band...

Secure and asleep in her infant carrier car seat inside the Matrix for the first time...

Otis and Owen meet our lil' juli-bean in the very first minute of our arrival home... No hissing nor any aggressive behavior of any kind exhibited - - we're pleased and relieved.

And Otis gives her a lil' kiss on the cheek, tickling her with his whiskers!

Congratulatory Flowers O' Plenty

Although we've been home now since last Sunday, many of the flower arrangements we were given while in the hospital are still quite fresh and lovely, now strategically placed about our front room, so that one can look in any direction and view one of the colorful bouquets. My honey-man took pics of them all for me while we were still at the hospital. Here's a sampling of the sweet arrangements we were given:

This one is from aunt Radeane, along with a number of colorful congratulatory 'It's a Girl' and 'Happy Birthday' balloons she'd brought, as seen with my honey-man in the previous post for Day #4.

I am in love with this Peter Rabbit egg-shaped jar is darling! I'll have to take another picture of it later, to better feature the jar. I'm certain those who sent it do not realize the significance Peter Rabbit holds for me and my childhood... It will be a precious addition to our nursery shelves beside all my childhood Beatrix Potter books, including the complete set I purchased in 2001 from an incredible bookstore in Manhattan.

And I plan to use this arrangement's glass ABC block base as a vase in which we'll stash the baby girlie's binkies. And yesterday, I removed many of the small, darker pink roses and have hung them to dry to be placed inside a glass corked vase to be kept on one of the lil' juli-bean's bedroom shelves.

My step-mum brought us these: Very cool vase, PLUS I absolutely LOVE bulb flowers!
Daffodils and yellow or red tulips are my three very favorites.

Day Four: "We Want More"

You want to see more pictures of our baby girlie, huh? - Yes? ~ Okaybee! Twist my arm!

These pics are from our lil' juli-bean's 4th day of life in this world.
CONFESSION: I'll admit some of these pics are a bit redundant, but I couldn't possibly pick a single favorite close-up shot.Threw this one in for kicks...
Here's my honey-man, about to make his first trip to load the car, it being our last day in the hospital, that Sunday, March 29th.

Her hair isn't particularly thick, but it is over an inch long at the nape of her neck and at the top of her crown. And yes, she does have alotta hair, more than most newborns, indeed!

Her tinsy tiny eyelashes kill me!

Look at that lil' thumb poised upon her lil' chinny chopper!