Adjusting

So if there is anything I've learned in the past three weeks, it's that it's important that you are willing to constantly adjust in the land of parenthood. We have to be trying new ways of doing things until we find the right one, otherwise nothing would work. And sometimes, it might be right for a little while, then change. This goes for Louisa's life and ours too. One example of this so far is that Louisa seems to sleep better in her crib next to our bed than in the bed with us. Yesterday she was awake so much during the day, and consequently she became a very tired and upset baby. We kept trying new things to help her fall asleep when she was fighting it, and finally we decided to move the cradle into our room (previously it had been in the nursery) and let her try it out. She did beautifully! She woke up 3 times in 10 hours to eat and be changed, which is the normal feeding pattern we had been doing until recently when she had been having a hard time falling asleep, waking up almost every hour. So, not to say that the problem is solved - it' just a lesson in trying new things until something works for you.

Also, nursing still has not become harmonized yet. I felt like things were getting better for a time, but decided to call the LC once again yesterday when I was getting to my wits end about how to latch her on correctly, which I don't think I have quite right yet. I am not healed up yet either and I wanted her to check me out to assess the healing process. I hope insurance covers her! We put in the claim but aren't sure if it does or not.
Anyway, things around here are still so wonderful, even with the trials and errors. Louisa is getting to be cuter everyday; learning how to make new faces and sounds. I think her appearance is changing alot from her birth, which of course is to be expected. She is pooping and peeing with great regularity (Mike likes to say it's hard to keep her in a clean diaper, so true) :) Aren't you glad you know that?

Some flowers from Mike, to cheer me up from frustrated breastfeeding sessions

Photo Shoot

I think it would be appropriate to re-name this blog, "Louisa's Blog"

2 weeks + 1 day

Louisa is two weeks old. How would I describe how the time that has gone by? I have a feeling most first time parents would describe it in a similar way: what was life like before our baby? In some ways it still feels like just yesterday that I went into labor and had her (that day went by so quickly, it was crazy). Yet, the more dominant feeling is that Lou has been here for a long long time. :) We love her!

This morning we took her to the dr. for her 2 week check up. Everything is fabulous! She didn't gain as much weight as I thought she would have (remember I told you how she loves to nurse!) The dr. was not concerned. He said that judging by the amount of poops and pees she has (about the same amount as feedings!) that she is perfectly healthy. She is not yet up to her birth weight, which again was 8lbs 9 ounces. She is 8lbs 4 ounces. So yeah...I'm wondering where all that breast milk is going! Also it was so funny because I was nursing Lou in the waiting room and I was sort of watching this cute little girl, thinking that she was really sweet. Well, then they called her name and guess what it was? Louisa. Mike discovered her last name was also very similar to us, because they had him verify which one was ours. Maybe the name Louisa will be more popular...who knows? I know it sounds a little old fashioned, but you know how those names will come back into circulation.

My grandma and grandpa are in Hawaii for a week so we are taking care of the apartment building for them. I am amazed at all that they do around here. Hopefully no disasters strike while they are gone! By the way, this is the first time they've gone to Hawaii solely for pleasure, they have been over a dozen times but it had always been business-related. I'm sure they are going to have a great time! Mike and I would love to go back sometime, maybe at our 5 year anniversary if possible. I wouldn't mind bringing a few kids along either, at the hotel we stayed at there were tons of kids and I remember talking to a family who said it was a nice place to bring a family.

Lastly, today is the first day of Lent. One of the passions I'm looking to tame this year is going online too often. I am going to try to only log on to Google Reader (where I read all my blogs), email, and yes, facebook once daily. I hate to admit it, but normally I will check these three places, along with others, quite often throughout the day. It's certainly a habit, something I do without even thinking. It's easy to do when you are home all day. Even with Louisa here, I still do it. When she is sleeping or Mike has her, I will trot right on over here to the computer. So again, during Lent, it will be limited to once a day - I can get everything done then and focus on other tasks. I would also like to read more books, pray, listen to podcasts (I love EWTN) etc - things I can do when tempted to go on the internet. What are you all doing? Even for my friends who are not Catholic, this is a good time of year to try to re-focus on what is important in life and to make an attempt to tackle the habits in your life that you know are unhealthy both physically and spirtually. Aubri - I remember growing up you used to always give something up for Lent. Do you still? Anyway, along with this Mike and I are not goign to eat out, and we are limiting sweets. Also, we are adding more time for daily prayer, something we are perpetually working on. The Byzantine rite has a much stricter fast schedule, which maybe I'll explain later, but since I am nursing I am exempt from the dietary fasting. Anyway, pray for us during this year's Lent, and we will keep you in our prayers as well. Glory to God!

How are we doing?

I'd like to write down a few things about how we're doing. It's important to me because it will help me remember at least some of what the first two weeks of being parents were like. I have never been too good at keeping a consistent record though, which I think I am okay with. I will remember many of the feelings and emotions I've had forever without any help. As for the little details, I will try to chronicle some of them, but as long as I have pictures and my husband to reminisce with, I will be perfectly happy if I don't remember every little thing. I'm just not patient or diligent enough to write everything down. (But props to you who are! Good for you, you impress me) Scrapbooking is alot of fun and I'd really like to get into it again. However, I will have to wait to do much until Mike gets a job because I shouldn't be spending our money on that right now. But I did do some scrapbooking in high school and really do miss it. It's fun to put together pretty pages and books :)

So Louisa, Mike and I are all enjoying eachother right now. We are focusing mostly on getting to know eachother; what to expect from one another, how to respond to all of our needs, etc. As you all probably know, I married a man who always wanted children. So thankfully I didn't have to worry about him being right there for everything, from changing dirty diapers (he does most of them!) to cuddling and bonding with Lou. He does everything he possibly can to lessen the load on me. We take joint care of her and it is so awesome having him around! I am definitely sad about the day when he has to start going to work each day. I'm secretly hoping that one day he can find a work from home job, he is a computer science guy after all, it's totally possible.

Sleep: In the sleep department, I'd say we are all getting enough of it. Not in the way we used to of course, but I certainly haven't been feeling perpetually exhausted like I expected to be. I have always been an "8 hour girl" and alot of people thought this would be my greatest struggle when having an infant around. I think my body has adjusted well to getting sleep in short bursts. The first week I stayed up and nursed her almost every hour at night. She was ravenous for the colostrum, but I'll tell you, I probably would have stayed up all night anyway, just to watch her and make sure she was breathing! Also to gaze at her and take in her beauty. That wasn't too bad because I was running on adrenaline for the first few days. During the days, starting from when we brought her home, I have been able to get in 2-3 little naps, even though she needed to nurse quite often, Mike would take her and I could lay down for 30 minutes. In the last few days she's been able to sleep longer, up to 3 hours in fact, so that's been nice. I try to sleep and spend some one on one time with the husband :) I do get slightly engorged when she sleeps that long though, so I'm glad she only does it an average of once during the day. I have been taking the night shift, from about 12-7am. I think it's important that Mike gets his sleep in because he does take care of her so much during the day. He will wake up to change diapers if I ask him to, but usually I try not to unless I really need him. Plus lately, she only needs to be fed every 2 1/2 to 3 hours. That gives me alot of sleeping time compared to when she first came home! Again, it's hard with the engorgement, but I expect that will also get better in the future.

Breastfeeding: The first week was tricky with nursing, and continues to be something we are getting used to. It takes alot of practice, as some of you who have written to me about it know! It's still painful, as my body is trying it's best to heal up in between feedings. But at least they aren't getting worse, and now that the latch is correct, it's not painful during feedings, just after. Also still working on the timing of feedings so that I don't get too engorged.

Love: It's impossible to describe how much I've changed in terms of my capacity for love in a few short days. Truly, the moment I saw our pink little child I did fall in love, and found myself in a state of disbelief at how beautiful she was, how perfect a gift from God! She is the fruit of Mike and my love, a reflection of the Holy Trinity. My prayers have become more intense, I just can't believe how blessed we are to have this precious gift. God gave us an intense love for this helpless little baby, and I pray that our love will make the difference during difficult times, when we are called to make big sacrifices in raising her. We already have been called to do that, and frankly it's been more than doable because we are so filled with love that making sacrifices has been our joy. I know that love is more than an emotion, it is a state of mind and a decision you make daily. But so far, loving Louisa has come so natural, and yes, quite emotional! I don't know how eloquent I'm sounding right now, but I am trying my best to explain something that is in many ways indescribable.
What else? Louisa is such a fun baby. Mike and I love it when she is in her "quiet alert" stage. In it she tries out her different faces, looks around, tries to focus on something. She seems to like looking at lamps the most. Also, mom's pajama's (I swear she remembers the red pajamas I wore at the hospital because she looks extra hard at those) It's fun to see her eyes open because she still keeps them closed alot. Well, since she's sleeping alot that makes sense. Mike noticed that one of her eyes is still slightly swollen (the eyelid part) and I'm not sure if that eye is a little weaker as a result, but due to that she often has her right eye more open than her left. When she is nursing sometimes she just opens the one eye and then I call her my little pirate. I also love the faces she makes when she sleeps now because she's started to smile a little bit! I wonder when we'll start seeing her first waking smiles. :) I'm positive she will have a beautiful smile, as I have already seen some evidence of it. Louisa did well with her first bath. I don't think she minds as long as she is well fed before hand, and she isn't allowed to get too cold. We went on a walk the other day, and she did great, falling asleep in her carrier. But I feel bad because although we dressed her up in a warm outfit, when we got back her little hands and feet were still cold. This makes us not want to take her out on walks until it warms up, even though there has been some pretty gorgeous sunny days here, it's still too cold I think for an infant...




Well, that's all I'll write for now. I hope you enjoyed hearing a little bit about our lives right now. I know I wrote for so long about how excited we were for her arrival - and now she is here! Wow it's so amazing you guys! It is obviously a life changing event to have a child. I look forward to every day, and even the challenges are joyful in a way. Like I mentioned before, it has been a process of discovering how tough I can be when I need to. Also, it has drawn Mike and I closer together, I appreciate him so much more than I ever did before. He is the best.

I caught a slight smile! It's right at the beginning. She must be dreaming about her mama and daddy!

Tough mama

I have to be honest, I am very thankful to God for granting me a relatively easy labor. I do not consider myself terribly "tough" and was frankly pretty nervous about the pain associated with child birth. Toward the end of my pregancy I felt "ready" to have her and was ready to face the pain, however in the back of my mind I was still scared. But when I gave birth to Louisa, I was able to endure the pain because it was quick and I ended up becoming intensly focused during the pushing phase. Like Mike said in his post, I did not scream or cry out, and was able to make each push count as much as possible. It was a blessed experience, and again, I thanked God for only giving me what I could handle.

As far as recovery has been going, it's been equally do-able. With Mike's help, I have been doing SO WELL. I am a little sore in some places (you know what I mean) and of course tired, but nothing has been overwhelming.

Now, suffering has been part of the equation. Like I said, I do not really consider myself very tough, but today I found out that I actually am, at least a little bit. I have been struggling with nursing, though it didn't seem like I was at first. In the hospital it seemed that she got off to a good start. She is a good suckler (sp?) and I thought all was well. It was not painful at first...but that was to come. She ended up losing about 11% of her birth weight when we went in to the doctor three days after she was born. This was alarming to me, though I know it's normal, they usually say up to 10% is acceptable. So he wanted us to come back in two days when my milk came in (it came in on the fourth day, a little later than usual). Well, once that happened she shot up 6 ounces which was a relief! However, by then my nipples were beginning to get pretty darn sore. I endured the pain because I thought it was normal to experience at first. I have a good nursing pamplet, which I read over and over. Apparently reading about nursing is a whole other story than having someone showing you. Last night I started to break down a little because it was getting so painful that I was crying at each feeding. Finally I made the decision to call a lactation consultant. She came right away this morning, and she was a life saver. Here is the part where I get an award for being tough - she said that my nipples were extremely damaged and were on the brink of infection. Actually, they are a little infected due to the fact that she was nursing so frequently and her latch was so bad that they weren't getting any time to heal up. She said she couldn't believe the pain I was enduring and was very glad I had called her today and not delayed. She even said that she was pretty sure she had not seen such bad nipples in a very long time. She gave me some of these pads that are soothing and wonderful along with a perscription cream (not an antibiotic). Oh, and of course she showed me how to get Lou to latch on properly...a must!

Thank goodness I did decide to call her. I am still in pain but at least now I will have the chance to heal and Louisa and I will be able to practice the right latching on. From here on out nursing will be more pleasant. But anyway, I feel like I'm more of a tough girl than I thought which makes me feel more confident about challenges to come.

The first week

First bath, taken today at one week old

Sleepin' after a meal
Getting ready for car ride number 2
Hey - I'm only one week old and mommy is already dressing me up!!

And first time going to church

Again, I don't have much time to write. This little babe LOVES to nurse. Usually it's every hour, with some stretches of 2-3 hours of sleep. She must have her dad's metabolism :) At first it became really painful because no one really told me how to teach her proper latch on technique. As a result it became really bad for a few days, ouch! Finally I read a good book which helped me out alot and things are much better now, though I'm still slightly sore. And my back is hurting alot, any recommendations on how to prevent sore backs when nursing 12 times in 24 hours?

thank you all for your lovely comments by the way! We obviously feel undeservedly blessed by Louisa. She is the joy of our lives.

Time to share our beautful daughter...

....Though I don't have time to write much about the last four days right now.

Read Mike's blog post for some of the details. (Just keep in mind the text in green shows off my hubby's tendency to want to get into trouble with me, so you can't take him too seriously :)

Onto the lovely baby...

(by the way your probably going to get alot of daddy and Louisa shots, because I just can't get enough of these two!)

Eastwood

Ok wow I can't believe I last blogged on Tuesday. I thought I wasn't going to make it much further without going into labor, and here it is - Saturday already! I guess it's good that the time went by relatively quickly between then and now. Last night Mike and I just HAD to get out and do something, so we went to see a movie - Gran Torino, and it was excellent. The movie was directed by Clint Eastwood, and he played the main character. Michael Medved (if you don't know him, he is a political commentator but he also does movie reviews) said that it was one of Eastwood's best ever performances. This movie was quite good, we highly recommend it. Just one warning, there is some extremely fowl language, and alot of it is racially based. Usually, I am very sensitive to this, I personally never swear, and for some reason it's always been a bit of a pet peeve to me. In the movie though, I could put up with it and it actually does contribute to the story. I think most people would like the movie, it's got a great story and the characters are well developed. So, that's Kayleen's movie review ;) And that explains why I have a picture of the man in my post, which I'm sure you were wondering about

More exciting though was that after the movie, we went home and around 11:15 I started to have some contractions - which I actually could feel! I haven't been clear on the whole contraction thing from the beginning, I just haven't really known what they are supposed to feel like. But, last night I was certain I was having them, and they were ranging from every 15-20 minutes apart. They were somewhat painful, but I could still talk through them and everything. But the thing was I was so tired and actually just wanted to rest for a bit and wait to see if they got more regular. So I layed down at about 12:45 and ended up falling asleep and the contractions went away. So...hmpf. Maybe I should have woken myself up more and walked around :/ but oh well at least I know things are most definitely starting to happen! Also, this morning I'm pretty sure I lost the mucus plug (AHH sorry if that's TMI!) That is another sign of imminent labor (well, not always, but along with the contractions, I think it's a compelling sign) So hopefully hopefully hopefully I will start getting more contractions today and maybe a baby will be born soon!

Trying to stay upbeat

Oh boy, what a lesson in patience! We are still hangin' out, waiting for our sweet baby to arrive. If only our doctor hadn't talked an early delivery,*sigh*, then this would be a different story (at least I think it would be.) I do understand that pregnancy ends when it's supposed to, in the baby and God's time. I know every day she is growing and becoming more stable for the outside world (she practices her breathing alot now, which feels like strong hiccups :) I know that I will miss many aspects of being pregnant (not everything, but so many things), I know I know I know. But I also know that I've never anticipated something so much in my whole life as meeting my first child. And my husband feels the same way. Goodness, I have to repeat - what a lesson in patience!!! We know that many people are just as excited as we are for the baby make her appearence, so thank you for your support and prayers and comments. Trust us, we can't wait for you to meet her either!

So....we've just been trying our hardest to remain upbeat and content, going on walks and such. (Along with job hunting, something that is always on our minds.) Thank goodness we live in beautiful Seattle. In our area there are so many nice places to walk, and you can't beat 45 degrees in the middle of winter.

My aunt likes to say, the greatest gift you can give a child is two parents that love eachother, I agree 100%