From Kittens To Kids

"Yucks, it's gross.  Who'd want to keep it?"

That was my question when the baby's umbilical cord fell off today. 

Well, I'd never have guessed it, but my husband thought it'd be cool to save the little dried up stump for posterity.  So, now it's sitting in a mini-ziploc bag in his nightstand drawer. 

Gross.

It's been interesting to see my husband morphing into a father.  Today, he confessed that he was finding it hard to connect with the baby.  Don't get me wrong- he's been great about helping out on diaper duty, shushing duty and such, but in his words:

"I think I will connect better with him when he is more sentient."

In other words, he mainly thinks of the baby as an eating, pooping, sleeping little being.  Which surprised the heck out of me - I thought he'd get a major case of mental mush when the baby got here.  Who'd have known? 

Methinks he overstates his immunity to the baby's charms.  

How do I know?   I took this photo the day after Douglas was born.  No connection, my ass.

Baby Douglas turned one week old yesterday.  His dad bought a tiny tiramisu cake from Whole Foods as a surprise for me.  He rocks.  They both do.

It might be a while till my next post, so I have to say it here before I forget:

Breastfeeding is a bitch. 

It's worse than labor. 

Call me crazy, but my labor only lasted 4-1/2 hours, so even without an epidural, it's a one-time deal.  Grit your teeth, embrace the pain, push like heck, and you're done,  With breastfeeding, it's an endless and merciless ordeal to be endured EVERY 2-3 hours EVERY DAY.   

BTW, the CIA should look into this as a novel method of torture.  Who needs waterboarding when you can strap down a terrorist and put two hungry chewing mewling babes on his nipples every two hours?  You'd be extracting all his secrets within a week, guaranteed.  Plus, I'd like to see a supposedly macho terrorist claim to be tortured by babies.  That would score really well with his buds.

But, I digress.  Fortunately for me, there is hope, and it comes from an amazing lactation consultant whom we saw on Tuesday.  She taught me how to get a better latch, and it's already made a huge difference. 

Also, it turns out little Douglas had tongue tie, which gets in the way of a good latch for breastfeeding.  So, he had to get "snipped" by the pediatrician today.   Thank goodness it's a minor procedure.  The lidocaine though, did make him look stoned on the way home.  If I'd had my camera with me, you'd be seeing a picture of a stoned baby right now.  Believe me, it was quite a sight.

They say the first two weeks of breastfeeding are the worst.  Well, I hope they're right. 

One week down, one more to go. 

Wish me luck.  I need it.


 

My little boy making his way into this world.

Baby Douglas, born August 4, 2010.

He is everything I hoped he would be.

My grateful thanks to our birthing team, midwife Lin Lee, doula Tara and nurse Emily at El Camino Hospital, Mountain View.  I couldn't have done it without you.

And to my husband.  We did it, baby.  We did it.







 

At the rate we're going, I wouldn't be surprised if this baby is two weeks late.

It makes me wonder: If the baby is two weeks more mature when he comes out, does that mean that the 3-4 week period of bi-hourly feeds will be shortened by the same two weeks?

Does anyone know the answer?
 

Sigh. Still no baby.

My mom and I are twiddling our thumbs.

So, we decided to bake a fruit tart.

She, the baking guru.

Me, the willing apprentice.

I never realized how fun it was to bake with a partner.

She's decided the recipe needs a bit of tweaking for a lighter pastry, so hang in there – we'll be doing some trial and error, and posting the recipe when it's perfect.  Me?  I thought it was delicious.