Sunday, January 30, 2005

A 70 degree January day meant Mom and Dad had their first swim of the new year... and of their new lives as parents. Teresa came along in her first ride in her Snap-n-go stroller and napped peacefully while we swam a few brisk laps and then sat in the jacuzzi. Mom got out a little early - to temper any bad effects the submergence in the heat might cause - which was Teresa's cue to request a feeding. Now we know why string bikinis were invented - Mom can feed babe without baring ALL.

This was our afternoon activity after a morning of frequent feedings and a haircut for Dad (by Mom). Then Dad had a quick shower and removed some errant plants from teh yard before the trek to swim. Dad wrapped up the day by fixing a rather decadent dinner of scallops with polenta and cheese-stuffed mushrooms. yum.

We are now lolling about in equal comfort - awaiting Teresa's 2nd and 3rd non-familly visitors. Oh I guess we didn't note that yesterday was spent relaxing, doing nothing in Livermore - and Teresa's first non-family visitor was Beverly Hobson. Teresa took a break from her evening of feeding to say hello to Bev; Bev said the appropriate compliments as to her beauty. We'll see how Teresa schedules this evening - since she's been napping for a few hours now she will probably be attached to my breast when the next visitors - Bethany and Kerriann arrive to visit.

Tomorrow is her first doctor's visit - just a checkup to see that she;s growing well and to allow me to ask my 200 questions I've thought of... but neglected to write down yet!! time to to job the new mom brain.
My new favorite words:

Our daughter
Mom
Dad (OK these were favorites before, but have additional meaning now!!)

Saturday, January 29, 2005

Oh my. Where were we? Oh yes, tired at 4PM. that ain't nothin'. Friday (yesterday) my little Rose gave Mom a very challenging day. She fussed, ate, poop, fussed, refused to eat, fussed, slept all in an hour. She then repeated the same activities the next hour, sometime mixing up the order. Yes, my first full day of cranky baby. Finally I gave up my strength at 3:45 and called Dad to return home... then she was the picture of angel babyhood the rest of the night. Go figure. Next time (will there be a next time?) I'll call Dad at noon and save myself at least half a day of grief!

But it was blessedly peaceful once Steve came home. She finished eating a proper meal, Dad fed Mom her second full meal of the day (never was a moments peace to eat during the day), and then Dad and Teresa went for a walk to Great Uncle Jim's and Auntie Barb's allowing Mom some SILENCE. Dad reports she was pretty peaceful anyway on their walk and visit at Uncle Jim's.

Today we hope for some peace and will go visit GramMary and GrandpaPete if it seems like a peaceable enough day is blossoming. Happily we did sleep well, but then we did Thursday night too, it was the day that was a terror. We'll see what the day brings us.

Wednesday, January 26, 2005


One advantage of getting our pictures is we got some old ones developed. This is dad in Tenaya Canyon, Yosemite NP. We hiked it in Sept, 2003.

We got back some of our hospital pictures today. Because dad killed the digital camera, we had to take our old camera and get the pictures developed onto CDs. Unfortunately, alot of the pictures didn't come out... The focus was wrong for some reason. Anyway, here is one of the first pictures of Teresa, already sucking on her finger!
I was just spending some quiet time responding to friend's emails of congratulations. I've just finished typing to one, "oh yeah, I'm generally up from 11AM to 8PM so feel free to call in that window." I sent the email and a wash of fatigue came over me.

Mommy brain. I forget I'm tired? Yes, the past 2 days of no midday mommy-naps were not the start of a trend but an anomaly. Or maybe I did nap these past couple days and have just forgotten? There's a reason I'm still in my PJs.

I could use a good curling up right now, but not to be... Teresa is due to awaken any time now for another feeding and I've ordered groceries for delivery in the next 2 hour window. How's that for timing? Dad said he would come home early today but its 4PM and there's no sign of him yet.

I did accomplish a few non-baby care tasks today. Well, accomplish might be too strong as I didn't actually finish any chores yet, but nibbled at the corners of tasks between feeding and soothing the wee one. That counts for something.

I'll try a catnap on the couch while I wait for Teresa to want food and food to be delivered.

Tuesday, January 25, 2005

Last night Teresa gave Mom a nice treat - we went almost 5 hours between feedings: 2AM to just shy of 7 AM. wonderful. Somehow though that made Dad more tired today - he's in bed napping with Teresa Rose this past hour (of course Dad didn't come to bed until midnight last night so he's maybe feeling that?). Teresa's long rest at night seems to have resulted in more frequent feedings during the day - but given a choice (ha, choice!? I'm at her mercy.) I'd rather she demand food frequently during the day and rest well at night.

Teresa and Mom went to a Breast Feeding support class today - Fortunately Teresa stayed focussed on the correct set of breasts but boy were there a lot of choices! The support group was good - we received further confirmation that we're doing great! Many moms and babes had some challenging problems, so if we end up with some issues, this seems like a great forum to get help.

Teresa got weighed again at the group meeting place and our little Rose is growing well. She's put on 5.5 oozes in a week, since she should be gaining 0.5-1.0 oozes a day, we're well on track. Next weighing will be her first doc's appt next Monday.

Today was Teresa's 3rd trip in the Jeep, she was very happy when the Jeep was humming along the road, not so happy when the Jeep had to wait for stop lights. Wonder when we should take her offroading?

Gramma and Mom finally finished her little handprint and footprint picture frame today. The box suggested this was a 20-30 minute exercise - well maybe if your child doesn't curl her toes and fingers up into a ball. The first two attempts at imprints (yesterday) got us a imprint of a 4-toed sloth. Not what we were looking for! Fresh attempts today with a milk-induced-comatose child resulted in a 3rd attempt with 4 fingers and finally the 4th attempt producing imprints worth saving.

On a side note: we heard the exciting news today that Cousin Allison is just a moment away from figuring out crawling!

Mom's off to curl up with Dad...

Monday, January 24, 2005


The great finger... Teresa really loves her portable pacifier. We tried the 'hospital pacifier', but it just doesn't compare to mom and dad's fingers. She does try to suck on her own finger, at times, too. In fact, about the first thing she did after she born was put her finger in her mouth! But her's just don't seem to be a vey satisfying size...

Grandma came to visit for a week... She and Teresa were very entranced with eachother. And grandma gave mom and dad some nice rest from cooking and such.

Tuesday, January 18, 2005

Today Gram Mary came to visit for the day. Blessed relief for Mom, emotional support more than anything else. Dang these post partum hormones which send Mom up and down the emotional rollercoaster! Gram Mary tackled our rose bushes while Teresa and Mom enjoyed a nice winter day - just sitting and watching. Well, Teresa slept. We met our back fence neighbor, David, who also moved to the neighborhood with a newborn daughter - albeit 35 years ago!

Of course Gram Mary's visit came while Mom was on a higher part of her emotional roller coaster - last night the dear child ATE lots and Mom finally got some engorgement relief. Not only that, we ALL slept for 3 hours at a spell and Mom finally got dome deep sleep not just light napping REM sleep. Wonderful to get deep sleep.

We did nothing special to celebrate Teresa's one week birthday anniversary today...beyond continuing to enjoy the treasure she is in our lives. She continued to eat really well today and Mom's engorgement might (?) be a thing of the past? The dear baby love is crying for another feeding now so Mom sould sign off adn offer her some relief.

Despite the picture, Teresa has been rather calm today... Last night she appears to have found her appetite and as a result she seems to be more comfortable sleeping for a while.

Sunday, January 16, 2005


Yeah, kid... we're tired too...

Baby Teresa.

Dad dropped the digital camera last week... The replacement just arrived...
Last night was more difficult than some. Teresa seems to have quite a bit of gas and takes a long time to calm down after eating... Every two hours during the night is roughly 10 minutes of fresh diaper, 40 minutes of feeding, 5 of burping, 5 of hoping she will go back to sleep, then 15 minutes of crying when she realizes she's gassy... With some finger sucking and cuddling in bed, eventually mom and dad and teresa are back to sleep, only to wake up and do the same thing the next feeding. I definitely liked the night before last when mom decided to do everything herself and I got a great night of sleep... wish I could do the same for her sometime, but that is probably a ways off at this point.

Saturday, January 15, 2005

Welcome home.

Consider this an experiment in 'mondern' technology... I've always thought it would be nice to preserve a diary or something for posterity, or maybe at least to have sommething worth being preserved for posterity. Archiving some of my/our thoughts about parenthood seems like a reasonable place to start.

Teresa Rose was born on Tuesday Jan 11, 2005 at 4:23 PM at Good Sam Hospital: 6 pounds, 12 ounces. 20 inches long, with a thick fuzz of strawberry blonde hair like mom. She came home on Thursday, and seems to be adjusting reasonably well to life on the outside. Mom's milk came in soon after leaving the hospital and Teresa has taken to breastfeeding like a champ... She seems to pretty business-like about it: no rush, no leisure, just show her where dinner is and she goes right at it. Christina brought down some homemade lasagna (her first apparently!) so mom and dad didn't have to cook. Teresa had a calm night... mom and dad got a good amount of sleep, but lots of spit up and leaky diapers resulted in a a huge amount of laundry for being home one night :) So far so good... hey this parenting thing is easy, right??? :)

Friday 'uncle' Jim came down to visit and say hi... he also took some burden off of us by helping with dinner and baby and freeing us up for basic tasks like laundry and sleep. Unfortunately, despite how well she's feeding, mom felt really engorged with milk and was uncomfortable unless she was feeding constantly... Friday night, Teresa was up bout half the night: Mom was nice and let Dad and Jim sleep, so I felt great, but she was feeling pretty bad.

Saturday we were joined by Gram Mary and Grampa Pete, who made dinner and some frozen stew for the coming days, and Matt and Christina and Cousin Allison who brought lunch and a breast pump for mom. They also helped mom and dad knock out some remaining household chores, like picking fruit in the backyard and taking out trash and recycling. Dad and Pete also tackled fixing the water softener in the new house, but although they found a bad washer causing the leak, they couldn't find a replacement.. oh well. At this point, food seems to be the least of our problems, though... from all the people bringing food we seem to have more than we could possibly eat... maybe we should try teresa on some nice pork sandwiches?? :)