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Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Penelope Update

Hi all - quick update: We're home, follow-up check on Wednesday morning at the pediatrician to make sure the bilirubin is still going down like it should, and we're enjoying seeing her more pink and less yellow!

I am currently pumping at every feeding and also supplementing with formula, because Miss Penelope's so sleepy and lazy from the combo of being early and high bili that she often won't suck on my boobs at all, not even with a shield, and when she does suck she's very reluctant and requires lots of encouragement the entire time, so she doesn't end up getting a whole lot. But she's eating very well with the finger-feeding, I've spent lots of time with the lactation consultants and am hopeful things will improve as her bili goes down, and I'm pumping about 20 ml at a time now, which is increasing slowly but surely! So I'm hopeful we'll be back on track with breastfeeding and off formula in a few weeks or so.

But the whole process of feeding takes so long that there's rarely more than an hour to sleep at a time, and this feels like it counts more as our first day home, so it's still tough to make any time to answer texts or calls or to think about visitors. I'm sure we'll start emerging and welcoming visits as the week progresses!

I've been feeling all your prayers and support (and reading texts even if I never respond!), and it has really helped us keep our heads up. Luckily our little P-pie is doing great and is so undeniably adorable that we can't help smiling through the long feeding sessions and frustrating attempts to breastfeed. She's so perfect, and I can't wait to start introducing her to everyone!!

Also for those wondering about birth details (like I always do when my friends have babies!), I had to be induced with pitocin because labor didn't start on its own after my water had been broken for 18 hours, and once the pit really kicked in, I went from 1 cm to 10 cm in only 2 hours!! They never even checked me in between, and I was so relieved to hear it was time to push! I hadn't had any pain meds, but the contractions had been virtually constant with very few breaks, so I was getting pretty close to begging for some relief. Then once they gave me permission to push (not that I could have stopped myself--I had already been pushing for a while before they noticed!), she popped out in about 10 minutes. And we did it with no pain meds, and came out smiling on the other side! She had her eyes open and we gazed at each other as soon as she was out! It was pretty awesome. I want to write a real post about just that, it's an experience I never want to forget.

Monday, January 02, 2012

More list

Welp, I am thrilled to report that we got all the major stuff from my Christmas Vaca to-do list done! Biggest exception is sewing, of which I did not do any, but I did get started cutting up the old t's to ready-to-sew diaper-sized squares. I have enough cut for about 10 prefolds so far.

Paul even got a pretty huge bonus project done - he removed the sliding doors on our tub/shower, cleaned it all up, and hung a shower curtain instead! So now in a few months when Baby Girl's ready to graduate from the infant tub to the big tub, it will be SO much easier for use to bathe her! I'm pretty thrilled how he pulled that one out of his hat! Our bathroom looks so nice now with a clean white shower curtain instead of dingy old metal and glass.

So now I need a more general list for the rest of our remaining pre-baby time:

1. Sewing - prefolds, soakers, and I need to hem a bunch of curtains including those for the nursery.

2. Knitting - Mainly I need to make the coming home outfit. I haven't even started yet. That needs to happen very soon!

3. Assembling nursery - duh! Gotta clean the floor, put the finishing touches on the dresser & finish painting a bookcase, assemble the crib, and then just start moving stuff in!!

4. Packing - it's getting to be that time where we need to be ready to go to the hospital!

5. Start cooking extra food to freeze for post-baby easy meals.

6. Triage after our baby shower (so excited!!) - Wash, sort, & put away all clothing, assess what we still need, and decide what we need to buy and when we need to get it by. Stack everything reasonably neatly in the nursery, assemble anything that needs to be assembled, etc.

7. Clean up the second bedroom so it's usable again - it would be nice for an enthusiastic visitor who stays too late to have somewhere to sleep, or for Paul or me to have a place to sleep if there's a way for one of us to get some extra sleep while the other is on baby duty!

8. Get the rest of the house to a reasonable level of tidiness - this shouldn't really be too hard, and it can happen last once everything else is done.

But right now, I need to eat lunch so I can head back into the basement to put one last coat of paint on the dresser! I hope tomorrow we can bring it upstairs & put it in the nursery!!