Win some, lose some...

UPDATE: As Cara guessed, it looks like mastitis - an infection in my breast tissue. I'm on antibiotics and we're pumping and working on different nursing positions. And working on nursing in general, but that's another post - sigh. Thanks for all of the well wishes!

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This will be a brief update... you'll see why.

The past week has had some milestones that I'll have to elaborate on later. We took our very first outing - to a yarn store! Grandpa (my dad) arrived on Saturday, so we got to meet him for the first time (plus the Albie dog, too!). Then we went to check out the Cherry Blossoms at the Tidal Basin. Finally, we wound up going to the Homespun Yarn Party for a few hours (photo by Jody here). Of course, she slept through all three, but we're trying to broaden horizons anyway!

We had Raley's 3-week appointment this morning (it would have been a two-week appointment, but our pediatrician was out of the office last week). She's put on weight - our big girl is now 7 lbs 8 oz - and shrunk slightly - 20.5 inches - :). Everything else looks perfect. We talked about the screaming/fussing while nursing, and the dr thinks it might be a (more severe than typical infant) acid reflux that makes nursing painful for her. So, Raley is now on infant Zantac for the next few weeks to see if it helps at all. Grandma takes Zantac everyday, too - so now they just have more in common!

And as for why this will be a short post - I now have a temperature of 102.5. I got ahold of my doctor and I'll be going in to see her in the morning to attempt to figure out what's going on, and taking some (over the counter) medication tonight to try and keep the fever down in the meantime. That said, it's probably time for me to get some rest. Thankfully, both of my parents are here and so they are taking care of both me and the baby! Dan has to work late tonight, but will be able to take some time off this week in case this doesn't get worked out by then. All in all, it's taking a village, but we're getting this baby raised!

Still More Baby

It's true, this has become baby central. Here's a photo for the knitters, though. See, we have 2 cats. When we set up the basinette in the living room (before bringing home the baby), they thought we'd bought a splendid new cat bed. They were very pleased (well, when we weren't shooing them out of it). Then the baby came home, and they didn't quite understand that it wasn't a cat bed anymore. In fact, they wanted to jump into it, no matter how far we moved it away from the couch. What's a knitter to do?

CatDeterrent 3000

Yes, that is yet another use for a yarn swift - the CatDeterrent 3000. It has worked amazingly well, plus it provides us with yet another place to hang things (baby clothes, burp rags, etc.) off of!

Well, that's about it for the crafty talk. I can honestly say I haven't been doing much knitting lately, so if you're here for the knitting you can just surf on. If you want to see the cutest baby in the world, though, read ahead!

Here you go:

Hello!

First, a word on her name - Raley. It does indeed rhyme with Hailey, Bailey, or Israeli (without the "Is"). I actually made up the name. I started with the name "Raederle" which is a character in The Riddle-Master of Hed series by Patricia McKillip (long out of print, but now available in one volume here - sorry, Judy, I gave you the wrong book before!). I pronounced Raederle as Ray-Der-Lee, and eventually shortened it to Raele, pronouned Ray-Lee. And that was our frontrunner name, but eventually I realized that I didn't want to have to give everyone a pronunciation guide with it, so Dan and I worked out spellings that we thought would be more or less phonetical. Raley was the result! We have now found it in one baby book and on one baby name website to mean "deer in the meadow" (the website says it's a boy's name, but we don't care!).
Margaret is my middle name and was my maternal grandmother's first name. Plus we liked how it fit with Raley.

If you hold my hand, the car's not so scary

We've now had several visits with a lactation specialist, because our baby is not the most cooperative in the world... when she wants to sleep, she sleeps, and nothing that anyone can think of can convince her to wake up (and this was using all of the tricks in the LC's bag). So we went back when she was more alert, and got the screaming fit (no, we're not trying to choke you, we're trying to feed you). Finally, as a last resort, we've achieved some nursing success by using a n!pple shield (basically a silicone "hat" to fool the baby into thinking she's still sucking on a bottle), and by baiting and switching her off of a bottle on to the shield. She still fusses and cries and carries on, but we're coming to believe that that may just be her personality. She seems to be a bit of a drama queen, for all that she's only 2 weeks old. Maybe it's the red hair?

Practicing our pose for our senior yearbook photo:

Do you recognize this pose, Aunt Kelly?

We did manage to give her her first bath (and a few since, too). What a production. Did I mention that Raley hates to be naked? There is no worse torture than a diaper change. Oh, except for a bath. Did I mention that she has a flair for the dramatic?

First bath

But when she's calm, she is very sweet. Here she showed us just how she did manage to fit inside mommy's belly (especially there at the end). See that right foot and how it's kind of hanging out there? Yeah, that was the foot that was wedged up in my ribs...

So cozy!

But the funniest thing about this pose was what's going on in the middle there where her hands and feet meet... check this out:

I like to hold my hand with my toes

Yes, that is her pinkie finger between her big and second toe. That's why she has monkey toes (you should see them spread out!).

And finally, here we are sunbathing with Daddy.

Catching some rays!

Back when her bilirubin levels were high, the doctor recommended that she spend some time in the sun to help break it down. We would hold her in front of the windows for 30-45 minutes at a time, and it made a noticeable difference - you could actually see her get less orange. Once her levels came down we've stopped the sunbathing, but it was fun while it lasted.

I wish I could say that that was Raley's first two weeks, but the truth is that I'm not caught up on the photo downloading yet. I believe that these photos cover Raley's first 9 days... with more to come.

Mission Control Update

Houston, we have achieved poop! So much poop... but I guess that's what happens when you store it up for days!

Yes, we took pictures (we are first time parents, after all!), but we are going to spare the internets. :)

Oh, and I did forget to mention one other activity that we can do in our little window while the baby sleeps... Lego Star Wars on the Wii.

Wiiiiiii!

I must insert a disclaimer here that Lego Star Wars does not involve moving the controllers around, unlike most Wii games - no tennis swings or bowling windups, just using the joystick and buttons. But it gives Dan and I a way to relax a little bit between feedings, and Raley likes hanging out asleep on the Boppy. She heard the Star Wars music often enough in utero (well, for the last week or so - we haven't had the Wii for very long) it must feel very familiar.

And that's our update - we made it through another night, and achieved poopy diaper! Today we're contemplating a bath (for baby) and possibly our first trip to the mall! Big plans!!!

What a Week!

Our baby girl is a week old today. I can't even believe it! And what a week it has been... Thanks everyone for your congratulations and comments - I'll try and reply soon, but please know that I appreciated each and every one of them.
Le's see if I can recap some of the past week. Her birth story will have to come later when I have more time...

Our family

So she came into the world on Monday night, and like most newborns was fairly awake for a while. We spent a couple of hours in the labor/delivery room, and then went upstairs to our "maternity suite" where we spent the next few days together. My mom flew in on Tuesday (after having changed her original flight from March 17th!), and Dan went to pick her up from the airport, leaving me for my first shift "going solo." Yikes! But we made it through.

We got to go home on Wednesday morning. We had a special outfit prepared - a Baby Yoda Sweater knit by her mommy (I sewed on the ribbon ties in the hospital... I thought I'd have a few more days to work on it at home!), and an afghan knit by my grandmother, Margaret (which is my middle name, too).

Home!

At home, we met the cats,

What is this?

hung out in our swing,

Again, WHAT is this?

napped with Grandma,

Zzzzzzz

plotted world domination,

Evil petting zoo!

and made funny faces!

Do you smell something in here?

We've had an interesting time medically... She was jaundiced, and this morning was the first day that we didn't have to go back to the hospital for a bilirubin test (hooray!) since her numbers finally started going down.

She's also not nursing particularly well - she latches on but won't suck for more than a few seconds before screaming. We thought that things might get better once my milk came in and nursing wasn't so frustrating (because there was actually food there), but it didn't - if anything it got worse. After a few days of this, I started pumping and we fed her the pumped milk via eyedropper (in addition to continue to try using the breast).

On Friday night, we called our doctor's 24-hour line because we realized that she hadn't had a poopy diaper since Thursday. The pediatrician decided that we needed to start supplementing with formula, and we needed to do feedings every 2 hours. So that's a three-stage feeding process: breast, breastmilk (via bottle now), and formula every two hours... By Sunday morning, still no poo, so we went in to see the pediatrician. The doctor decided that she was healthy, happy, and getting enough to eat, and we should just keep an eye on her, but keep up the 2-hour schedule until her 2-week checkup. For the record, she still hasn't had a bowel movement, in fact, but the doctor says we're in wait-and-see mode. I also have an appointment with a lactation consultant for Wednesday morning to work through some of these breastfeeding problems.

At this point, it would be such a relief to just have to whip out the boob, rather than going through the entire production, so I'm hoping we can get her back nursing soon. Of course, I have Dan to help me at night and Mom and Dan during the day (until Dan goes back to work on Wednesday - noooo!). But our lives are currently broken down into two hour blocks, about 30-60 minutes of which is wrapped up in baby, leaving an hour or so of "our time" for those little things like sleeping and eating.

The good news about keeping a baby with such a full tummy is that she tends to sleep really well once we finish with the feeding production, so we do get that hour without very many interruptions. In fact, we usually have to wake her up for feedings (always fun!). And the other good news is that she wakes up for several periods during the day, generally during or after feedings, and we get several minutes of quiet, happy baby who is very content to just look around and check out this crazy world that she's part of now.

Hello there!

She's the cutest baby ever, and we're so glad to have her. Now if she would just poop!!

(more pictures here)

Announcing...

She's here!

Hello world!

Raley Margaret
March 10, 2008 at 7:18 PM
7 lbs 4 oz
21 inches

Perfect from head to toes!

The whole story (and more pictures) to follow, but no one guessed the correct date on the contest :).
ETA: Everyone is doing great health-wise (besides a little sleep-deprived which is now the norm I understand!), and we came home from the hospital today.

Baby Update and Contest!!!

First, the photo:

37 weeks

OK, for those keeping track, this is actually from last weekend. That means that I need a new photo for 38 weeks... and we'll try to get one up!

At my 38 week appointment on Friday, I was the same as at 37. 1.5 cm dilated, 80% effaced; baby is head down. I had two different doctors for these two weeks - one seemed to think it could be literally any time, the other was a little more conservative. However, no one seems to think that I'll go past my due date, and everyone is agreed that the baby seems to be on the big side :).

So, before we get too late... it's time for a contest!

Send me an e-mail (snarglesarah AT yahoo DOT com) or post your guess in the comments with the following info:

1. Birth date

2. Weight

3. Length

4. (Tie-breaker) Birth time

Deadline: midnight, Tuesday, March 11th.

Weight will only be used in the event that there's a tie on the first three :). Winner will get some tasty yarn, or (for non-knitters) something crafty TBD :). I don't promise quick results, but I will eventually deliver the goods!

I've had a few baby showers in the past few weeks - work, friends, and knitfriends. They've been great parties, and I'm relieved that I made it through all of them without having the baby :). Of course there were fun games, good food, and even some crafts! We also got lots of great presents (which will definitely come in handy!). Here's one of them:

I am a sexy Bobbi bear!

Lara made the baby a Bobbi bear! Some of my other knitty friends also made hats, sweaters, sleep sacks, and even a handmade mei tai! I haven't taken photos yet (a little distracted recently!) but will do my best... action shots at least!

Recent pregnancy symptoms: Honestly, more of the same. Still having heartburn (slightly less than before), still puking (more than before), don't sleep well, pee all the time (or at least feel like I have to), pretty serious pubic sympysis pain (especially when she's dropped down), occasional Braxton-Hicks contractions, but never enough to really get my hopes up. It's true, I'm definitely getting ready for this to be over. Next week is my last week of work, and then I'm off for 3.5 months. I'm definitely looking forward to that!

Hopefully another update soon... we need to see if 38 weeks looks any different!

D is for...

Destruction.

Good, bad, I'm the guy with the axe

A little background... when we bought this house, it came with some of the usual things - appliances, etc. It also came with a very big trunk in the basement. This was a cool-looking vintage (antique?) trunk that had a sticker on the side from a fur store. We loved the trunk, and used it to store some things. However, it was a bit unwieldy to store things in (especially if you needed to move all of the things off the top to access what was inside). Also, it was starting to show a lot of age including water damage and rust. We decided that it would be better to take out the trunk and put up some wire shelves instead.

Then we measured the trunk. Then we measured the door. Apparently, the basement was finished with the trunk in place. That's right - it wouldn't fit through the door, as it was a good 2" wider than the doorframe. Given that and the problems we noticed as we looked closer (the bottom of the trunk was coming apart from the frame), the only thing left to do was break it into pieces. Which Dan gladly did! It broke my heart a little bit to destroy something so cool, and not give anyone else the chance to give it a new home, but there just wasn't anything else we could do.

Speaking of D, D is also for one of the best things in my life.

Dan

And it just happens to be his birthday today. Happy birthday, cutie!

And I'm still here, still pregnant, doing OK (aside from the little feet in my ribs!). Full pregnancy update in the next post.