almost a month
Well, the Baby is almost a month old. Since no official announcement was made here, I’ll do it now: Baby was born on Monday, July 5, 2010, at 7:45am. She was 8lbs even, and 20in long. Labor was short, just 6.5 hours. She seemed perfectly healthy at the time, but things have come up since. She has hip dysplasia in her left hip, which means that the socket of the joint isn’t quite formed yet, and it slips in and out, depending on the position of her legs. She wears a little harness that keeps her legs “passively” in the right position which should help the joint develop.
Also, she was born with a little jaundice, which is pretty normal for babies. However, last week we went in to get it checked out again, because it wasn’t gone yet. The blood test revealed that she had a billirubin level significantly higher than at birth, and higher than the pediatrician (not ours, another in the practice) was comfortable with. So we switched to formula feeding for a few days and went in for more blood tests. We now know that all the tests came in fine, and we are back to breastfeeding. However, there is still the fear of the possible effects of this high billirubin level. Going back to our pediatrician to get her looked at in about half an hour.
Those are the things that haven’t gone right. Lots of really good things, though. She eats really well and mostly sleeps really well. When she is awake she is really alert and curious, looking around and grabbing at things. She changes so much every day, that she doesn’t even seem like a newborn anymore. The Little Red Haired Girl mostly deals with her at night, so I get decent amounts of sleep, and mostly I try to get up early and take her so The Little Red Haired Girl can get some extra hours in the morning. Even though there’s no routine, I feel like we’re getting some patterns and strategies established.
We take a million pictures, and don’t get tired of them. Baby makes so many facial expressions that I want to catch them all, because she might stop making them any day. Some people say that they’ve never loved anyone so much when they have their first baby, but I think, for me it’s that I’ve never been more obsessed with anyone/anything. We stare at her and talk to her and read to her and sing to her and talk about her and point out the stupidest things about her to each other and take pictures and videos all freaking day long.
As for school, I have been slowly easing back into it. Baby came a week early, so my plans for finishing my qualifying paper have been put off quite a bit. It’s hard to get my head there, but I’m committing to having a full draft in the next week. Oy. It’s hard to concentrate on something this cognitively demanding when you have an active obsession.