Less than two hours later, we met up at the Warm Lake Lodge and found a spot near the water to unload our stuff for the picnic. When I say stuff, I mean loads of stuff. We had two “Pack and Plays”, two Baby Bjorns, car seats, coolers, boxes of food, blankets, you name it. We honestly wouldn’t have needed much more (except food) if we were staying for a week. Traveling with a kid means tons of extra stuff!
Today after months and months I was finally able to clean my windows and I cannot begin to express how gratifying it was. Andy’s sister Chrissy came over around noon and spent the afternoon with Belén while I made myself lunch and spent a good four hours cleaning the inside and outside of all of the windows in the house (I am slow!) I am so thrilled about my clean windows that I am devoting an entire blog post to it. The closet reorganization with the exit of maternity clothes was barely mentioned yet clean windows gets an entire post…this is how serious I am.
In case you didn’t receive one in your mailbox, here is a digital version of Belén’s birth announcement that we sent out this week. I didn’t have everyone’s address, so feel free to drop me an email with your latest address and I will send one your way. Andy was the artistic director for the announcement and took a picture from her first day at the hospital with her little yellow bow and used PhotoShop to turn it into a work of art. What a cutie!
I had a moment tonight. I was cooking dinner with the sound of a crying baby coming from the baby monitor. For those of you who know me, you know this is a vast departure from my life thus far. I paused for awhile and smiled at this realization. Granted, the only reason I was cooking was because Andy was mowing the lawn before it rained and my mom had to leave early today (she has been coming every day this week to help me out around the house and with the baby) and the meal I was cooking was mostly prepared by a service that measures out the ingredients and provides instructions on the ziplock bags they come in, but still it was a domestic moment.
I felt kind of guilty getting to celebrate Mother’s Day when I have only been a mom for 12 days, but then Andy reminded me that I have been carrying Belén around with me since August. Andy got me some wine and a heart necklace and earring that haven’t arrived yet, but I am excited to see. I guess there is a small heart with a “B” on it attached to a big one.
Today was a full day which included the usual feedings, changing diapers etc. but also a shower, make up and a studio session to get some portraits of our one week old daughter. After that, I even stopped off at “Bun in the Oven” to pick up a few more articles of nursing clothes. Check out the “Belén Rose -> Newborn” album. Andy did a fantastic job with the photos and touch up in PhotoShop.
Today Belén is one week old. We celebrated with much of the usual routine. Since we are up a lot at night, we don’t usually start our day until later. Today it was quite a bit later and Andy and I got up at 11. Belén slept a little later. After that, it was eating, sleeping, pooping and a bit of alert time for her. For us, pretty much the same but we did a few chores and such.
What so many wise parents had told us in the past is ABSOLUTELY TRUE, you have absolutely no idea how much you will love your child. I love spending time with Belén and Andy, I cannot get enough of it! Who would have ever thought?
it much at this point. She felt the same about the bottle until she realized there was milk in it and she was starving. Then, according to Andy, she “pounded” the milk and went through two bags of milk I had previous pumped and frozen. More on that later.
Last Thursday, my mom and I took Belén to St. Lukes Hospital for an ultrasound on her hips. Apparently there is a high percentage of first born, female, breech babies who have congenital hip problems so it is standard procedure to do an ultrasound on the hips of babies who meet this profile. Unfortunately Belén was a little hungry for the test so once I stripped her down and took off her diaper for the test, she became pretty fussy.
They had taken my catheter out Wednesday morning but then I wasn’t able to go to the bathroom on my own so they had to empty my bladder with a one-time catheter and when I still couldn’t go, they ultimately had to put the catheter back in for another 24 hours. These procedures alone made me glad that we didn’t have a full visitor calendar since I never knew when the nurses were going to need to come in and perform them. With a bladder full of over 1.2 liters of fluid (twice), they never seemed to come soon enough. Finally by Thursday, when they took the third catheter out, I was able to pee on my own. It really felt like a joyous occasion and I think I over-shared with the visitors we had. I felt like a little kid, “hey guess what, I can pee on my own now.”
