Hot and Cold

Two weeks after we brought Eliza home from the hospital, we finally got around to giving the poor girl a bath. With two weeks worth of kisses plastered on her head, she was dirtier than a Port Authority bathroom. Eliza appeared content at first with her sponge bath and then changed her mind - a few times.

Content 1:30 pm

Discontent 1:31 pm

Content 1:32 pm

Discontent 1:33 pm

GranJanne bought Eliza her very own Dwell Studio owl hooded towel (their new baby collection is out!). Addie has one too from Dwell Studio which she got from Papa Mit, and we still use it three years later making it one of my all time favorite baby gifts.

2 Weeks Old

Miss Eliza is 2 weeks old today. Happy day my sweetness.

Here is what's been going on:

Cap went back to work.

My mom had to go back home after having been with us for 10 days. Sniff sniff.

GranJanne arrived to stay with us for a week. Hurrah!

Eliza's umbilical nubbin fell off and was MIA until I found it on Cap's pillow. I'm not sure what to do with it. Why can't I bring myself to just throw it away?

Eliza has outgrown her newborn diapers.

Eliza has figured out day from night.

Eliza sleeps 2 hour stretches at night, eats and then goes back to sleep. Not too bad.

Eliza saw (slept through) her first art exhibition: Pompeii and the Roman Villa at LACMA

Eliza went to (slept through) her first restaurant for lunch: Swingers

Eliza went to (slept through) the aquarium. the first trip of many.

Eliza had her first photo shoot. My friend Jan spent an hour and a half taking photos of her. Most of the time though was spent trying to calm Eliza down so she wasn't crying in every shot. I'll share the photos when I get them.

Eliza also has the most engaging smile that moves her ears a quarter of an inch up. I can't wait for her to mean it.

Big Yawn

I'm too sleepy to write much now, but I wanted to report in. Eliza has gone from needing to be fed every hour all day and night to last night where she at least gave us a few 2-3 hour windows of sleep. I actually felt rested this morning. Or at least I didn't feel like a might melt in a sobbing ball of goo.

I am slowly returning from a sleep-deprived stupor to a world where I once remember valuing personal hygiene. I've been wearing a nursing bra and sweatpants for a week and to make it worse, they are the same bra and sweatpants. Aside from a trip to the pediatrician and a trip to my doctor because I was sure I had tonsillitis (I don't), I haven't left the house until today. The post-partum cramping, which at times was so horrifically painful I sent myself into shakes, shivers and chattering teeth, has subsided and it seems that maybe there is hope that breastfeeding won't always be this painful.

Eliza is a dream and love to watch her make a thousand faces in her sleep and rub her soft, downy head. She has the sweetest rose bud lips and a tiny button chin which sinks into her cheeks. My mom discovered two submerged dimples on those cheeks too, just like her big sister.

Thanks to my mom and Cap too who are doing countless things to help.

Meet Eliza

Welcome Princess!

Eliza Wren
Born Saturday, 9/12/2009
4:35 am
8 lbs. 8 oz.
19.5 inches

With love,
Mommy, Daddy and Big Sister Adelaide

Labor(less) Weekend

Here's a little of what we did this weekend instead of spending it in the hospital popping out a baby as I had envisioned. I didn't take photos either so this will have to do of Addie on Sunday entertaining us in the backyard. You'll have to imagine the entertaining part since this is just a picture of her elbow. Apparently, even clicking a small black button on my camera is proving to be to much for me as I enter Week 40. Cap has been a complete saint though - cooking, washing dishes so much that he even has a blister on his thumb (really), and watching Addie so I can just sit down. I love to sit.

Our laborless labor day weekend:
ate pancakes
went swimming
tried to nap
didn't go into labor
ate pancakes
went swimming (Addie put her head under the water for the first time!)
tried to nap
had a BBQ at our place with Papa Mit and Grandma Vede
didn't go into labor
didn't eat pancakes
went swimming
road the trolley at The Grove
ate gummy alphabet letters
ate ice cream
tried to nap
didn't go into labor

and now to just sit for a little bit longer. Ahhh.

39 Weeks

No baby yet and no signs of a baby other than the existence of my enormous belly. My doctor said that with the second baby there may not be any indication that labor is imminent. It will just happen. Actually that was how it was with Addie. No false contractions, no dropping, no dilation, no water breaking, no nuthin' until I was in labor and then BAM out she pops (okay she was actually sucked out with a vacuum) 6 days past her due date and 17 hours of labor.

My due date is this Sunday, but I'm actually fine not having the baby early now (or so I tell myself). I've been a whirlwind errand runner and movie goer this week having seen a movie in the theater every day. Just me, a large Mugs root beer and a pack of red vines. Plus Cap has fallen victim to a cold so we absolutely can't and won't have the baby until he's better. As if I have a choice in the matter.