Day 6: First Bath
She didn't love it, but she didn't hate it.
Eila pictures from the first few days
A few pics from labor before and after the hospital, and of Eila her first few hours and days.
Day 5: Welcome Eila
What a year! It's felt like we haven't had a chance to breathe in a few months now, and now we have a new little one to take our breath away. We welcomed Eila into the world Tuesday September 6th at 5:34 am. There are more details to that story (sigh) but that's for another time.
For now, I wanted to make sure to capture a few thoughts after a few days of parenthood. Jill and I agree that everything is much more wonderful and much harder than we anticipated. I think there are some things in life—falling in love, having a broken heart, the sorrow of losing a loved one—that can't be conveyed in words, or perhaps at all, if you haven't experienced it. We are completely overwhelmed with our love for Eila in a way that I don't think we could express. At the same time, I think we didn't realize that just feeding her is essentially a full time job (at least, so far). We've been catching naps, but I worry that Jill isn't sleeping enough, because my presence for feeding is technically optional whereas Jill's is not. She's doing an amazing job and hanging in there but I'm not sure our current schedule is sustainable...we'll see if we can get her a little more sleep.
Today's milestone: Eila's first book (The Hungry Caterpillar).
In general Eila is a great eater and a great sleeper, and has a sweet disposition. (In a completely unbiased fashion we can tell she's the best baby ever.) In the hospital she had a really cranky day, which coincided with high bilirubin levels (~13.2 or something). Once that went down we got our Eila back. Last night we had a little more of the inconsolable Eila—she was just hard to settle down (either on her own, or with help). She's better during the day, although she was still a little fussy today. On the plus side I think we are up to ~6 poopy diapers per day and are aiming for more, so hopefully she's figuring that out.
We have tried swaddling her a bit, but haven't been able to successfully keep her arms in. Probably we need to just be a bit firmer with it, but she really seems to like her arms free, and she is strong. We may try this again to see if it helps though ("Happiest Baby on the Block" seems to make a convincing argument that it helps).
Right now I'm at work for a couple of hours to try to catch up on class preparation—I teach Introduction to Cognitive Neuroscience Tuesday and Thursday mornings. I can blow off a lot of other work this semester (don't tell my department chair) but not lecturing. Luckily I have taught before and am fairly organized, but there is still a lot of last minute prep I need to do for most of the lectures. Hopefully if taking care of Jill and Eila can get even 10% easier I'll be able to make time for this.
Blissfully Busy Sunday
As it seems I often do, I worked a 12 hour shift on Saturday and since Jonathan had been out of town last weekend, we sort of declared Sunday our day and tried to make the most of it. (Yes, I realize Sunday is God's day, ultimately).
After a few sips of coffee and half a breakfast bar each, it was off to loop Forest Park, for the first 6 mile run in quite a few months for me. Jonathan was so patient with my pace and it was such a gorgeous morning, sunny and 50 degrees. We arrived home with 20 minutes to shower and dress for church. We're still a part of Christ Church Cathedral and still feel pretty new, despite having attended for almost a year now. I know the names of about 12 people but likely 3 of them know mine. Sigh... I'm absolutely terrible at acclimating to churches. Terrible!!! But I like the church body, the leadership, the message and of most of all the unending focus on loving as Jesus loves. Oh, I also love the choir ;)
After church we came home and whipped up a tofu scramble (so much tastier than you are imagining) and got ourselves changed to go biking.
We both have Public bikes, a company based in San Francisco, specializing in Euro-style commuter bicycles. Mine is Dutch style and Jonathan's is a Mixte French style. We packed a thermos of tea and stopped at our cafe down the block for 2 mini-blueberry scones. This is a fall/Spring tradition we have when hiking or biking. Off we went again to Forest Park where the trees are turning and some almost appear on fire!!
We even left our phones at home. It was so lovely to be phoneless and sit on a blanket in a grove of trees and crackling leaves sipping tea and talking about who knows what. Who cares what. It was my perfect afternoon. And Jonathan knows this which is why he gave it to me ❤️
The rest of the day flew by as grocery shopping, cooking 2 meals for the week and getting to bed by 9 for a 4:40 am wake up call happened. One of my favorite barre fitness studios has a 5:30 am class that I'm so addicted to...
Here's to a sweet sabbath and feeling blessed as I start another work week ☺️