December, Penelope!

Look at this face.  Just LOOK at it.

Hi, readers! I'm Penelope Malala Miller-Hyman.

This is why people HAVE babies!  She's tiny, she's healthy, she looks like a little cross between the two of us - in other words, she's beautiful.

As I type this (at 5am on a Sunday into Monday), that perfect little creature is several feet to my left.  She was fussy tonight (because the landlady still needs to fix the heat in here), so we fed her, changed her and put her in the carseat, which she loves to sleep in, though we almost never put her in it to sleep. (NOTE: That's because infants sleeping in car seats is not generally recommended, which is why we're taking turns being awake and why we have her right next to us.  Their little heads sometimes aren't able to stay up really well unless they're flat on their backs, which then could impact their breathing.  So every breath is not only adorable, but a nice reassurance that we haven't harmed our new daughter.)

In the background, we have a (very softly playing) mix of nice music, from Natalie Merchant and Fiona Apple to Cornershop, Gotye and Nick Drake, Vince Guaraldi, Dave Brubeck and the Wailin' Jennys.  I can't imagine little Penelope not growing up with eclectic music taste, unless her mother gets too much up in her play list.  Then she might get so much Gaga in her ears, there won't be room for aught else.

This is Penelope Malala Miller-Hyman, named for my troublemaking, wonderful, brilliant grandmother Pearl, and a sixteen-year-old girl who is possibly the bravest person in the world.  She is sweet-tempered, friendly, loves to stare at people and things, and is one week and one day old as of this past four-forty in the afternoon.  Her birthday is December 21st, as per the wishes of her auntie Sonali, who wished very strongly to share a birthday with our new baby, and had no problem delaying her birth by putting that wish out in the Universe several times on Facebook.  (Love you, S!) :)

Penelope was delivered by C-section, after three excruciating days of attempted labor inducement.  Birth, it turns out, is a somewhat inexact science, and no one could quite figure out whether Tina's water had broken slowly or was still intact, until it burst two days after she was admitted to Albany Medical Center.  The staff at Albany Med were truly excellent, a term we don't use lightly here.  They were good-natured, knowledgeable, big on explaining everything, and really big on making sure everything happened as quickly and cleanly as possible.  Even the best staff, the best woman and the best little baby in the world can't always make the perfect birth happen.  Sometimes God / stork / time / whatever ($5 to whoever gets the reference first) decides that a baby's route into this world will be circuitous.

Other than a small, rapidly-healing scar on Mommy's belly, though, we have nothing to complain about.  Literally, nothing.  Mom and her new husband, Stan, the baby's Opa (German for Grandpa), brought us furniture from downstate, helped Tina through a very trying time, babysat for a few days, and even photographed the whole venture.  I have a job, the Albany community made sure we had spiffy clothes and great gear for little Penelope - and we're home, settled and just learning to love sleep deprivation.

We love you, Penelope, very very much.  We hope you don't mind that we wrote this blog to tell the world all about your beginnings, and who knows?  If it's successful enough, someday you may be able to type an entry yourself!

In the meantime, here's some more warm baby fuzziness for the folks at home.  Enjoy, and thanks everyone for following along with our new adventure.

 

It's jiggling...NOT shaking.

        We've learned a lot over the past 8 months; what we REALLY needed to buy vs. what looked pretty and wouldn't be used for more than a year, how long mothers really should be breastfeeding, how to put a bassinet together, etc. But in Infant Care, we got a Very Special Lesson. We talked about how important it is not to shake an infant, and how to safely swaddle and calm a baby. The teacher mentioned that she had a video about soothing babies that she wanted to show us, and that the other couple in the class had already seen, so at the end, we stayed behind to watch.

          I should give the teacher credit at this point, btw, for very openly taking this video with a grain of salt. It was made by a pediatrician who'd worked on techniques to soothe babies, for years, and then went on to make what he clearly meant to be an ode to himself; the man could not have been more obviously in love with the sound of his own voice. Some of what he said was valid (I've heard enough about swaddling at this point, to believe in it), but other stuff, not so much. A big core principle of what he does, surrounds 5 steps you can take to soothe Baby. There's the swaddling, but then there's the soothing. It's the soothing and then the shushing, that I would like to discuss.

      Dr. LoveThyself (so nicknamed for the deep affair he's surely involved in with himself) says you should hold Baby on her side and-his words not mine-jiggle her. This means turning her on her side and doing what looks a lot like shaking to me, only with minimally more support to the neck and shoulders. He clarifies what he's doing in a voice that doesn't at all make me think he's going to demand that I either put the lotion in the basket lest I get the hose again, he says,

"It's not shaking...it's JIGGLING."

     Oh. Well then that makes it so much better. Meanwhile the babies DO quiet down..probably because they've become frozen with fear and/or are plotting their escape. Some still continue to cry though, and for these babies, the good doctor recommends continuing on with something he calls "shushing". This is not as gentle and lullaby-esque as you'd think. It involves loudly making a "SHHHHHHH!!!!!" sound at about the decibel of basketball player sized mosquito, while being super close to Baby's ear, and doing the jiggling. Almost every baby who was at this point still fussing, almost immediately goes still and appears to be "asleep". Smart babies; if it were me, I'd pretend to be asleep too. The video rounds itself out with a few more tips, then testimonials from parents who say it works like a charm, etc etc...probably because from the way the video is edited, the good doctor is in their homes UNTIL IT WORKS, and they'd really really like to eat dinner without him trying to soothe anyone who raises their voice.

       Suffice it to say, I won't be using this method on our Blueberry-yes, we'll rock her, and yes we'll make ACTUAL soothing noises at her, but we won't be doing anything that resembles this "tried and true" method. I think I'll stick with things that won't make me worry that my baby hates me and would love to make her first words "Put me down, you spaz-and for the love of God, why do sound like a white noise machine filled with elicit amphetamines?!"

Thank you, Thanksgiving! (And not just for the stuffing!)

       Hi all! It's been a week since the last time you heard from us, so I figured while Josh catches up on a bit of sleep, I'd check in. We just spent the week with the most amazing in-laws a girl could ask for, and had a Thanksgiving full of family, talking, and STOVE TOP STUFFING. I can't even. I could not have imagined, one year ago, that this is where I'd be, or that this is what I'd be doing, but here I am, and here it all is!
       Baby is moving more than ever-Josh and I spent a good amount of down time just watching my belly, and feeling her wiggling around, getting in some exercise and growth before she makes her appearance in about 3 weeks. I'm a few days late on this, but I thought that here might be as good a place as any to do my list of things I'm thankful for this year:

1) My new family. They are just mind-bogglingly wonderful people; endlessly generous, welcoming, and friendly, I could not have dreamed up a better group of Grandparents, Uncles and Aunt, for our little Blueberry.

2) Josh. I've said it many times to him, and I'll delve into a bit of mushiness for a moment if you'll forgive me, in order to say it again. He is the best man in the world, and I am so, so happy that he's going to be raising this little one with me.

3) My job. Without getting into specifics I'll just say that I learned so much, and feel so loved having done it for so many years, and I can leave (never forever, but never the same again) knowing that I did a good job and (hopefully) had a positive impact; I do know that it had an incredibly positive impact on me.

4) My baby, my baby, my baby. I've wanted to be a mother for about 14 years, and to be here, so close to meeting our child face-to-face, is even in this pregnancy's fattest and sickest moments, incredible.

5) Charlie. A little more than a year ago, he came into my life and made me a Mommy-he made me happy when I needed it, gave me someone to love and take care of, and is our furry little son, keeping our house lively and our scraps eaten. I can't wait to hug his little body and feed him scrambled eggs!

-There are so many things that I'm thankful for this year (our apartment, the people here in Albany who've helped us in so many ways, our health, and things I know I'll think of later), but I'll stop here, at least for now. It's been a roller coaster of emotions for me this week, and I can't wait to start getting ready to meet little Baby Miller-Hyman!