Party of Four

Since I don't have a gym membership, my main form of exercise has been walking/running the dogs in my neighborhood. Which has been great for the dogs - they each lost 10 pounds of flab this past year - until I underwent surgery and had to take 4 weeks off of exercising. The first three weeks after Lena's birth, they were awful! Especially Puck. He would jump up and run to the back door every time I shifted or stood up. I kept threatening to find them foster homes for the month.

So when I was cleared to resume walking last week, I was excited to get out of the house and exercise the dogs again. But I wondered how well it would go with the addition of a stroller. The dogs often pull me so that they can stop and mark a bush, etc.

Yesterday I decided it was time to try out a walk. It had rained for a few days and the dogs were overdue. Much to my amazement, they were FANTASTIC. Puck stayed right by my side and did not pull or try and stop once. Nugget stayed on Puck's other side and only tried to pull over a few times. We passed all the houses with vocal dogs and the didn't get overexcited or lunge for the gate. We even passed the greyhounds and their crazy owner (both dogs have been bit by the male greyhound) and they didn't flinch. The best part was when a fire truck passed us and Puck started howling (so cute!). I was so proud of them; they realized with the baby they needed to be on their best behavior!

Lena at 1 Month

Lena,
You are one month old today! I can't say this month has flown by - in fact it seems to be trudging along rather slowly! But I wouldn't have it any other way; I'm relishing my time with you. At 1 Month, you:

-Have started smiling. Your smiles are my favorite thing in the entire world! You don't give them out frequently but when you do, you focus on the person and give them a huge grin. It can't be confused for anything else but a smile.

-Use your hands a lot. You like to cover your face with them when you're eating and you also use them to grasp onto my shirt, your blankets, and your bottle. You really look like you're trying to hold your bottle.

-Are much more alert than you used to be. You've started skipping your first morning nap and are also awake from 6 pm -8 pm. I call this time "Unhappy Hour" (no drink specials here). A friend of mine dubbed this time the "witching hour" with her daughter - such an appropriate term! You're a bit fussy and require to be held during this time. Though from what I've heard, your "fussy" is nothing compared to what it could be. When you're awake, you like to stare at lights and walls that are lit up.

-Are sweet and cuddly. Unless you're hungry (when you cry) you're content to lay on someone's chest and snuggle. It is heaven. We often sit like this for up to an hour after you feed, just because we both love it so much. That and if I put you in your bassinet, you wake up. :)

-Are social. You must take after your daddy, because you have no problem being held by strangers. You'll snuggle right up on them.

-Have started your babbling words. Your first is "a-goo." I have no idea what it means in your language, but you say it very clearly and with intent. When I repeat it to you, you smile.

-Make the funniest faces. It's hard to catch them all on camera, but you frown, furrow your brow, smile, purse your lips, roll your tongue ...

When I went to take your 1 month pictures in our new recliner, I put your stuffed fox next to you so we can track your growth. You turned your head, looked at it, opened wide, and latched onto his nose. No milk though!

Here are a few of the many faces you make:

 

 

BART baby

During my one month post-partum check up on Tuesday, I took away two key pieces of information. One: I was released to do light exercise (swimming, walking, yoga), yay! Two: I very badly needed to resume physical therapy for my pudendal nerve (the reason I has a scheduled C-Section). As luck would have it, there was an opening on Thursday morning at 9 am, so I took it. Having been a weekly visitor, the office staff knows me well and said if I was feeling up to it, I should bring Lena so they could meet her. Since Mike teaches on Thursdays, I didn't really have a choice so Lena was going to visit San Francisco for the first time!

I'll admit I was nervous. Babies are unpredictable. I had visions of her getting hungry and crying for the 32 minute BART ride. Or, more realistically, her getting hungry and me breastfeeding on BART. I literally cannot listen to her cry. I have a very visceral reaction and NEED to calm her. I am 100% sure I would breastfeed her on BART just to make her happy. It's not the breastfeeding in public aspect that horrifies me here. It's the a) potential calliber of people on BART I'd be entertaining (and eliciting comments from) and b) see my blog post on the study on the cleanliness of BART seats. There would be copious amounts of antibacterial hand sanitizer added into the equation.

However, I wasn't going to let the fact that I was nervous prohibit me from bringing her. If I could just get over the first time, subsequent times would be easy. So, I made sure to give myself plenty of time and we set out. I fed Lena right before we left and as usual, the car ride to BART (even though it's only 3 min) put her to sleep. And she stayed asleep throughout the train ride. And my physical therapy appointment. I had visions of a frustrating appointment spent calming her down but she rocked it! Since it had been three hours since she ate and the doctor's office is in Union Square, I set off for the ladies lounge at Macy's to feed her. She literally woke up as we were walking into the bathroom. Our walk in Union Square lulled her back to sleep and she slept through me grabbing lunch, riding on BART, and an hour after that. Of course, she was up for six hours after that, but I won't complain. We both went to bed at 6:30 pm tonight.

Success!



Getting ready to leave with dad



Waiting on the BART platform



Sleeping on BART (and yes, after I took the picture, the screens went up!)

Sleeping through her first visit to Union Square

 

Union Square getting ready for Christmas with 200 foot creepy Brady Pitt in the background

A rare awake moment during the trip

 

Oh, I do miss BART.  Here's a guy feeding a husky on his back in the Powell station.

 

On the train ride home

Four hours later; not a nap in sight.

 

Smiles

This weekend, at about 3.5 weeks, Lena had some exciting accomplishments. My hands-down favorite is she began giving us genuine smiles - definitely not to be confused with gas! If you're holding her and she's content with a full belly she'll stare at your face. If you give her a big smile and talk in a silly or sweet voice, she'll give you a big toothless grin. It makes your heart happy. Since she was born, I've been asking Mike "do you think she loves me or do you think she just sees me as her food source?" When she smiles at me, I know the answer to that question. I took the picture below at 2:30 am after a feeding (explains the poor quality).

The other notable accomplishment is that she's spending a lot more time entertaining herself and actually falling asleep on her own. Before she was born, we set up a Pack 'N play with the bassinet insert assuming that would be her temporary crib for the first month. She did not like to sleep in it. She would fall asleep all cuddly and swaddled in your arms and the moment you out her in it she would wake up crying. I wondered if it was too drafty for her, since it was under the window. So, I swapped it with the smaller Pack 'N Play cradle I scored (in brand new condition for $30!) at a garage sale and moved it away from the window. She took one successful nap in it and then decided it was not for her. By now I was really exhausted. The only time I'd get any sleep was when I'd lay on my back on the couch, and wrap her in my arms in my chest. I never purposefully fell asleep this way. I'd wake up two hours later, simultaneously relieved to have gotten some rest and terrified that it was with her sleeping on me. Despite sleeping like a corpse my entire life, I had visions of me rolling over onto her or her rolling off and suffocating into a pillow or the mattress (Baby Care classes use SIDS threats to scare the cosleeping out of you). Even though I really like the feeling if sleeping with her, I knew I was too paranoid to make it a habit. Then, one if my friends, whose daughter is about five weeks older than Lena, told me about the Fisher Price Rock 'N Cradle. It has been a godsend.

We used that original Pack N Play for tummy time and she's starting to have more interest in things in there. It's fun to see her gain more and more interest.  



A big smile during a 2 am feeding
 

Tummy time on the activity mat (she always rolls on her side)

Sleeping on mom

Swaddled in her Rock 'N Cradle