Awake Awake!

Palesa had a very alert morning, and was in a fantastic mood.  I wish I could capture her little smiles, but I never seem to have my phone nearby, and they are so cute to look at that I don't want to stop engaging with her.  When we get her changed and dressed in the morning, I love to just put my face next to hers and "play."  At this point, it is mainly talking to her and making funny, expressive faces, but every day she is more and more responsive.

 She is 17 days old today.

This is her thoughtful face.  I so wish I knew what she was thinking!

This is just a general happy and content face

She's just like her Daddy and enjoys playing with her ears.

Look at my booties!

The purpose of these pictures is actually to show off Palesa's little knit booties.  In retrospect, I should have taken a zoomed-in picture of just her feet, but instead, I got the entire cute little girl.  My grandma (Grandma Benson) was an avid crafter.  She would knit and crochet blankets, sew quilts, sewed matching dresses for me and one of my dolls, and even made clothes for my barbie dolls.  She made these booties years ago.  In fact, I believe my sister and I wore them as babies as well.  Palesa is definitely enjoying them, as you can see from her content yawn.  

15 Days old

Palesa was helping Daddy type.  Actually, she was distracting Daddy from typing

 Our big accomplishment of the day was Palesa's first bath!  I wanted to hold on to that newborn smell in her hair for as long as possible, but the sour milk smell from her neck indicated that it was probably time for her first bath.  Osei handed her to me while I was in the shower.  At first she was surprised at suddenly being wet, but she seemed to enjoy it after a while.  However, though I splashed her body with water, I completely forgot to pay attention to her milky neck.  Oh well.

When she nurses, she'll easily grip whatever is around her.  Her fingers are still so tiny.   

We also had a visit from Audra and Catherine, two of our midwives.  They loved getting to see her again, and confirmed that she's gotten exponentially cuter since their last visit.  She's gaining wait like a little champ, and according to Audra's scale, 7 lbs, 13 ounces.

Two weeks old!

Palesa was napping this afternoon and both Osei and I realized how different her face looks now compared to the day she was born.  It is amazing to think our little girl is two weeks old.  I guess that means it is time for her first bath soon.  Though you wouldn't know it from these pictures, we actually do change her clothes daily, but usually not until late afternoon.

13 Days, and a great visit from great friends!

Today was a really great day.  Our dear friends, Chelsea and Dave came to visit from Vermont.  We had a wonderful afternoon, and were very blessed when they cooked us two meals for the week.  Chelsea seemed so astonished at how much smaller Palesa looks in person than in the photos.  So, we took this picture to give a sense of scale.  I guess you could say she is still pretty tiny.  

Daddy likes to blow kisses on her.  We were actually trying to keep her awake, with the grand idea that if she stays awake in the evening, she'll sleep during the night.  Unfortunately, we were far from successful, and Palesa and I were both up since 4:30 am.

Chelsea, Amy, and Palesa

Little Palesa

12 days- Girl Power!

She looks like Supergirl in this picture, with her little fists all ready for flight.

40.5 weeks and 41.5 weeks (or before and after)

These pictures are obviously a little late, but the first one was taken just two days before Palesa's birth.  We went on a long walk Saturday morning in the Arboretum, and then to downtown Jamaica Plain.  We had Thai food for lunch, and I asked our waitress to make it extra spicy, so that hopefully I would go into labor.  It worked, because the next day I was in labor!

This was taken just 5 days after her birth.  She still curls up into a little ball when she sleeps, and I can imagine her being in the womb still.  It is a little hard for me to think that I'm no longer pregnant, and the series of belly shots have come to a definite close (this pregnancy)

11 days

Sleeping

Sleep smile (she's dreaming about milk, I'm sure)

Daddy teasing her for her floppy hat.  Not sure where the fork comes into the picture, but according to him, one moment it is "gagaga googooo" and the next, "give me your wallet! (Daddy)"

10 days- Daddy/ Daughter time

There is nothing that melts my heart more than seeing two people I love more than anything snuggling and cuddling together.  Palesa is an amazingly easy and mellow baby, and so rarely fusses.  Osei has definite baby-whisperer talents though, and has all sorts of tricks up his sleeve to calm and soothe her.

Palesa always seems so happy snuggled up on Osei's chest.

Nine Days- these pictures are for the grandparents

Before bed, we dressed Palesa in a nightgown and then swaddled her tightly in a receiving blanket.  Somehow, when I unwrapped her, she had one arm out of the sleeve, and the other arm through the key-hole opening in the neck.

Occupy the Bedroom

Palesa asleep on the scale before being weighed by midwives today.  7 pounds, 5 ounces.  Our girl is growing like a champion!

Eight Days a Week, I lo-ooo-ooove her!

Today was our first trip out of the house since birth!  We just went a few blocks away to the Pediatrician, but it was a very big deal (for mamma, at least).  I was nervous as anything, just buckling up our baby girl in her carseat for the first time.  But Palesa did wonderful.  The appointment went well too, and Palesa is back up to her birth weight already.  That's our gal!

Palesa also slept in our homemade co-sleeper for the first time yesterday.  We wanted to add a few more pegs to reinforce the sleeping platform.  She'd been sleeping between us for the first week, so Mommy and Daddy enjoyed getting to cuddle again too.  The sheet I made from an old larger sheet which I sewed to fit the co-sleeper mattress.

ETA- something must have worked out well in her new co-sleeper, because Palesa slept for two stretches of 4 hours!  I was thrilled!

A week flies by!

All day long I kept thinking about where we were a week ago and how hard I was working to birth our baby daughter.  I know it is still a long time before college and all the other grown-up stuff she's about to do, but I can't believe how fast a week has gone by already. 

We put Palesa in the belly cast we made at about 39 weeks, and she definitely fit!  Unfortunately, both Osei and I lack the creative photography talents of my sister Suz, and In Harmony Studios, so you can't actually tell it is a belly cast.  Anyway, we did undress her and put her in the belly cast naked.  And then she promptly pooped all over the breast portion of the cast.  We had her curled up in a ball and she just went for it.  If I post a picture of her pooping in the belly cast, someday she might not speak to me for a week because of it, so I need a day to reflect whether it is worth embarrassing her.

 

Luckily, after the poop fiasco, I was able to nurse her back to sleep and we laid her on a blanket on the couch for a few cute posed shots underneath the living room window.  We had the heater on so she stayed nice and toasty. 

I love her little face in this picture.  She looks so much different than she did the day she was born.  We've determined that she does have Osei's nose, but outside of that, we're not sure who she looks like.

 This picture is post-poop, and pre nursing, before she fell back asleep.  You can see why Anne Geddes photographs sleeping newborns.  She was much happier after a snack and a nap, and understandably so.

Six Days Old

All day Sunday I kept thinking about how a week ago I was just beginning labor with.  

Today Palesa met Grandma and Grandpa May for the first time.  Naturally, they absolutely adore her, and we've been warned by Grandpa that she will be spoiled.  They held her while I got to take a 2 hour nap.  Meanwhile, Osei made a delicious feast for dinner.  

Every day Palesa has more and more periods of "active alert" and is starting to make eye contact.  She smiles more and more.

Five Days Old

Who doesn't love a naked baby?

Big old cloth diaper, bigger than her head

Just sleeping.

Four days old

Most likely I'm not going to write these every day.  Part of me is sad (though joyfully sad) knowing that this newborn time will go so quickly.  So now, I want to remember as much as I possibly can of these special moments.  Perhaps someday she will enjoy reading this and seeing herself as a newborn, and seeing how over-the-moon happy her parents were to welcome her into our lives.

Today her umbilical cord stump fell off.  I went to change her diaper and there it was.  It had been getting a little stinky lately.

Palesa smiled this evening for the first time.  We both saw it (and loved it).  She still sleeps most of the day, but she is more alert when awake.  When she stretches, she arches her back and raises her arms above her head.  She still loves to be swaddled, though we have a tough time keeping her arms below, because she likes them next to her face.

Today Osei went down to City Hall to file her birth certificate.  The trip took a long time, and I missed him being gone so much!  I loved seeing her name in print on an official document like that, Palesa Sela May.  Seeing our names listed as Mother and Father was also a bit emotional.

When he came home, he carried Palesa in the Moby wrap so that I could shower, and the two of us spent some time cuddling.

My girl's got a big ole' booty

Yesterday we switched to cloth diapers.  My milk came in so her poop is no longer black and tar-like meconium.  I can't believe I'm writing about baby poop.  The cloth diapers are huge.  They go down past her knees and her feet don't even touch the ground when she is on her back.  This cracks me up.  The diaper is almost twice the size of her head.