Three Days Old

At our 3-day postpartum visit with the midwives, Palesa weighed 7lbs even (down only 4 ounces from birth, which is excellent).  She has no signs of jaundice, and is pink and healthy.  She got a heel prick.

Today my milk came in, and her poop changed from newborn meconium to normal infant poop.  She is still sleeping a ton, but she has a few more periods of active alert. She likes to just look around the room. When she's getting hungry, she'll make little rooting faces and mouth.  She'll open her mouth wide like a fish and sometimes bob her head front to back or shake it side to side.

She doesn't cry hardly at all, but when I change her diaper and undress her she can get a bit fussy. I sing to her little songs I make up, usually just singing her name over and over, and she loves that.  She also loves her little hands.  Daddy knows the secret to swaddling her, which she also loves.  We are both surprised at how well she holds her head up.  When she lays against our chests, she'll lift her head all the way off.

When we woke up this morning, she napped on Osei's chest and I just laid there watching them, these two that I love with everything I have.  I am weepy and emotional right now, crying over how much I love Osei and our new family together, crying over how much I love little Palesa, crying over the beauty of these moments we all share together.  I'm trying to capture and remember every detail, and I feel like there aren't enough seconds in the day to hold, kiss, and caress her beautiful body.  

Osei is taking amazing care of me and insisting that I spend as much time as possible in bed.  It has been tender and wonderful with him, and my heart melts at the way he looks at our daughter when he holds her and gazes down at her.  It was a new sensation to hug and not have a big belly between us.

She made us a mamma and a daddy!

Last night, part of me was so saddened to realize that Palesa will never be one day old again.  She'll never be two days old again either.  I can't stop staring at her.  I am so in love.

Update from Daddy- she has a name!

Amy and Osei have chosen a name. Our daughter shall be called Palesa Sela May. Palesa (pah-LAY-sah) is an African name from the country Lesotho meaning "flower." Sela (SEE-la) is a biblical name/word meaning "rock." Our little daughter is preciously beautiful as a flower and strong like a rock. She has might in her hands and a strong grip. She can lift up her neck already and she can suck like a Dyson. Her name suits her features and personality. We wanted to get to know her first before naming her. You can see why we waited.

It's a girl!

Yesterday afternoon (October 24, 2011) we gave birth to our beautiful daughter.  She was born at home in our bedroom after 24 hours or so of labor.  I was supported by my amazing husband Osei, and a team of 3 midwives.  It was intense and absolutely the hardest thing that I've ever done, but worth every moment.  Osei and I are head over heels in love her.  I remember seconds after she was born looking at Osei, shouting out, "We had a BABY!" and feeling overwhelming love for Osei, that I couldn't possibly love him any more than I did, and then overwhelming love for our new baby.  It was absolutely incredible.  We feel so blessed.

She is 7 lbs 4 oz, and 20.25" long and was born at 2:18 pm.  Apgars were 8 & 9 and she is now latching very well.  We wanted to get to know her a bit first before giving her a name (but she is no longer just "Omee" the fetus).  Baby is healthy and in our opinion, absolutely perfect. She was born with a beautiful full head of hair and both Osei and I just want to kiss her all over.  

We are still pretty exhausted after laboring all night long (Sunday night).  Sunday during the day I was in pretty easy early labor, and things started getting intense (active labor) in the middle of the night Sunday night, going into Monday.  I was in active labor for about 12 hours, and pushed for an hour.  Somehow I went through transition twice (at least it felt like it)!  A few different times labor slowed down enough that I could lay down and fall asleep between contractions, but overall I don't know how to describe it besides intense (think projectile vomiting).  But somehow the moment I first held her on my chest I instantly forgot everything about how challenging labor was.  Osei was an absolutely incredible birth partner.  I could not have done it without him.  He is smitten with our baby girl.  Our midwives were also fantastic.

We will send an update shortly with a name (and another picture, hopefully we can get her to wake up and show her beautiful brown eyes!).  For now, we're trying to get some rest.  Though we went to bed early last night, I could hardly sleep because I just wanted to look at her and listen to her breathe next to us.  

I'm working on the detailed version of the birth story and am more than happy to share.  Please email me back if you are interested in reading though.  :)

Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers.  We are truly, truly blessed.

Love and blessings,

Amy, Osei, and baby girl May

Labor Update

Hi All,

There is no baby yet.  Amy is fine, being a true champion.  Right now she is relaxing in the tub experiencing contractions and rolling with them.  There are no complications.  We appreciate your continued prayers, wishes and blessings as Omee enters the world and for a continued safe labor and delivery.  We are currently dilating and haven't gotten to pushing yet.

Thank you all family, friends, and friends who are family :)

Blessings,

Osei
(from Amy's email)

Sorry we didn't get to respond to previous messages.  As you can see we have our hands full being in labor :)

Early Early Labor... update

Hey all- 

Just wanted to send a quick update while things are still feeling easy.  I've been having contractions since last night, and they're getting a bit more regular and closer together.  We're still probably a ways off from having the baby, but just wanted to let you all know that things are definitely changing.  We appreciate all your love, support and prayers, and we'll keep you posted as much as we are able.

For those counting, contractions are somewhat all over the place, but generally in the 7-12 minute range.  

Love and hugs to all,

Amy & Osei

Full Moon

39.5 weeks- any day now!

Hello all!

As I write this letter, we are now 40 weeks pregnant, which is our official "guess date."  We call it a guess date, because only 5% of babies actually show up on their "due date" anyway.  Which is actually fine with me... I'm not quite ready to be done being pregnant, but ask me in a few more days how I feel.  The good news is that it appears my belly has finally dropped.  I can walk up stairs without breathing heavy, and the heartburn has basically gone away.  The only downside is that instead of having to pee every 40 minutes, I now have to go every 20 minutes.  

My last day of work in the office was Wednesday, and now I'm working from home until the baby comes.  This has been a true blessing to have this flexibility right now, especially because last week I was hit by a nasty cold (and thanks to all this extra pregnancy blood, daily nosebleeds too- no fun!).  I complained to Osei about how I was supposed to be enjoying my last week of pregnancy, this week was supposed to be really fun!  

Luckily, I'm feeling much better now, and we enjoyed a beautiful weekend together- very typical New England fall weather.  We spent the day Saturday frolicking around Boston, taking lots of pictures, sightseeing, and soaking in a wonderful day together.  It was a perfect weekend.  Osei has been pampering me silly, and we're definitely enjoying our last few "just us" moments.

Hopefully our next update will be to introduce this little kiddo cooking inside.  Our birth plan is to have this baby during the Patriot's bye week.  

Love, hugs, and blessings to all,

Amy, Osei, and baby "Omee"

38.5 weeks- only a few more to go!

Hello all,

As of today, I am 39 weeks!  This is getting really exciting!

Our weekends now amount to precious moments of attempting to cram as much as we can into a short amount of time, and take advantage of the opportunity to get as much done as we can (while also building in time for naps and cuddling of course!).  This weekend was particularly special.

Our major art project of the weekend was making a plaster belly cast.  At first, I started putting on the plaster strips myself, with Osei simultaneously a bit fascinated and grossed out.  However, half way through he got his hands dirty and had a blast finishing the rest.  We learned a lot for next time- mainly that Osei will take over from the beginning-  I couldn't exactly see what I was doing on my own belly! 

Osei also fixed our sewing machine!  We'd bought an old Singer 457 (metal machine, from the 1960's), and the timing became out of sync, causing a gear to break.  The estimate to repair the machine was 5 times what we even paid for the machine, so my saavy and industrious husband did research, ordered a part, watched multiple youtube videos and figured out how to fix it himself!  I'm incredibly impressed, and this means that our next project of sewing a cover for the diaper changing pad is ready to begin.

Finally this weekend, we also went apple picking.  Osei and I had gone apple picking on our 3rd date, so the entire event was incredibly sentimental for me.  Though we went to a different orchard, we did manage to recreate some pictures, as well as our enjoyment of fresh apple cider donuts.  We picked over 20 pounds of apples and promptly baked 3 apple-cranberry pies, which in my opinion, far surpassed the deliciousness of the pies we made after our first apple-picking adventure.

Tomorrow (Wednesday) is my last day of working in the office, and then I'll work from home until the baby is born.  My commute to work has gotten progressively longer in the past month, as my walking speed has slowed to turtle-like pace.  I won't miss fighting for a seat on the crowded subway and am very thankful for the flexibility to work from home!

Please continue to pray and send healing thoughts for my mother, Nancy.  After surgery last month for breast cancer, she begins chemotherapy on Friday, and we are all prayerfully optimistic that her cancer will never return.

Love and blessings to all,

Amy, Osei, and soon-to-be-welcomed-to-the-world, Omee 

Refinished baby dresser

Sometime after my husband moved to Boston, old roomates threw out this buffet.  Osei picked it up and used it in his old apartment, and since our marriage began, it has been living in our basement.  In a classic spurt of "daddy nesting," Osei became determined to make it beautiful once again.

So, a shelf-full of library books, a few trips to the hardware store, and lots of sweat and labor later, Osei finially finished stripping and refinishing the dresser.  We moved it upstairs to our second bedroom, and it is now full of baby clothes and cloth diapers. 

The lanterns hanging above were also part of our wedding.

In these last few weeks/days before this baby comes, we continue to take advantage of whatever nesting whirlwinds come our way... hopefully many more fun baby projects ahead!