Life with a newborn

Here we are on day 11 of having a newborn baby. Melina is a very sweet and easy baby, in general... thank God. In general, she eats every 3 hours and then sleeps the rest of the time, except for a few hours here and there when she's alert and looking about. She cries when she's hungry (if I don't anticipate her hunger first) and when she has a horribly messy diaper, and she absolutely hates getting bathed or being naked, but other than that she doesn't cry much. Knock on wood.

Breastfeeding has been interesting. It's not as easy as you would think. Luckily in the hospital I had a bunch of lactation consultants at my disposal who showed me how to get her to latch on correctly, and I bought a "My Brest Friend" pillow that makes latching on very easy. My breasts were hugely engorged for about 3 days - like hard, painful basketballs attached to my chest - but that seems to be going down now. Now I just get engorged on whichever side she's due to feed on next. I like being her sole source of sustanance right now - it makes it easy to travel with her, not that we've done much "traveling" yet.

Melina's first outing was around the block, just about 4 days after she was born. I walked veeerrrryy slowly with mom and said hello to all the neighbors. Her second outing was to the doctor, at 7 days old, and at 8 days old Jeff took her to a teahouse (he's already indoctrinating her) where he sat and watched soccer and she slept in her car seat the entire time. Later that day we all went out for pizza at a local pizzeria. She cried a little there (and I turned beet red) but I think it was because there was hot air blowing on her from the soda machine. Jeff picked her up and ate his meal one-handed, bouncing her on his knee the entire time.

The night before last was pretty rough. I didn't get much sleep before 4:30 a.m. But last night she ate at 10:00 p.m., 2:30 a.m., and about 6:00 a.m., which is GOOD, though you might not think it. I actually got a fair amount of sleep (I stayed in bed until almost 11:00). I can't imagine trying to go back to work at this point - it would be insane...luckily I have the option of not working right now.

I am still convinced that she's the cutest baby in the world. OK, ONE of the cutest. The Gerber baby is pretty cute too. Probably every mom feels that way, but honestly, she is CUTE. I love how she has slightly darker skin than I do, and dark slate-blue eyes. I think it's Jeff's Mediterranean blood coming out. Melina means "honey girl" in Greek, and that's just what she looks like. It also means "little apple" in Italian, which she sort of resembles too... and "yellow songbird" in Latin.

My parents have been here for a few weeks now, and their help has been invaluable. I don't know how I'm going to adjust once they leave and Jeff goes back to work full time. Hopefully by then she will be in a little bit more of a schedule, and I will feel well enough to move around freely. Recovering from a C-section is not the best way to start life with a newborn, but I am feeling better every day.