Since it seems I won’t be bounding out of bed three days after giving birth, I’ve had to resign myself to some extended horizontal time. Getting laundry is about as far as I can go right now. So I scanned my shelves for the fattest Victorian novel I’ve been wanting to read (800 pages, small print) and will spend the next little while working my way through that during Katherine’s feeding and nap times. After all, it’s always the fat books that no one ever gets around to fitting in!
Erin
Cornell recently announced that they were no longer going to provide webspace for faculty and students, among other services that universities standardly provide but that Cornell is going to cut. So I’ve had to find a new home for my website, which was all very annoying. That the links from other sites to mine will no longer be correct is especially irritating. Cornell suggested that we could move our websites to Facebook or Myspace. Really? Given that I haven’t even accepted them as legitimate social networking sites, I have a hard time seeing them as an appropriate home for professional sites. Anyway, I decided that I would henceforth like a domain name that is not susceptible to being changed by outside events, so I went ahead and registered a domain name myself. It looks rather pretentious to me, but at least I’ll get to keep it even if I have to change webhosts. After waiting a while for all the fun techinal details of domain names, domain name servers, and IP addresses to get sorted out, it looks like the new site is now up and running: www.sydneypenner.ca. Or, rather, the old site with a few tweaks and additions is up at a new location.
Spring in Ithaca appears to have lasted for all of one day. On Thursday it was still basically winter, on Friday it was nice, and on Saturday we approached the 90s. It hardly managed to cool off last night. I rather like spring and so would have been happy to get a chance to notice it before it left.
Since some of you visit this weblog only for the purpose of seeing pictures of Katherine, here’s one:
Sydney
We’ve had a really good time during my parents’ visit this past week. We appear to have a baby who, although very healthy and reasonably easy, doesn’t like to be put down. As in, that crib has seen maybe 20 minutes of action in the past two weeks. So having more hands at the ready is great! Sydney’s been able to get out of the house for various school and garden activities, leaving Katherine and me in my parents’ care, and I’ve enjoyed knowing that “real people,” as in, experienced parents, have been around her and seem to think she’s doing well. She seems to have taken to Dad, spending hours up on his shoulder as he rocks in our big glider.
And Mom has done lots of laundry. After some early activity on my part, running an errand or two, bustling about the house, I found myself laid up and needing a slower recovery, so I’ve been on my back on the couch and in bed for most of the past week. With Mom and Dad headed back to Iowa tomorrow, Sydney and I will be back to just four hands and one big baby–I hope that’s enough!
Erin
At Katherine’s check-up today the assistant asked us to strip her down, diaper and all. I, of course, was enamoured: so nice to see all that cute baby skin! But then the assistant asked me to carry our naked baby and turned to walk down the hall to the scale. I quickly picked her up, neglecting to grab any blanket, and was rewarded with a major bout of spit-up. Great.
Then the doctor came to check her out, still naked, and asked me to hold her so that she would be less restless. I did, but then was rewarded by Katherine’s peeing all over my shirt, soaking my lap and legs. We’re talking a serious job here.
So by the time we left the doctor’s office every item I was wearing (barring socks and shoes) had been done in.
Next time I’ll bring 12 blankets to the office . . .
Erin
Update: I realize I have some seriously ambiguous pronouns in this post. Thank you for attributing nakedness and peeing to Katherine and not to the doctor or the doctor’s assistant. And thank you for forgiving me my slapdash syntax.
Mom and Dad are here, helping us tackle such momentous projects as getting Katherine used to noise, getting her to be okay with lying down in the crib on occasion, and figuring out how to get baby poop out of just about everything. Exciting, I know. Our world has gotten both very small (poop, milk, sleep) and very big (how to nurture this little life, what plans to lay for her future) at the same time.
Erin
Our little girl is still changing from one day to the next, but she’s proving to be a big feeder. Frequency and duration are really picking up. I need to learn how to duct-tape her to me 🙂 At a visit to the pediatrician yesterday we learned that she had gained back all of the weight she lost in her first few days in this world. Apparently it’s normal for babies to lose some weight in the first few days after birth (she lost half a pound between Friday and Sunday), and doctors usually like to see the baby back up to birth weight within two weeks of birth. She did that between Sunday and Wednesday. Way to go, Katherine!
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My parents are driving in from Iowa today and tomorrow and should be here tomorrow afternoon. As far as we’ve come in figuring things out around here, it will be great to have some experienced hands (hands of any kind are welcome, really!) on deck. I’ve never seen my mom in the sway of grandmotherly feelings, so this will be new stuff for everybody.
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Sydney can’t believe that he is doing two things at once. Isn’t that called multitasking or something?
Erin
We’re home 🙂
This is the first of what I expect will be many one-handed posts! I just wanted to say thank you for all of the congratulations. We’ll do our best to get in touch with you all as feeding and sleeping schedules allow.
Much love to you all.
Erin
Born April 10, 2009 at 6:13 in the morning. Weight: 8 lbs., 4 1/2 ozs.
The parents think that sleep is undervalued.
Alan Schmierer
