check up and down.

Lorelei's first doctor's visit was mostly a success. The appointment was scheduled for exactly the time she would wake up and want to be fed, so I tried to get her up early and feed her a little bit to tide her over -- but the stress of hurrying her through that made her spit up like crazy, something she rarely does. Oh well. She was very compliant for the doctor and nurse who examined her and didn't really even fuss at all. She's already up to 6 pounds and 12 ounces, which was unexpected -- the goal is for babies to regain their birth weight by 2 weeks postpartum, so she's well ahead of schedule. The doctor was pretty reassuring about all of our questions, though he did mention that she seemed like she wanted to eat and I shouldn't wait until she's crying to feed her. Umm, we're at the doctor's office and you're poking and prodding her -- how am I supposed to feed her right now?

The good news of the doctor's appointment was unfortunately spoiled by some other news: our basement flooded. Our sump pump (and backup pump) failed during the torrential downpour on Sunday and, in our baby-fueled sleep deprivation, no one thought to check the basement until Jason went downstairs to do the laundry this morning. It was a nightmare, to say the least -- my school files and books took the worst beating, as well as some of the art we haven't ever gotten around to hanging up since we moved in (I know, I know). My amazing brother Ross drove out from Chicago and spent the afternoon and evening toting and carrying things from the basement to try to salvage them, wet-vac-ing every square inch of the basement, and being a calming influence to try to help us stay sane in the face of disaster.

We're just waiting to find out what new adventures we'll be facing tomorrow...

lorelei's first five days.

It's been too exhausting to try to post much since Lorelei's birth. We've been taking lots of pictures, though. For those of you without Facebook access, here's a link to a Snapfish album of her first few days at home, as well as one to the professional photo shoot we had at the hospital. Here's one of my favorites so far because it shows off her cute little munchkin face:

For the most part, things are going okay. She cries when she needs to be fed even if I try to anticipate her early feeding cues, flying in the face of all of the breastfeeding books I own (3, plus 3 other infant care books that have sections dedicated to breastfeeding). And she doesn't mind having a dirty diaper, but she screams right before she lets one loose, which is sort of amusing and also very puzzling. Jason is getting used to the whole changing diaper thing -- at first, he ran away in fear and disgust! She loves to be in the Moby wrap on walks or dancing around the house and she grunts and groans when we try to have her do "tummy time" to strengthen her neck muscles. I'm not sleeping very much and she has no real pattern to eating/sleeping yet so it's hard to anticipate when my next nap will be and for how long. Taking pictures of the cute faces she makes helps to alleviate some of the exhaustion-fueled frustrations, as does getting emails from friends (hint, hint).

We've had visits from my mom and Ross/Meredith so far. Not sure if we're feeling up to much more than that -- I am naturally inclined to want to be a good hostess and so it's hard to say "I need to sleep" or "she needs to eat" when people are around. My mom has to go back home for another week of school, but she'll be back next weekend and my dad will come, too. Then Jason's mom plans to make a visit for a few days.

It's hard to believe she's almost a week old -- especially since I can't keep track of days and nights properly and have no real sense of the passage of time. Hoping to post more about her soon and to share some videos we've taken as well. Keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we get to know each other and learn how to be a family together.

introducing lorelei jane.

Wow. Just wow. It's hard to believe that this little life has been in the world for three days already.

Here is a quick run-down of the details from my perspective (you'll have to get Jason's point of view from him!):


5/23/2011, 10pm: water breaks while watching an episode of Psych

5/24/2011, 4am: check into the hospital after staying home to install the car seat, take a shower, and sleep a little bit prior to labor

around 8am: told that I am at 3cm and 80% effaced with head at zero station

9am or so: our doula arrives; the next few hours of labor are manageable but increasingly difficult

around noon: after a few hours of increased intensity and some "pushy" feelings, I'm told I'm only at 5cm at 90% effaced and I just about give up on this whole giving birth thing.

noon to 3pm: worst. pain. of. my. life.

3:15pm: finally told I am ready and can start pushing, though I've been involuntarily pushing for at least half an hour and trying not to rather unsuccessfully

3:15-4:15pm: thoughts increasingly turning to wanting to kill my doctor and hoping there is an alternate method of getting her out.

4:21pm: a beautiful little girl emerges into the world -- after a quick removal of the cord around her neck, she's placed on my chest and everything is different in an instant.

4:25-about 5pm: our baby is poked and prodded by the nursing staff because she's "too pale" and then taken to the nursery to be given oxygen and checked by the pediatrician on call. He immediately tells them no oxygen needed and to send her back to me for breastfeeding.

5pm-6pm: latches on like a champion and nurses for an hour while everyone looks on amazed.

Her stats:
6 pounds, 8 ounces
19.5 inches

1 and 5 minute Apgar scores = 8

Her name: Lorelei Jane McNamara Hanna
Just to clear up any confusion, McNamara is her second middle name and Hanna is her last name, which is just like her father, Jason Kenneth McNamara Hanna.

And speaking of, little Lorelei is looking more and more like her proud father every day, with her cute little Herszenson chin and her funny way of raising her eyebrows so that she gets a wrinkled forehead. She has long legs and feet and expressive little eyes and looks like a little monkey, in a good way.

The home visit from the nurse today was fantastic -- she thinks Lorelei is looking great, strong, healthy, and that we're all adjusting well to being home (she wouldn't have thought that if she had been here at 3am our first night home together!). She also thinks Lorelei seems very smart and sweet tempered -- again, just like her wonderful dad.

We just love her and think we're so lucky to have her. We can't wait for you to meet her and see for yourselves.

(photo courtesy Uncle Ross just a few hours after she was born!)

predictions of cabin fever.

Jason and I have already started talking about when we'll be able to travel with baby -- I think he's a little worried that we'll be stuck here in our house for the next 18 years. His parents had him flying the friendly skies to visit grandparents pretty early on, and as you can see from the picture below, my parents were brave enough to take me camping the summer after I was born -- but it's hard to know exactly what will feel right.

I was excited to see this post on a newly-discovered blog (thanks again, Stephanie!) today with some excellent travel tips for parents. I think we won't be trying a cross-country flight until Thanksgiving at the earliest (though car travel before then will definitely happen), but it'll be nice to have these ideas for when we are brave enough to venture out.

"bun" in the oven.

Been busy baking this week -- cookies and banana bread (those 7 bananas in the freezer were taking up too much space for all the casseroles to fit!) -- and the metaphor seemed apt.

Our doula gets back into town late tonight, so if our little bun in the oven decides she's ready to come out at this point, we'll feel a lot more reassured!

one more baby task done.

Still washing clothes and blankets and organizing drawers, but at least this is finally finished:

full term and not ready.

(Note: I posted yesterday and Blogger seems to have had a massive crash since then -- all posts made after 7:37am on 5/12 were erased. I will do my best to replicate the original, but if you're reading this and thinking it seems different than when you read it last time, now you know why!)

As of 5/13/2011, Baby Hanna is officially full term. If she were born in the next five minutes, the doctor would say she had cooked long enough. I, on the other hand, am not ready for her to arrive!

I've been on maternity leave for a little over a week now and I definitely haven't accomplished everything on my baby to-do list. Since I last tried to post about this, I finally finished cooking the last of the casseroles I had purchased ingredients for, so we now have two weeks worth of frozen meals for after the birth. I still have baby laundry to do, the wall decal is only half up in the nursery, and we have a million things left on our registry that we need to purchase and organize. It hasn't helped that I've been sidetracked this week by a 2 1/2 hour online tech support chat to fix a problem with our computer or the visit from an appliance repairman that I dropped $70 on even though he couldn't figure out what was wrong with our dryer. And I'd really like some time to start working on getting my etsy shop up and running -- something that has been a work-in-progress since last summer.

So I'm glad that nobody in the baby pool picked a date earlier than 5/20 -- and I'm also hoping that she doesn't come that early, because only having one more week to get everything ready just doesn't seem like enough time. But I know that, when the big day arrives, we'll be really excited to finally meet her, too, and that having a messy house and things left to accomplish will seem like minor details at that point. (This blog post, courtesy of seasoned "new mom" Stephanie, seems lovely and makes me a little scared all at the same time!)