Good news and holliday wishes

I think our fai.lu.re to thri.ve scare might just be over (and please don't let that statement come back to haunt me). Our little alien gained 5 ounces between Sunday morning at 8 am and Tuesday midday. And we were given our first reprieve from weight checks every 72 hours - a full 7 days. Of course, she still sleeps through too many feeds and panics her mother, and the challenge now is to keep up our vigilance through the sleep deprivation. I have never been so glad that christmas is a national holiday (for any new readers, we don't celebrate christmas).

And even though she has a pretty weak latch and loves to push my breast out of her mouth while feeding, I got some more confirmation that she is getting enough to eat today. Of course, it took a terribly irresponsible act to make me feel better. To start with, the baby slept for 3 hours straight this morning between our hospital visit (see below) and shopping excursion. And then, I had to run a few errands and I was totally exhausted and I went to bed to take a short nap just before JD was supposed to come home tonight. And I slept for 3 hours straight while JD finger-fed the baby. Great for being well-rested, awful for my guilt and trying to fatten up a mini-baby. But when I pumped tonight (after a feeding) I got 8 ounces, which leads me to think that the resident alien is in fact consuming a large quantity of milk everyday.

Today was full of lots of other good news. I returned to the hospital and the alien passed her hearing test (she failed in both ears when she was released, but that was most likely because she was less than 18 hours post-birth and still had fluid and vernix in her ears).

And we went shopping. To be precise, I went to a store where I had several gift cards and finally completed my wedding registry. Another errand that had been scheduled for December 9th.

And I finally braved the world of slings and wraps, and I LOVE the Moby wrap. It is soft and warm and really easy to use for a newborn (much easier than the Bjorn). And it allowed me to run out to a friend's apartment and to hang up the laundry tonight.

Which brings us to tonight's photo. Chag sameach to all of you - whether you are celebrating hanukkah or christmas or just a vacation day, I hope you are having a relaxing and peaceful evening.


And a little note about occupation therapy since the fabulous Ms. J. (herself a new mother who went through a much tougher first few weeks than I could even imagine) asked. I had no idea that O.T. was an option at 11 days old, but our lactation consultant recommended someone and they landed up coming together because of the snowstorm. The woman worked on the baby's latch, and also a bit on her general 'alignment.' Apparently because most bodies are stuck on one side in utero for the last several weeks, it is normal for them to be off balance and to have trouble with their latch and swallowing for the first few days. With a fai.lu.re to th.riv.e baby, you don't have those extra days to allow them to adjust, so that's why we went for the therapy. I will admit to being as skeptical as ever, but the woman was incredibly calming and the baby's latch and suck definitely improved after the visit (she said it can take up to 72 hours to see an improvement).

And because you have to celebrate the humor whenever possible, the O.T. woman looked around our apartment as she was leaving and asked if we wanted her to try and find some charitable funds to help cover the cost of the visit. I was a bit puzzled since I hadn't asked or even asked the cost when setting up the appointment, and although we might be currently drowning in medical bills, JD and I are both well-employed and able to afford this bill. But after she shut the door JD just cracked up - because of course if you didn't ask what we did for a living and you looked around at our living room you'd think we were living straight out of goodwill and the local dumpster, which happens to be where the vast majority of our furniture comes from. It is in fact a matter of pride for us that the only two items we have ever bought new are a large shelf from ikea and a filing cabinet - and that includes all of the furniture in the living room, the baby's equipement and our own bedroom furniture. It's just that we have so many other things we want to spend money on (in the past travel, recently infertility, getting married, allowing JD to take 3 months off between jobs, the awful exchange rate with the euro ...) and we have very comfortable, functional furniture. But I could see where you might get the wrong impression.