Sunday, 01 August 2010
Today was a bit exhausting. First, the midwives paid a visit. Isla now weighs seven pounds and six ounces…which is exactly what she weighed the day she was born. This shows that she’s a voracious eater, since babies tend to lose weight in the first few days after they’re born. So, if indeed Isla did lose some weight during the last 100 hours of so, she made up for it.
This afternoon, Jennifer’s parents and grandma paid a visit. Jennifer’s mom had already been here before, but for her dad and grandma, this was their fist time seeing Isla. I took a picture of Jennifer with her mom, grandma, and Isla, which I think is pretty cool, since it’s four generations of girls. It kind of matches a similar picture, taken four years ago, of me with Owen and my dad and his dad.
Then, later this afternoon, my sister and her husband came by. My sister had a bagful of clothes for the baby. She also had two books of mazes for Owen. For some reason, during the past few days, Owen has been trying to locate this book of mazes he used to have. I don’t think we have that book anymore, and I tried looking up mazes online, but my internet access has been spotty. So, when my sister asked if we needed anything, I asked her to pick up a couple of maze books for Owen. I think it’s a good idea, if someone’s gonna come over with a bagful of stuff for the new baby, to also bring something for Owen. So that worked out well.
Also today: Owen passed out the chocolate cigars for the first time. He seemed very proud to do it.
Monday, 02 August 2010
Today we made some ink footprints of Isla’s feet. Yes, yes, I know it’s a little bit later than hospital’s recommend, but hospitals can go fuck themselves. Actually, the midwives left us some acid-free paper and a Kleen-print footprinter a few days ago, but we didn’t like the results. I mean, it seems like a good idea: you just place the infant’s foot on this screen, and press it onto paper, but the results aren’t as appealing as the old-fashioned approach of just getting a whole bunch of ink everywhere. So I went out and bought an ink pad and some more paper. It took about five tries, but I think we eventually got it.
And this brings up something that annoys me about stores lately: too much selection. Michael’s has about six million different kinds of paper for sale. I guess that’s fine, because I know different kinds of paper have different uses, but I just wanted to buy a couple of acid-free white sheets. That’s it. White paper. Couldn’t find it. I actually had to go ask for help, and one employee had to actually page another employee who “specializes” in that sort of thing. Even that person had two options for me. Sheesh. Can’t a guy just buy plain white paper anymore?
Tuesday, 03 August 2010
Isla lost her cord stump today. This is a big milestone that, evidently, is a little on the soon side. Owen called my mom today to give her an update on how the baby is doing, and when he said she lost her cord, my mom blurted out (because my mom blurts out everything): “Oh my, already? That was quick!”
Her belly button still looks puckered up and has some scabbing in it, but I’m glad that cord stump is gone, because- ouch – that thing looked like it hurt. I was always afraid that I was going to accidentally rub past it when picking her up or putting her clothes on. So, at least that’s one less thing to worry about now.
Also: on to the matter of updating this blog. I really tried to update it sooner, I really did! My problem, however, has not been the business of taking care of a new baby and a recently-gave-birth wife, or of losing sleep, but of the internet itself. My wife has complained about our poor internet service for sometime, but until last week, it hasn’t been a problem for me. I’m not sure why my computer was successfully able to get onto the internet, but hers was not, but now I appear to have the same issue. For the most part, I’ve been updating my blog during my breaks at work, so our internet operation at home has been a non-issue. But now, with so much time off of work, I’ve been trying to spend more time online here at home, and the WWW just isn’t cooperating with me. Stupid free wireless that I’m stealing!