Melanie our Doula

We're so tired today. We pretty much napped all day long until 4:30pm. I think our lack of sleep finally caught up with us or else it was because we had so many visitors yesterday. I'm still having problems feeding on the right side; she loves the left side.

Melanie our wonderful doula came over today to check up on us and answer any questions we had. We also had fun talking about the birthing. I'm still really interested in hearing from other people what the birthing was like from their eyes. We celebrated with her by drinking some sparkling cider.

Aoife started feeding almost every hour this afternoon. Tim and I prepared ourselves for a long hard night. We watched an episode of House MD, and we then went to bed for ourselves.

First walk and first visitors

Little bun slept so well last night. Both Tim and I got lots of sleep and we feel a lot of energy today. It helped that Gramma Rachel recommended feeding every fours hours at night and more frequently during the day.

I saw a little smile today from Aoife, but it was probably just gas. Still it was beautiful to see those muscles getting their exercise. Tim and I love our life right now. No T.V., eating meals together and appreciating our little creation.

Today, I took my first shower since I labored and it made me feel a little sad, but I have to move on as she does becoming her own little person. I decided that I wanted to wear her today in her moby wrap, so we wrapped her up and took her for a walk in the park. It felt so good to have her close to me like that again. It brought back the comfort of being pregnant again. Tim and I ate some nuts and oranges. We talked about how happy we were that little bun was healthy.

In the evening we had three sets of visitors. Dorrie, Dave, and Ansel came first. Dorrie held Aoife for a long time as they reminisced about baby Ansel. Then, Dave held her. You can tell that they both loved having children and they will make great grandparents some day. I fed Aoife and then we passed her off to Ansel. She "shot the "wall?" (Kentucky coal miners term) Ansel was a little disturbed. After Dorrie and Dave came, Linda, Kristina and Mike came with pizza and coke. They had fun examining different parts of her body. The belly button stump was the most interesting to them. I also brought out my placenta for them to look at. It was my first time seeing it since I gave birth to it. We need to bury it somewhere special. Finally, Katie and her boyfriend Michael came to drop off the tent we lent them.

Waking up with her in the morning is such a joy. During the night I can't see her face, but during the day we rediscover each other again. She is the most beautiful thing ever, and I become overwhelmed by the love I feel for her. Her eyes are starting to become more blue each day. She also looks a little jaundice today.

One thing that she seems to love a lot is comfort suckling which right now is impossible for me to give her. She does like my pinky finger a lot though. Tim and I are wondering whether to give her a pacifier or not. Tim did some research and it seems that even though it is a quick fix that there might be important cues that we are missing. I would really only want to use it at night. After talking Tim realized that he needs to comfort her at night after I feed her, so that she doesn't comfort suckle.

I can't seem to sleep during the day; I'm just so happy to be with her. My milk came in today. I like nursing, but I'm so sore from it. The initial latch on really hurts.

Right now she is burrito wrapped and laying on daddy. He's so good to her. He wore her for hours today. I wish my body wasn't is so much pain so that I could enjoy leisurely time with her. Right now i feel like a feeding machine, but that is also how we are bonding.