One Month Old!

Aoife celebrated her month old birthday today. Here she is getting ready for the day by taking her very first bath! (at home) She didn't mind it at first, but i think she was in shock. Eventually, she realized what was going on and didn't like it at all. Her skin turned bright red and her little chin quivered. I really felt for her. We quickly dried her off, put her clothes on, and wrapped her up nice and warm. Within seconds she dropped off to a deep sleep in her co-sleeper. She usually doesn't fall asleep in it anymore. We were surprised that she fell asleep for hours. I guess that was way too much work for her.

Our friends Kristina, Mary, Martin, and Linda came over for a late lunch to celebrate with us. They brought some Thai food with them...yummy! Aoife had just woken up in time to be admired and held. She actually smiled at them. She has changed so much this past week. Linda and Kristina also noted how much she had changed since their last visit. She is acting more and more like a baby not a newborn.

This is what I have to do at lunch time to get away from Aoife to make lunch and put myself together. I have to put my night gown on my stuffed pig and place it next to her. It seems to work for about an hour until she realizes that it's not me. This is how she sleeps with me at night. She can't bare to be separated from me unless she's with Tim. She manages to wiggle her way over to me, and if my back is turned, she taps my back to get my attention so that I'll turn around and snuggle with her...so sweet!

IN the business of creepy toys!

Okay...the elephant looks just bizarre. I'm going to have to go at these toys again. I'm going to switch frog eyes and bear eyes, and do something different with the elephant. I'll probably just stitch his eyes.

Aoife and I had a good day today. We went for a walk to buy diapers and chocolate(don't tell Tim). The weather is starting to warm up here, and we're in for a hot weekend coming up. Maybe we'll have a picnic at a park. There is a really cool park by the Berkeley marina; it's really beautiful. There are scenic views of San Francisco and North bay. Many people also go there to fly kites. I think she'll be old enough before we leave for her to fly a kite there.

On Saturday some friends are going to visit; they are going to bring us lunch. Aoife will be a month old! On Sunday we are going to Dorries house to celebrate her "monthness".

Happy 4 week Birthday!

Here's Aoife (the rock star) singing happy birthday to herself. Right there she's hitting the high note...a great achievement for such a young one.

She's laying on the fabric that I got to make her dress. I just looked at the pattern and am very confused....I need a Gramma around here.

Today we took a walk around the neighborhood, but Aoife got a little fussy, so I had to make it short. She was good all day, but when evening came, she got fussy again. I wonder why that is??? Tim went to an MLB (baseball) game tonight (Twins vs. A's) with some of his friends; it was to celebrate Maggie's birthday. He had a good ol' time. I'm glad I didn't have to go; boring!

cute or scary?

Aoife and I took a walk to the fabric store and bought some eyes for some toys that Gramma Rachel crochet, and I sewed together. We couldn't find small eyes, so Rachel bought some buttons, but I didn't think they looked as good as I thought they would, so I got these big eyes. I think he looks cute, but Tim says he look scary. Aoife doesn't really have an opinion about the situation. Rachel knit an elephant that I also got big eyes for too. She made a big frog and he looks fabulous except he doesn't have a mouth right now. I got some fabric at the store and I'm planning on sewing a dress, but we'll see how Aoife is for the rest of the week.

Smiley Bun

Aoife and I had a wonderful day today. We took a walk in the morning to Berkeley Bowl (the coolest grocery store in the world!) I got a couple things there, and we walked back. I had lunch and then Aoife and I fed and spent the afternoon talking to each other. She is really smiling now when you talk to her. She likes to be sung to and kissed on the cheeks. She's such a cutie.

We took the bus to Janaki's class. A crazy woman got on and started yelling at the invisible person next to her. Janaki gave us a big hug when we arrived and she weighed Aoife. I left her clothes on, but Janaki weighed her at 9lbs! I couldn't believe it, she's growing too fast. Janaki set me up on her couch and she put Aoife on my chest. Janaki talked to her a little bit and Aoife smiled really large for her. I've never seen her smile so big at a "stranger". After a while, Aoife bobbed her head around and made her way down to the right side and latched on and went to town! Fabulous...no more pumping! I was so happy that she was latching on properly and did that cool head dance. We weighed Aoife after the feeding and she gained 1.5oz.

Tim showed up and we told the class our birth story. It felt like yesterday that we were sitting in the class listening to someone else's birth class. It was a lot of fun to tell our story since it was quite an adventure! We wished the women good luck and headed home for bed.

Belly button!

Aoife's belly button is completely healed! It's a cute little smiley one.

Today, we went to the baby fair. We got a car with city car share and drove there. Aoife was fussy in the morning so we couldn't make it for the classes that I wanted to go to. The fair was pretty small and it catered mostly to pregnant women which was really disappointing. There were a lot of really cool booths for things. One interesting booth was about a midwifery center that opened up for the Mayans in Guatemala. Gramma Rachel was telling me a story here about a clinic that she worked at in Costa Rica when she was a new nurse. She was telling me of a mountain woman from a small village who came to their clinic with a very sick newborn. The cord was infected and the woman had used coffee grinds to try to heal it. They could do nothing for the newborn and sent her the closest hospital which was far away, and the baby died. I think it is wonderful that a new clinic for pregnant women is opening in these remote areas because there is such a high infant mortality rate in developing countries. Here is the website for the center: Clinicas Maya

Our childbirth instructor Janaki Costello was at the fair, and she gave us a big hug and was admiring little Aoife. She asked us to go to her class tomorrow to tell her new pregnant class our birth story. She is also a lactation consultant and will check out what's going on with feeding on the right side. It was so nice to see her again; I really miss her great class. So, tomorrow will be very exciting!

Books and Toys

Today was a great day! I slept okay last night, but as soon as the sun peaks in the window, she's wide alert and up mommy must get! Today the weather was great, so Tim and I took a walk to a garage sale. Most garage sales are hit or miss, and this was definitely a gold mine. There were a lot of children's books all of which were 50cents. We also got a bunch of finger puppets for Aoife pictured below. I talked to a midwife who was part of the sale and she said I looked great for just giving birth three weeks ago! On the way back we hit another garage sale and found these wooden blocks! We got them for $2.....such a fantastic deal. These blocks are in the stores for $40 usually. She'll have hours and hours of fun playing with these. I love toys like these that are simple yet provide bountifulness hours of entertainment, variety, and imagination. Aoife was peaceful in the moby wrap and didn't stir until we got home for lunch. We went out again in the afternoon to the library. Again, as soon as she was in the wrap, she was out like a light, and was good for two almost three hours. I love having her snuggled close to me. Tim and I got some baby development books at the library to understand what's going on in Aoife's life.

Tomorrow is going to be another big day for we are going to a baby fair. They have a couple of parenting workshops that we hope to make. One is about sleeping habits and the other is about present moment awareness. I hope to run into the other mama's and papa's from our birthing class.

Fussy Bun

Tiger Aoife reared her head again today. I was so exhausted all day from not getting enough sleep from the previous night. She was awake since 4am and was pretty fussy until 9pm. Thank God Tim came home and was able to take care of her for a couple of hours while I took a bath and decompressed. I think we were both tired of each other. It didn't help that I didn't take her for a walk today, but I was too tired to do that. I'm going to pledge from now on to take her out at least for an hour.

Thank you Great-Aunt Lisa

Thank you Lisa for the wonderful clothes that you sent little Aoife. The socks already fit her huge feet! I can't imagine her getting big enough to fit these clothes.

Today was a very good day for both Aoife and I. She slept for almost five hours last night! Amazing! She really likes sleeping on her daddy; she looks so tiny on him. Sparrow Aoife and I spent most of the morning in quiet alert time, so we had a lot of time to socialize with each other. She is smiling often now when she is in this mode. She is also making good eye contact and it looks like her eyes are going to stay blue. Her eyes remind me of my sister Michelles when Michelle was a baby. She is developing a rash on her cheeks; it makes her look older like a teething baby.

After lunch, we went for a walk. It's another beautiful day today. I love wearing her in the moby wrap; it's so much better than pushing her in a stroller/pram. The neighborhood looks so beautiful as all the plants are blooming and the cherry blossoms are out. We went to a gardening center and looked at expensive exotic plants. My body feels really good finally. I managed the walk without getting to sore at the end. Tim came home early tonight because he has a baseball game tonight. When Aoife is old enough, we'll go and watch him. His team bought Aoife a Twins (baseball team) outfit, so she's got the outfit, just needs to get fat enough to fit into it!

Happy 3 week Birthday

Today was Aoife's third week as an air baby. She has changed so much in three weeks. It's hard for me to tell sometimes, but I know that she has grown a lot because a lot of her clothes don't fit anymore, and she seems to be fitting into clothes that were way to big for her a few weeks ago. Boy, were they not kidding when they said they'd grow like weeds!

Great Aunt Dorrie came over for a short while. She brought a gift from Aoife's first cousin twice removed: Susan Ackerman. She gave Aoife a wrap sack which is a traveling gift sack that travels the world. It started out in Harrisonburg, Virginia. I'll have to send it to someone special. Dorrie also brought another one of her delicious lasagnas. Dorrie came at a bad time for Aoife was going through her tiger hour which seems to becoming a routine at around 6-7pm. Next time Dorrie comes, I hope she'll be able to spend a longer time with her!

Sparrow's back

Sparrow Aoife is back for the day. I still don't think she's feeding effectively. She falls asleep too soon when she eats, but waking her up doesn't seems to help much because then she just suckles. At least I know she's getting enough food because she has tons of wet and poopy diapers and look how fat she's getting!

This morning Tim was so sweet and made me breakfast, but I was to tired to eat it. Later on while I was eating it, Aoife had wiggled over to my back and was bopping her head against my back. It was so funny. She was saying "where's my food?" She was pretty good all day, but she needs constant contact from me which I'm happy to give at this point, but it will become a problem in a few months time. She also threw up for the first time and it scared me because it was pretty curdled and sour. Tim came home for lunch and made me something. It was a nice day. I listened to RTE Radio 1. I like the shows "Today with Pat Kenny" and "Mooney". It keeps my mind sane and informed about what's going on in Ireland. Sparrow Aoife even let me take a nap this afternoon!

Goodbye Gramma

Gramma Rachel left for Wisconsin very early this morning. I woke up with little bun around 9am and then didn't know what to do with her. This was special Gramma time while I got ready for the day. Tim stuck around for a few minutes so that I could eat my breakfast then he went off to work. So we talked and sang, ate, cried, ate, cried, sang, cuddled, and slept. I quickly ran to the bathroom and got myself ready for the day. She woke up and we continued the tiger bun experience. I quickly made myself some lunch..very quickly. Good heavens, Gramma really kept me sane. Aoife was a tiger most of the day, but quietened down by evening, but acted up again at night.

I emailed Janaki today to set up a consultation with her. It almost feels like Aoife has forgotten how to suck properly or something, I'm not sure.
One of Tim's friends came by to visit Aoife. It was very welcomed because she brought us some food: enchiladas. Yummy!!!

Day of the tiger

Sunday, Sunday: dressed in her Sunday best. Today was Gramma Rachels last full day. Her and Tim went to a used furniture store to buy some new furniture to create more storage space in our apartment. Tim picked out a great desk and cabinet. Our apartment looks very smart now.

We started using the cloth diapers this weekend, but I'm not sure that I like them all that much. They are not as absorbent as disposables, but it does hold the pooh better. Tim did some research on g-diapers, so after this month we will probably try those.

Dorrie came over tonight to visit us. She brought with her a bread pudding dessert with strawberry rhubarb sauce and whipped cream. She also brought honey for both Steve and us. She stayed a while and sang to Aoife. Aoife really likes her singing. Thank you Dorrie.

Little sparrow bun showed her tiger side for the first time today. Jeri and Melanie warned us that she will probably change after two weeks and we'll have to learn about her again all over. She cried for ours and hours and didn't sleep and wouldn't eat. I felt awful. I didn't know what she wanted, and it broke my heart. Eventually, Tim bottle fed her her, and she then calmed down for the night.

Golden Gate Park

The weather was gorgeous today: 80 and sunny skies. We hardly ever get weather like this. We rented a car for the weekend and went to Golden Gate Park. We had a picnic, and we let Aoife air out on the blanket. She really enjoyed looking up at the blue sky. She has changed in just a week. She is looking around at things now and is spending more time in quiet alert mode. Her eyes are getting bigger as the swelling seems to be gone. She also has very strong hand movements. She can grasp things with such strength that it worries me when she puts her fingers by her eyes. Her belly button looked really good today; it's healing nicely. We also gave in to the pacifier; my pinky was going to fall off if we didn't use it. Here is a ridiculously funny picture of Aoife with a pacifier and Tim's sunglasses on. After the picnic, we went for a walk around the lake. Then we went to a really great bookstore in the Richmond district called Green Apple. Gramma got Aoife some more books. We then came home because Aoife was starting ot get fussy. It was truly a great day. I hope this weather sticks around for a long time.

New Sheets

Gramma sewed some sheets for Aoife's crib. This is the owl material that matches the curtains I made. Today was my first trip out of the house without Aoife; Tim stayed home and looked after her. Gramma, and I went to a lace store down the street. The lace store was amazing. There were so many interesting forgotten crafts that I never knew about. We then went to Berkeley Bowl and got some groceries for our trip tomorrow. Rachel then treated me to lunch. I had my favorite: sushi. I couldn't eat sushi when I was pregnant, so now it is all I think about eating. We went home and found Tim in a frantic state. I guess she'd been crying for fifteen minutes!

Visit to the Midwife

Today was my visit to Jeri. She checked me out to see how I was healing. She said I looked great, but I need to work on some abdominal exercises to get my muscles to come back together: they are still 1 inch apart at the center. She said I can start my post-natal yoga in a few weeks which I'm really looking forward to. There is a yoga studio close by where I went for pre-natal yoga that I like. I like the post-natal yoga because you can do it with your baby in your arms, and it will also be good to meet other mothers.

Aoife had a pretty busy day. After going to Jeri's, we took her to Tim's lab to show her off, and a couple of the girls held her. We took her to another lab to meet Danae, and then finally the last lab where all the girls squealed. Aoife got pretty tired out, soo here is a picture of her passed out after the excursion.

Thank you family

Thank you family for all the cards, gifts, and money. Her great-grandparents Foley (Irene and Da) sent her a gift of money and a cute little lucky charm onsie. Thank you, thank you! My uncle Sean also sent a card and money. My Aunt Terri sent a cute little outfit for Aoife. She's going to have to wait a while to wear it though. I just got another card: from Great-nan O'connor and some cash. We're going to open up this rich little girl a bank account soon. Thank you to all, and I'll be sending cards to you shortly.

Happy 2 week birthday

For Aoife's 2 week birthday Gramma made a lemon pie. Gramma and Tim went to a pretty posh bakery down the street and brought back some delicious pastries for lunch. Tim went back to work for the first time today. I guess he spent most of the time showing people pictures of Aoife! Gramma also went to a farmers market and bought some strawberries, and delicious fancy bread. For the evening, Dorrie and Dave came over. Dorrie cooked for us her delightful lasagna. It was once again delicious. Aoife then attended her first movie watching experience. Dorrie brought over "The Real Dirt on Farmer John". It was an incredible story of an eccentric farmer who lost everything and then earned it back a hundred fold. Tim comes from a long line of farmers, so this movie is special to his family and tells of the problems small farmers are having now.

Aoife's Growing

Aoife's cord clamp came off today while Gramma was cleaning it! Life is so much better for the both of us. I don't have to worry about getting it caught in her clothing, and she doesn't have to worry about hurting it when she's lying on her belly.

Today was her first trip to the pediatrician. First of all they weighed her and measured her. Her weight is now 8lbs and 1.5oz! She's gained a lot of weight in two weeks. She is also 21inches long now. Her doctor, Liz, is very nice and slightly crazy. Liz spent at least fifteen minutes trying to figure out which town in Ireland she had visited in August. She called all of her relatives; all of whom were at lunch. Anyways, it was somewhere in County Mayo where St. Patrick climbed a mountain. I personally think she had way too much Guinness if she can't remember. Liz said Aoife was perfectly healthy and was surprised that we didn't get a home visit from the nurse a couple of days after we went home, and she was also surprised that the nurses didn't cut off Aoife's cord clamp at the hospital. Aparently, Liz was in Ireland for the Rose of Tralee, and we now have a joking fantasy of keeping her healthy enough to enter her into the competition when she is older!