Toad-Aoife

Today, I went to my midwife for a check up. Jeri said that Aoife had grown quite large and laughed at the fact that I managed to give birth to Tim's baby! Well, she really does have her daddies head because mommies not doing well down there. I have a lot of exercises that I have to do to get things back in shape. So now every night Tim and I are doing 20 sit-ups. He has to get rid of his belly, Herm, too!

Stayin' alive

Happy Mothers day to me and all! Tim made me breakfast this morning after a tough night. Aoife fed every hour since 3am last night. I have no idea what that's about but maybe another growth spurt. Tim and I washed little buns clothes yesterday, and today I noticed that she didn't have very many clothes that fit her anymore, so I took down the box with older clothes down. I pulled out all the 3-6 month clothes and noticed that a lot of them will fit her! I put her in this little penguin outfit that I bought her. She's adorable in it, but I was quite shocked that she fit into it.

We went for a walk today and decided to have lunch at the Thai Temple close to our house. Every Sunday for lunch, the Thai Temple sets up a huge outdoor buffet. The money they make goes towards the upkeep of their temple. Every Sunday it's packed. The food is authentic and delicious. We ran into our friend Kristina there, and she noticed how big Aoife got. It was a wonderful Mothers day and I felt very special and blessed.

I can play!

Aoife just got big over night. She seems so alert and active that I thought I'd get out her caterpillar toy to play with. We took it out once when she was newborn, but she had no reaction whatsoever. Today however she seemed to have a little bit more of an appreciation for it. She still doesn't quite get it yet, but she was at least reacting to the the smiling faces. She was reaching out for the smiley flower and kicking her leg at another flower. I don't think she was doing this on purpose, but she enjoyed looking at the colors.

Sleepy Bun

We had a very good day today. There seems to be patterns of rough patches one day and the next day everything is fine. Aoife has grown out of being swaddled now so no more burrito bun. She also doesn't like to suck on my finger anymore. She's also starting to not care for her pacifier as much. I guess her sucking reflex isn't as strong as it used to be. We went to the library today in our local neighborhood. I found out that the library hosts a "bounce hour" every Tuesday at 10:15am that I'm going to go to. It'll be a good chance to meet local moms. I'm also going to try the post-natal yoga next week now that I'm "healed".

Thank you Dawnatello!

Thank you faux-aunt Dawn for this ridiculously wicked outfit. She's going to look adorable in it when she's big enough to wear it which will be soon enough. She'll definetely have to wear it when we go to Wisconsin this June. I hope the weather is hot there because we don't get very hot weather here and I miss it.

I was so tired today and it didn't help that Aoife didn't know what she wanted or needed to keep herself happy. I think she's going through another growth spurt. She's growing out of a lot of clothes and is looking more like a toad everyday!

6 weeks!

Today marks a mile stone since I'm supposed to be officially healed now. I think I might just have a wee bit to go.

Some more big news is that Tim got awarded for best GSI this year (graduate student instructor) and they had a "banquet" to celebrate all the winners at UC-Berkeley. So, this meant that we asked Dorrie to babysit for us. It was the first time she was left alone with someone. I felt bad because Aoife was not in the best mood, but she knows Dorrie very well since we see her almost every week. Dorrie made this stuffed toy that Aoife is playing with; it's Mr. Sandman. It's really really cute. Thank you Dorrie. Tim and I felt pretty strange without Aoife with us, but honestly, it felt really good to have some time for ourselves. We ate some fancy hor'dourves and wine. We mingled with people, and ate a ton more. Tim and I had a nice walk home talking about his fancy yuppie world at school. We arrived and Dorrie had turned my tiger Aoife into angel Aoife, and she hung around for a while talking with us. It feels good to have some family around.

Thank you Gramma Rachel!

Another wonderful package came today for Aoife. What a popular lady! Inside was this diaper/nappy pouch. Gramma Rachel made it out of the lovely owl fabric and frog fabric that match Aoife's crib sheets. Gramma also sent MORE books! Tim has been reading books to her every now and then.

We are going back to Wisconsin the end of May for a few days. I'm terribly excited. Aoife will meet Grampa Steve, Uncle Topher, Great-Grandma Nice, Great uncles/Aunts, Grandma Moose, Grandpa Goose, Aunt Elf, Aunt Mic, and Uncle Mark. I'm hoping the flight goes well. I'm a bit frightened of all the driving we'll do, but she'll hopefully get used to it otherwise it'll be a bit of a nightmare. I can't wait to take her for walks on the farm and show her around Wisconsin!

Thank you Great-Aunt Susan and Gang

Today Miss Aoife got a package and inside was this beautiful outfit. I love the pattern on the little onsie...very cute. Thank you Susan and Gang.

Today Aoife and I took the bus to Janaki's office to drop off our birth class binder. Aoife got a little fussy when we got there so I took her out of the moby. Janaki was having a consultation and heard the commotion outside. I felt bad but she said to make ourselves at home. So I fed Aoife a little thinking that she was thirsty, but she just took a little, and was looking around at the strange new environment. She fussed up again and then I realized that she had a dirty diaper. So I proceeded to change her when I realized that I forgot to pack her diapers. I felt so bad. Her diaper was so wet and heavy. I'm starting to think that pregnancy amnesia sticks around after birth too! So, we packed up and quickly made our way back home. She didn't seem to mind too much and spent the whole bus ride staring at the passing world outside the window. She's becoming more curious about the world outside our apartment.

Urrgg

The photo says everything about today!

Reunion!!!

Today was the day we were waiting for for so long. We met up with our birth class again. It was very exciting. The reunion was in Alameda which required our most extensive public transit experience so far. We took the Bart and the bus which actually wasn't too bad, and we were actually sort of on time. It was at Maureen and Danny's house which is so beautiful and has a Fairy Tale character. It was exciting to finally meet the other babies, and it was quite overwhelming to see so many babies in one space. We mingled a bit and had baby talk. We then had lunch and shared our birth stories with each other. It was interesting to hear the stories since every birth was so different. You can't tell but Aoife was surrounded by tons of testosterone; there were only two girls present. It really is important as new parents to have the support of other new parents and we are lucky to have such a great group of moms and dads to share our experiences with. We can't wait until our next meeting!

Puck

This is my kitty Puck. I haven't mentioned him so far since for the most part he keeps out of trouble. We're not sure what he thinks about his new sister, but for the most part he completely ignores her. he didn't like all the love i had to give him and so he doesn't care at all that I'm so completely involved with Aoife. We still have our moments where he sits on my lap and we cuddle, but he doesn't need so much attention from us. He actually seems to be understanding and is giving us space.

Aoife and I had a scary day. I was sitting in our bedroom feeding her when I casually looked up at the ceiling. What did I see....a spider. Ordinarily spiders do not bother me at all, but this one was thick and black. Last weekend at Dorrie's house, Dave was telling us that black widow spiders exist in our area...very scary. I just about had a heart attack. I watched it for a little while, and it was crawling towards us then suddenly it dropped.....but only a few inches. It made its way back up and crawled faster. I screamed and took Aoife out of the room. She got scared because I was scared. I grabbed the raid and went at him. He died and I was relieved. Later, Tim and I researched it and found out it wasn't a black widow. I felt bad, but I couldn't reach him to catch him in a jar, and honestly if I didn't get rid of him the way I did, I would not have been able to sleep in that room anymore.

Later that night we decided to take Aoife out in her stroller today, and we found it to be a torturous disaster. She really doesn't like it at all. We're going to have to use it when she gets older and when she's too heavy to carry around.

May Day

Aoife and I had a visitor today: Melanie my doula. We went to the nomad cafe for some lunch to go and then took a walk in our neighborhood. It was a wonderful visit. Melanie told me that Aoife has taken on her own unique look compared to when she was born when she basically looked like every other newborn on the block. I'm really starting to see that more myself now even though I spend all my time with her. In the afternoon I experienced my first bout of engorgement. Wow, it really hurt a lot, and it was difficult to take care of Aoife. Tim came home and brought me a cabbage to relieve the pain, and it really truly worked!