2 week checkups

Leah's was on Friday but mine wasn't until today, due to some scheduling conflicts.

It seems the 2 week checkups are a way to comfort the mom and give new parents a chance to practice their new scheduling needs. After our struggles to leave the hospital we overestimated the time needed. We were an hour early to the pediatrician appointment but only 15 min early to my OB appointment. After rushing to get there in time to wait (mostly due to being too early) I was a bit thrown when both doctors seemed rather nonchalant, "Doing well, any questions?"

"Uh... yes, I have many questions. Most of them are stupid but I've been told there are no stupid questions so I'm going to pull out my list and ask you all of them. I need to make this appointment feel worthwhile. Since this will be my only adult human contact for the day I am going to take advantage of it."


There was a bit of debate about the color of Leah's poop. Michael (the color blind guy) thinks it was green. Personally, I think it was a more light brown and my mother said it looked like mashed up carrots.

Good news, any color is just fine. Even a dark brown would be okay if she was getting a lot of iron. I'm thinking of sneaking some new foods into my diet to assess the effects. I'd been avoiding beats for a bit to be sure she was not passing anything red. I'm tempted to go eat a few to see what happens. I vetoed Jack's idea of eating loads of black licorice while pregnant (he said she'd come out with black spots) but somehow my own experiments seem okay.

At my appointment we found out my recovery symptoms are quite normal post c-section. Apparently it's not uncommon to wake up sweating in the middle of the night. Due to the sudden decrease in estrogen levels hot flashes are quite common. Joy, I get to go through menopause now and in 20 years. Hormones are just so much fun, if we didn't have them we would miss out on the experience of crying for no reason.

As for my poop, the color of it isn't important, I'm more concerned about the frequency or should I say lack of frequency. Again... normal. Just in case you were wondering, removing your intestines, washing them, and placing them back inside you does not make them happy and more functional. Personally, I am wondering how this will effect my runs. For years I had to consider bathroom stops for evening runs. Maybe that will be less of an issue now. Wow, there could be another positive side effect to the invasive surgery.

I was cleared to drive again but reminded that I can not swim or exercise until I am cleared at my 6 week check-up.

"You need an appointment in 4 weeks. I've got 8:15 on Nov 2nd," says the receptionist.

I quickly try to fix this, "Since this appointment is actually 2 1/2 weeks after I delivered can I get an appointment on the Thursday before?" Michael begins to laugh because he can see right through this.

"No, just because this one was off doesn't mean we want to make the next one off too."

I don't agree with that statement but decided it was not worth the effort to argue. Once we get into the hall Michael laughs, "You didn't want to miss that weekend?!"

I turn to Michael and Leah, "I'm going to tell you now so you have 4 weeks to accept it... If I'm feeling fine 6 weeks after the surgery I'm not going to wait. I'm going to ride my bike that weekend." After all, I already have plans for a ride and pancakes that weekend.

Learning to share

Most of us have heard some saying about learning life's important lessons in kindergarten. I'm of the opinion that you shouldn't put off the things you can get done today. Leah is years away from going to school so I've decided it's time to start teaching her some important lessons. She probably won't understand them yet but it never hurts to try.

Our first life lesson is sharing...

Leah has been very lucky, she has many friends who have already begun sharing things with her. Before she was even born there were people sharing their old toys, clothes, books, and blankets with her. She had so many people sharing things with her that she got doubles of things and started to give some items to others.

Toys are great but there is something more meaningful that Leah can share; the liquid gold, milk. My leaky faucets are still going strong so we've got enough for Leah to be a good eater and too share some with others.

How do we know she's got plenty to eat? Leah weighed in at 7 lb, 1 oz on Friday. As the pediatrician walked into the room he told Michael he was putting together the Weight Watchers information packet for her. Leah gained about 18% of her body weight in 2 weeks, that's a larger percentage than I gained in the 9 months I was pregnant. No wonder she only eats, sleeps, and poops.

We know she's a good eater and we know there's extra food so we decided we might be able to share. Turns out there are 7 milk banks in the US and one of them happens to be in Austin. I called up the Mother's Milk Bank, went through my initial phone screening, and got my package of sterilized containers in the mail. Hopefully the good eater and I will be able to store up a large enough donation for the bank.

The Mother's Milk Bank of Austin is a non-profit organization whose mission is to accept, pasteurize, and dispense donated human milk to premature and ill infants: www.mmbaustin.org

Life is Good

Leah during the day:


I'm amazed at how content Leah is when she sleeps during the day. Nothing seems to disturb her relaxation time. Doorbells, phones ringing, visitors poking her, and dogs barking are all ignored when she's in the mood to sleep.

But once the sun drops and she's in the mood to get all the attention things change. At that point someone better be holding her or mom and dad will hear about it.

Leah at night:


Seriously, even our cute baby girl gets a bit ugly at night.

Thankfully, we may have discovered the miracle chair last night (thank you Donna). Michael's coworkers have hypothesized the chair makes her believe she is being cuddled. Yes, we have fooled the 2 week old. Lets just cross our fingers we can repeat this feat for another night.


Leah is 2 weeks old. I've been told the first 2 weeks after a c-section are the hardest. I'm expecting Leah to sleep through the night tonight and that I'll wake up in the morning pain free, with no more bleeding, functional intestines, and feeling back in the area of my incision. It might be a long shot but I can always dream big.

If you see me running at town lake tomorrow you'll know I ran into Miracle Max. mmm... chocolate coating makes it go down easy.

Dad's little girl

Those of you who know Michael's personality well might not be surprised to hear Leah is mimicking Michael in the photo above. Seriously, he makes that comical face whenever he sees a baby but his little girl is the first baby I've ever seen making the face back at him. Guess we know she is his little girl.

Leah was a bit cranky last night. We're not sure if it was rebellion against the camera flash or a result of mom's milk being spiked with dark chocolate. I didn't eat any chocolate tonight, I'm almost hoping she'll be fussy so I don't feel any urge to give up my favorite stuff. Of course, one data point can not be considered a trend so I'll surely have some other nights of chocolate gorging to be have confidence in my analysis.

There's also a possibility that some congestion is causing her troubles. Personally, I'm really hoping this congestion doesn't stick around. It's bothersome to Leah but it also causes me some challenges at night. Leah's bassinet is on the left side of our bed and Michael sleeps on the right side. Last night I had their heavy breathing in stereo, it was not fun. The loud breathing is one of Michael's characteristics I wish Leah didn't copy.

Leah got mail

We walked Leah over to meet the neighbors last night. "She looks quite regal," was his comment. At the time, Leah was sitting in Michael's arms with her hand on her chin.

On Friday we made a family trip to Dave's house for Leah's first photo shoot (http://www.dcmphotography.com/). She does not seem to be a fan of the flash so she might not be headed for a modeling career. As I just looked at this family shot I could not help but think, she looks regal.

Friday was a big day for Leah. Aside from her photo shoot she also became official, her social security card arrived in the mail. It was a little strange to see her name on the envelope. A mere few days after she was born, she already had a government issued identity.

Of course, the social security card is nothing compared to the GPS tracking device Michael is planning to insert before she starts dating.

19 lb Baby

One night in the hospital, Michael went to get Leah from the Nursery, after her nightly tests. She was parked next to a 10 lb boy baby. The nurse referred to that kid as Gigantor. Next to Leah that kid looked huge.

Last week a 19.2 lb baby boy was born in Indonesia. This boy, who was 2 ft long at birth, was about 3 1/2 times the size of Leah. I can hardly understand how Leah fit inside me, I can't even begin to understand how a 19+ kid could fit inside someone.

Hopefully that kid grows up to be healthy and Leah never encounters him in a dark alley.

Hello World

There comes a time in every person's life when you have to face reality...

It's time for me to move to this century and upgrade to a cell phone with picture taking capabilities. My handed down Nokia has treated me well although I have been known to beat up on it in return (it gets dropped and sweat on a lot).

The phone has finally rebelled. Over the past month it has lost communication with the SIM card almost daily. Like any good child of the 80's I responded with the classic Nintendo fix; I pulled out the battery pack and blew on the contacts. Works every time.

Although this solution kept the phone going the upcoming arrival of Leah made me second guess my insistence for keeping the old phone. After all, taking pictures of my baby, using my phone, seemed like a good idea. I'd intended to set up a knew phone last Thursday but The Boss had other plans for that day.

Michael pulled out his old Iphone this morning and got everything in order for me. I decided to test out the camera option, I wanted a new photo for my wall paper. I walked over to Leah and told her to look over for her picture. To my amazement she stuck her hand up in the air, looking as if she was waving at me.

So here it is, the one picture I have taken with my phone. My overachiever 10 day old is waving at me.

Okay... maybe she isn't as cognitively advanced as I'd like to believe but it was pretty impressive that she happened to wave at the moment I was taking the picture.