One Month!

This picture pretty much sums up Calliope's experience of lying on her belly... a humungous head anchoring the rest of her puny body.

After a couple of terrible days with sleep, last night she was a champ and did three, I think, three-hour stretches. God love her.

Here's some more boring (to anyone not her mother or grandmother) video of her charming self.

We met Scott for his birthday dinner last night at my favorite Brooklyn restaurant, Saul. She slept peacefully in the Moby throughout, until I hauled her out and handed her sleepy self to Scott for a cuddle. He's not normally a baby person, so it was so sweet to see him kiss her and coo at her.

Today Calliope and I went out for a first mother daughter brunch, just the two of us. I felt celebratory because of our good sleep, and also I was craving oatmeal (that someone else prepared) and my friend recommended our neighborhood "nice" restaurant, Farm on Adderley. So "we" enjoyed some fabulous oatmeal and bacon.

Then my friend Emily showed up, without her three year old (having a reunion with her former nanny), so I had another round of breakfast -- poached eggs with swiss chard and cheddar grits. Divine!

We tried out the Ergo on this trip. I don't like the Heart to Heart insert -- it made her head bob around. I think we will stick with the Moby for now. Even though the Ergo was great for my back.

Yesterday we had our "make-up" session with our wonderful photographer, Amy. She offered us another session because we didn't have such great luck on day eight of Calliope's life.

I haven't seen the new photos yet, but I think they will be amazing. Calliope was a rock star, and even obligingly fell asleep, naked and unswaddled, TWICE, on the bean bag chair! She normally has to be swaddled up tightly to fall asleep (and even then, is challenging), so this was a thrilling development. The bean bag seemed to support her in just the right way.

Of course, given the fact that she is a newborn and we SO don't have Elimination Communication down (I just started trying naked time and watching her for signals of impending elimination a couple days ago... so far, I'm clueless!), she peed several times, and even pooped runny yellow poop (what else?) down the front of my pants and onto the white faux-sheepskin rug. Ooops!

Today, after brunch, was rough, because the little girl refused to go back to sleep. Even in the Ergo carrier. I would get her to sleep, but as soon as I laid her down ANYWHERE, she would wake up again within three minutes.

I was feeling desperate by the time Michele, one of the teachers at my school, showed up. Michele was more or less an SMC in her day (her sons are adults now), especially for her younger son, so she offered to come over and help. Today was the perfect day! She took Calliope out for a THREE HOUR walk! I got lots done, and feel so much saner. And unbelievably grateful.

Callie is still asleep in the stroller/car seat combo. I guess I should go to bed? Even though it's been ages since she had a real meal?

Oh, and in other news, we went to the midwife on Thursday. Catherine weighed me with and without the baby so we could guess at her weight (since we had to miss our pediatrician appointment while we were in MA)... looks like about eight and a half pounds! And I am a couple pounds below my starting weight.... though my pants don't fit. I don't get it. Everything seems bigger, still. I'm curious if my hips are truly bigger, or just more padded?

Calliope & Catherine

I don't really care about my weight, though I am concerned about the PCOS returning. I'm already plucking some hairs off my chin... but I don't think it is any worse than during pregnancy... I just have less time to attend to such matters, and thus, don't notice until it's pretty bad! (To be fair, I had about six hairs... not so bad by anyone's standards except my own, pre-PCOS ones.) I asked my RE, via email, about staying on Metformin long term, but because, I guess, my labs are normal, he's not in favor of it. I'm thinking about doing long term acupuncture, maybe once a month, to see if we can stay on top of it. And am sort of working on my diet. I have to be careful, though, because if I actually try to diet, per se, I rebel terribly. So I'm reading Eat Fat to Lose Fat (I think that's the title) and trying to make tiny changes. Mostly by adding things in, rather than consciously focusing on avoiding others.

Ooops, I almost forgot! On Thursday we re-united with our friend Catherine (not the same as the midwife, she's a fellow SMC) and her handsome son Jack, one month older than Jack.

Isn't he a handsome fella?