One week

Yesterday was Orin's one week birthday.

I remember looking at the clock at 11:40 and thinking just one week and five minutes ago 

Orin had been placed in my arms, kicking and screaming, bloody and blue.

I had fallen in love with him by the time the midwives brought the towel over to dry him off.

I think I will always remember perfectly those first moments...

In other news: we had our first appointment with the pediatrician.

Casey got called into work, so my mother came with me for the outing.

First, we got Orin all bundled up and ready for the car ride. 

When we got there I filled out some paperwork while we waited...

...Orin slept, Grandma read...

... finally we were called in.

After a brief exam, which Orin tolerated very well, the doctor told us that he was perfectly healthy, growing well, and very strong for a newborn.

The last thing the doctor did was to put him on the scale.

This turned out to be a bad idea.

By this time Orin had had enough.

After being very patient while he was being poked, prodded, and measured on the table, the scale proved to be entirely unacceptable.

He went into full-blown meltdown mode and let the doctor know that he wasn't going to take anymore exam time by urinating all over him.

If you blow up this picture (just double click on the image), you can actually see the yellow stream... it's great.

He had gained 12 ounces since leaving the hospital,

not counting whatever was lost in the massive pee stream.

Next time, maybe the doctor will consider using a diaper...

Have a restful evening.

XOXOX

Laundry Day

The evidence.

You may not believe me, but this entire basket of laundry was generated within a 

3 hour period this morning. 

It all started when Casey woke up to change the baby and realized 

that he had soaked through the following layers:

his diaper

his onesie

his pants

his puppy bag

his receiving blanket

his fleece crib blanket

So Casey re-clothed him and tucked him into bed with us (this time on a towel).

Several hours later I woke to a wet baby, a wet diaper, a wet onesie, wet pants, a wet receiving blanket, a wet towel and wet bed sheets.

I have therefore concluded that the diapers we are using are simply not made to withstand the volume of urine the little one is capable of producing. 

The Culprit.

He expresses no sorrow for his actions.

But when you are this cute, it hardly matters.

Fleece bags, straw baskets, and other baby essentials

There are some things that you don't realize until you become a parent.

Like the importance of a having a zip-up fleece bag.

Before Orin was born, the "puppy bag" was just another cute baby outfit waiting in the dresser.

Now it is, by far, the most important piece of clothing in my world. 

Why is it so important you ask?

Because you don't even realize how complicated it is to get a onesie or a tee-shirt on a screaming baby... because lets face it, the only reason that you would have to change them is that they have just gotten something foul on themselves and it has leaked causing them to go into a serious meltdown mode.

But with a zip up bag, those transitions are so easy.

Tonight, my mother and I plan to work on making a new zippered fleece bag,

thus reducing the stress I feel when it has to go into the wash.

And other wonderful, important things:

Hand-woven baby baskets.

A gift from my sister, brought directly from Haiti.

This is a wonderful baby accessory because it can be used as a portable crib.

Since Orin is very fond of napping, it works well for us... he can sleep wherever and whenever he wants and I can maintain some mobility around the house.

Things that are less appealing:

Baby exercises.

Last night my mother decided to work on upper arm strength training.

It was going really well and Ori seemed to be genuinely enjoying himself... 

But then we heard the tell-tale sounds of poopy... 

lots of poopy.

Due to the slight reverse incline of his position, more than just a regular clean-up was in order.

My mom described it as "epic"

I just thought it was gross.

Either way, there will be no more inclined exercising.

But to end on a positive note: one more baby-essential: The Boppy

The boppy is a fantastic invention created for easy breast-feeding.

I also use it as a prop to hold him on my lap while I work on the blog (like right now)

or, when the phone rings...

it can stand alone as a maintain-baby-in-peaceful-state for a second until I can sit down again

and make him look so cute that for the next 5 minutes all I can do is take pictures

Oh my...

Home Again

Ah, home sweet home...

Yesterday, after passing our health exams with flying colors, we were released from the hospital. We (and I speak freely for Orin here) are all very relieved to be able to spend the night without nurses coming and going running tests on the baby.

Now that we were back home, it was time to try out some of our gear. 

First: the crib.

(Notice the Duke mobile and RedSox blanket)

It was deemed sufficiently comfy. 

Second: the bed

This passed the comfort test as well.

Third: the diaper changing table.

This was actually a test for me because I have honestly never changed a diaper before. 

I think that I passed.

By next week I anticipate being a pro.

We also tested out the new car seat. 

During this trial run the baby felt inspired to begin practicing some basic ninja moves. 

Karate Chop...

Praying Mantis...

It was an exhausting day and afterward a very long nap was in order.

Hope you are all doing great. 

There will be more pictures to come.

And thank you so much to Jen and Tim who bought us the really cute outfit that you see in the karate pictures.

The Little One Arrives!

On Friday, May 23rd at 11:35 in the morning, Orin Alexander Zawicki made a grand (but very painful) entrance into the world outside the womb.

This is not what he looked like at that time,

but I thought you would all want a cute baby picture right at the top of the post.

Now I will go back to somewhere near the beginning to fill you in on all the details:

At around 1:00 in the morning, Casey and I were both wide awake: I was up with the realization that I had gone into labor and Casey was up because he had just been hit by one of the worst cases of food poisoning that I have ever seen.

Despite our uncomfortable situations, we spent several hours laughing uncontrollably about meaningless random little things... mostly our excessive toilet use... it was just one of those times. 

Around 3:30 I hopped into the shower to see if it would stop my contractions (warm water is suppose to stop fake labor) When it didn't, I called the birth center and they told us to come in right away.

This is me in early labor on my birthing ball (notice the smile... that went away later on)

Here I am again, holding onto Casey as my situation got progressively less appealing.

And here is the moment right before I lost Casey. I am pictured hanging over my vomit bowl and he is prepping to go to bed. 

Seconds later, my mom and I were on our own for several hours.

I give him credit for being able to sleep through a large part of my labor... that takes real talent 

and he was, in his defense, really sick.

But by the last stage of labor he woke up again and held my hand while I screamed bloody murder. There is nothing about labor that is fun.

Except in the end, it was all worth it.

This was Orin's first moment with his daddy.

After the labor we were transferred to the hospital to begin a 48 hour stay so the doctors could monitor the baby.

We had a lot of time to kill, so we found ways to stay busy: first, a warm-water hair wash and comb for the baby.

We declined a bath after the labor, but by day two we decided we should get the blood clots out of his hair. Casey did a really great job.

Orin was not very appreciative.

But eventually he settled down to do what he does best: nap (and look really cute).

More of sleepy baby.

Later in the day my brother stopped by to visit. He just qualified for Special Forces training and had been given a leave for Memorial Day weekend. I found out that he was coming home the night I went into labor. It was really a wonderful surprise to have him get to meet the baby.

So, all in all, the first day was amazing. I think that we are both still in shock that we have been blessed by such a lovely baby. I can't wait for you all to meet him. 

And don't worry, from now on the blog will be filled daily with pictures of Orin.

I will leave you with this one... he looks a little like a monkey in it, but we managed to catch him in one of the rare moments when his eyes are open.

See you tomorrow. 

The Selfish Gene

Lately the baby and I have been having a slight conflict of interest, mainly over the timing of his birth. See, baby has moved on to the stage of development known as "hanging around in the womb just gaining weight." He seems perfectly content with his current situation which involves wiggling around, accumulating body fat, and enjoying his safe water-bubble existence. However, I am experiencing this stage in a significantly different way. 

Sleeping, for example, has become very challenging. The only position that is comfortable is one in which I am sitting up, so I now nap (actual sleep is impossible with the number of times that I have to go to the bathroom in the night) propped up on a mound of pillows. My neck has never appreciated anything less. And that is just one example, I am not gong to even tell you about how difficult walking up stairs has become.

 So, naturally I wouldn't mind if the baby would just hurry up and be born. "You can gain all the weight you want after birth," I regularly assure him. But so far he is continuing to be stubborn.

 

Other encouraging speeches have also been ignored. Everyday I try something different, such as "It is a really beautiful day today... a good day to be born" occasionally adding a threat like "If you don't hurry up, you are going to miss this blooming Magnolia tree... it is really something special." My mother has a different tactic. She simply plans out when I should go into labor depending on what works best for everyones schedule. "Your labor should begin tonight around midnight. Spend 6 hours in the early stage then come and wake me up...." Then she pats me on the belly reassuringly and heads off to bed. 

Casey just asks me every morning "Are we going to have the baby today?" I think that he is interested in not going to work. 

So for all of you anxiously awaiting baby pictures, I am not sure how much longer you will have to wait. Hopefully, the baby and I will be able to strike a compromise soon... one in which even though he will be forced to leave his comfortable womb and I will be forced to go through the painful process of guiding his exit, it will benefit us both in the end by allowing him to taste something other than amniotic fluid and letting me nap (in between feedings and diaper changes) lying down. 

We miss you all and hope that you are doing great.

A day at the farm

At some point a couple months ago in one of my many baby books, I remember reading about how exposing a baby in the womb to farm animals helps to protect him or her from developing allergies. I think. It may have been beneficial for some other reason, I can't remember, but either way it was a good excuse to go visit a farm on Casey's day off. 

We looked up directions to a local farm and set off on a beautiful Sunday afternoon with my mother and brother in law.

When we arrived it did not take us long to realize that what we thought was a "family farm day" was actually a "family fair day"... no livestock to pet, no lovely manure-air to breathe.

 But they did have cotton candy, so we decided to explore for a while.

The best part in my opinion was a booth set up by a local artist who was selling baby books. The books are unique because not only do they tell a baby-friendly story in big letters, they also have smaller captions that have interesting little scientific facts about the animals in the story.

It won me over. We bought "The Pond" and "The Oak Tree" and had them signed by the author.

Andrew's favorite part was the pie tasting. There was a competition going on to see who had made the best pie so there was quite a lot of pressure from the old ladies at the stand to try all of them. This proved to be no problem for the boys. 

After leaving the fair, we set off again to find a real farm and this time we were successful.

Fluffy chickens...

Cute baby goats...

A cow demonstrating an act of personal hygiene.

A big shiny red tractor...

And Wilbur.

We wandered around for a while, petting goats, sheep, and pigs, and enjoying the sunshine.

After the farm we went back to the house for dinner and a round of Settlers of Catan (a game that Casey and I discovered while visiting our frineds in San Franscisco earlier in the trip).

It went very well. 

I won. 

I always win.

:)

Now we are back to focusing all of our attention on having a baby. 

Otherwise, who will wear this cute outfit I made...

my first successful sewing project 

Any day now... I promise.