we're home!
today we brought rex home from the hospital. he is doing really well.
we had a couple of tough feeding days at the hospital, but he's stopped losing weight (all newborns lose weight as they learn to feed) and is generally a well-tempered little guy.
it's great to be home in our own space and we realized that we picked a great week to come home: lots and lots of great sports on TV (did you SEE that celtics-bulls game tonight?!?)
the local moms club brought us an amazing dinner tonight (takeout from a really yummy local diner, nona's kitchen. it was wonderful not to have to deal with figuring out food while we're still unpacking and settling in!

that's really all of the news here. our life = feed the baby, burp the baby, change the baby, sleep or get stuff done while he sleeps. repeat.

oh yeah, and i just read and enjoyed this article about pirate aficionados and how the rise of actual piracy in somalia sucks for them. it's a fun read.

Rex!

He's here! And he's gorgeous.
I'll have to post my labor story at some point (although I will definitely make it safe for squeamish readers), today I'll just give a little update.
Rex was born via C-section on Sunday morning at 4:34 am, almost exactly 24 hours after my first labor symptoms. He's on the tinier side, weighing in at 6 pounds, 3 ounces at birth. He was 19 3/4 inches in length. I was just about the same size. I think my mom said that I was 6 pounds 4 ounces and 21 inches (mom, feel free to correct me here with a comment on this post).
He was very tired his first day, but managed to still charm a bunch of fabulous friends that were kind enough to come and visit us at the hospital. He's been having trouble feeding, though, which has become a bit more of a problem as he's gotten "older".
The first day or so, he's expected to sleep a lot. After that they want him to be feeeding every 3 hours or less. He seems to have a good latching instinct, but soon after latching he gets either distracted (oooh! Lots going on out here outside the womb!) or sleepy. Therefore he's not getting enough to eat, so feedings are taking lots of time each time, and are as often as every hour and a half.
This morning I had a mini-meltdown. Rex wasn't feeding well and yet kept trying off-and-on for a number of hours. Every time he'd seem like he was done trying and ready for sleep I'd get him swaddled and in his crib and then he'd cry again. It was sooooo frustrating! The nurse was about an hour late with my pain meds, so that just added to the drama. When Steve got up I was just about in tears. Luckily at that point there was a nursing shift change, they brought my meds, and the new nurse helped me use a pump to get some food in him. Then Rex and I were both able to get some shuteye.
Things have gone better since then. We've had two really good feedings, taken some naps and we've both got bellies full of yummy stuff (Steve went out and bought me some gourmet goodies at AG Ferrari, an Italian market across the street).
Now we're chilling out together. He's lying on me while I type this on my bberry with my tumbs of fury...
Keep your fingers crossed for us that we'll stay on this positive path!

we have such talented friends!

tiffany will be featured on natgeo tv's "garbage moguls" tomorrow night at 9 pm. there are clips on their website at www.natgeotv.com/garbage, and you can see her profile, where they call her "garbage barbie" here.

storyteller megan stielstra is profiled in an article in the chicago examiner that you should check out.

and my father-in-law, bruce, is going to be a blogger for the detroit new's auto blog section. i'm having trouble pulling up his first post, but apparently it's going to be here.

i had my worst night of sleep yet last night. i am TIRED still, and i was in bed attempting to sleep for almost 10 hours. argh. my hip hurts, my head is congested, and it was really warm (for here). i guess i'll have to take a nap later today.
------------

i ordered the kindle. i hope it gets here before our little boy does, so i can play with it. i definitely want to transfer my subscription to the new yorker magazine over to the kindle in a couple of weeks when it expires. i am sooooooo excited!

------------

gavin newsom finally officially announced his candidacy for governor. is it just me, or does he always look like he's smirking?

it's gorgeous here today, and i'm just over a week from my due date (!). i am hoping that our little dude will hang out for a bit and not make an early appearance. i think we're generally ready, but it would be nice to have a bit of R&R time before he comes and turns our world upside down.
he's been moving around a lot lately: not so much kicking as pushing at my stomach from a few different angles. it must be at least one of his feet under my right breast, and then there's probably either a hand or an elbow just to the left side of my belly button. i don't know if anyone notices it but me, but when he's pushing on both of those spots i think it makes me look really lopsided.
we have a few things we still need to get ready (sterilizing bottles, finalizing the announcement/contact lists, etc) but we're in good shape. we put our spare bed in the baby's room so that i can sleep in there if necessary (or, i suppose, steve can -- he's been complaining that i've been snoring lately, which is a completely new thing for me). we've got the carseat base in one of the cars, and the bags are mostly packed for the hospital (just need to grab last minute things like the camera battery, which is charging, some toiletries that we use every day, etc).
i am going to try to read a book on baby sleep habits this week. i started reading "healthy sleep habits, happy child", which i think is pretty horribly written and extremely boring so far. i think the main problem is that with many non-fiction/advice books the premise should be about a chapter long (steve thinks maybe the books should be pamphlets instead) and yet they feel the need to drag it out to an entire book in order to justify charging you $20 for the book. i guess i need to accept that, and learn to skim more effectively...
i am thinking of buying myself a kindle. i've been wanting one for quite some time, and when i went to a management class at work, one of the guys in the class approached me during the break and let me know that the kindle was the best thing ever for his wife while she was breastfeeding. he said that she was an internet junkie and loved following the news, and while it was not too hard to prop up a book and try to read it while nursing, it was impossible to find the time to get online or to read the newspaper, and that the kindle allowed for her to do this with one hand while nursing. sounds like a plan to me! i just need to get up the guts to make the purchase... maybe later today.

i was really hoping i'd wake up canadian today, but i've scanned through the details and alas, i guess i'm not canadian.

what a lovely little story for easter! susan boyle, an unemployed 48 year old, shocked the judges on the show 'britain's got talent' with an amazing rendition of 'i dreamed a dream' from les miserables. the copyright owner has disabled the ability the clip to be embedded, so you'll just have to click here, to see it.
you won't regret it.

omg, she's so cute!

ouch.

steve showed me this business card from steve martin awhile ago, so it's not new, but i still love it.

i have never been a jay leno fan, but i thought that it was damn cool of him to have a couple of free concerts in detroit. what a nice guy!

what a crappy ending to an amazing season for MSU. bummer!

...

i was hoping that bill gates would be my friend on facebook, but it looks like he's already pretty busy on facebook corresponding with more important people.

i definitely can't complain about my pregnancy. at least it wasn't 14 months long and my baby's not expected to be 6 feet tall!

the last day and a half has been pretty tough. i got some sort of nasty food poisoning and had trouble keeping food down. tonight it appears i have kept down a full plate of pasta, though, so that's good news!

i have been really lucky to have such an uneventful and healthy pregnancy. i am literally knocking on the wood of our kitchen table right now that it continues for the final 4 weeks. it's starting to get pretty darn crowded in my belly, with our little one already in place (head down) and kicking me more and more often in the ribs (ow!), but (as people have told me), it's a lot easier to take care of the baby while he's still inside than once he's out. therefore, i am in no rush and hope he stays there until his due date. :)

i am trying to wrap up projects at work, which is a bit daunting. i have defined myself by my work for so long that it will be fascinating to see what multiple months off of work and a new definition as "mommy" will do for my sense of self. i am sure it's going to be a good thing. it's just strange to think about...

on a light note, check out this cool timeline of all of the lego people over time. i totally want the skeleton!

i am a nerd and use a lot of spreadsheets, so i really enjoyed this:



you can download the actual excel version here, and i recommend that you do!