Naked Godzilla

There is no explanation for this video, so I won't even attempt one.

6 weeks

Ms. Ada Blue is 6 weeks old today. A few weeks ago it seemed like this day would never come, time was just dragging and I was so tired and frustrated. Everyone was right though, it DOES get easier, and she really has stolen my heart. She's starting to be fun to interact with, and she making little bits of progress every day. Today she noticed her feet, and she was very interested in them for about a minute. She's smiling a bunch more, and even laughing a bit! She just seems like such a happy baby. She won't smile as much when I have the camera in her face, but I did manage to get a video today.

My ears are ringing

Today Ade and I went to mom and baby yoga. The yoga part was fairly unproductive, but it was still fun. It was nice to see other babies at different stages and to get a peek of what's coming. Sitting up! Rolling over! High pitched screaming! Droooooling!

The adventure was a bit over-stimulating for her, and when we got home she cried for an hour and a half. Even a walk in the baby bjorn carrier didn't help, and that's my sure-fire calm down method. So I was just bouncing her while she cried and all of a sudden, she fell asleep. It was like this:

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

I actually laughed out loud! It was like she hit her limit and turned off. She's been asleep for a very lovely hour since then. Ahhhhh.

The River Wild

Yesterday we went to the river so Josh could go fly fishing. In my head I pictured fly fishing to be like this:

I should know better than to trust the movies. I wanted to go SO BAD, to get out of the house and enjoy the sun and see the river. We drove an hour and a half to the Maupin, and it was a beautiful sunny drive and Ada slept the whole way and the mountains were gorgeous. Then we arrived and the clouds came out, and the wind, and the babe woke up. Josh had fun fishing, and I sat in the grass, fought off bugs,  and tried to nurse and calm the baby. It didn't go very well. So then we drove home. 

This is the reality of fly fishing. Except the Pabst is missing, and the bugs, and the other people walking around.

And this is the reality of what happens when you come home and everyone is exhausted:

Somehow even Richard was exhausted, and he didn't even go! I tried to cook dinner, until Stella got under my feet and tripped me, and then I got mad at her, and then I felt bad and then I cried. I think we were all a bit over-tired. I guess outings will be more fun when the baby can wear waders and fish too. And I can stay at home and go shopping.

All the photos you can handle

I set up a flickr site today, for all of our photos. The link is flickr.com/furiousblueberry
I'm adding the link to the side of the blog, so you can find it easily, but you should bookmark it on your computer!
We're getting into more of a routine at home now, so I'm hoping for more time to blog and put up pictures. The picture uploading process can be slow though, so I'm starting at the birth and working my way up to now.

Ada gave us her first laughs and smiles the other day, and Josh got some photos, as well as a video, although the video has one smile at the beginning and then it's back to her regular self.

The hardest most wonderful 3 weeks.

I guess it doesn't matter how much preparation you do, or how much you read, or how many classes you go to, you just can't really be ready for  the experience of birth and then having a newborn. How can anyone explain the combination of intense love and joy when you look at her face and the complete misery that your body is in at the same time? The soreness and the hormones and the emotional stress and fear of what you've gotten yourself into, there was no way I could have been prepared for any of that. Our lives are in a million pieces, and the pieces will never fit back together the way they did before. We're starting over, building a new life, as three people, as a family. We're finding ourselves grieving over the loss of our old life, while being excited about our new one. The word we find ourselves using the most the last couple of weeks is overwhelming.

one day old, blood test

I'm already amazed by how much she has grown. Every time I pick her up to feed her she seems chubbier and sturdier and just a little bit longer. She's starting to have funny little habits, that maybe only I will notice, because we have so much intimate time together while I feed her. She gets annoyed if I mess with her feet while she's sucking. She likes to kick her little knee up to rest on my other breast while she's eating. She has a fake cry that she pulls out when she's hungry, but she doesn't seem to want to put in the effort of a real cry. She's started having an after-meal stretch which Josh loves.

4 days old

We're finding ourselves sliding into a routine, which I imagine will keep evolving as she grows and changes. She sleeps in 3 hour stretches at night, and usually goes right back to sleep after her feeding. Josh wakes up when she fusses and hands her to me, and after we're done he changes her diaper and soothes her back to sleep. Her wakeful times are mostly quiet, while she stares at whatever seems interesting to her at the moment, mostly the ceiling fan. She's such a sweet, mellow baby.

Great Grandma and Grandpa

First bath

Week one, tiny baby

Sleep style

Josh rocks the Moby wrap

 We had a week 3 photo shoot on the red couch yesterday, and caught some good faces.

It's a Girl!

I'm a little late on this, but it's only because we had a baby.
Her name is Ada Blue Kubisch, and she was born at 1:26 am on Monday May 9, 2011.
She was 8 lbs 6 ounces, and 20 inches long, with a 14 inch head.
And she's wonderful.