The story thus far

I have no pictures to post, though that's because they're on the cameras or Eric's computer, not because we haven't been taking any. Mom and Dad are staying with us to help out, and so far they have pictures of each day of Chloë's life.

I'll post a birth story later...it's bound to be long and possibly fairly graphic. Here's the short version: my water broke at about 9 PM on Wednesday. We went to the hospital (where the nurses at the maternity ward laughed at my soaked shorts) and napped for about forty minutes, then walked the halls for several hours to get my labor going fast enough that I wouldn't have to go on Pitocin. (Apparently having my water break first caused all kinds of concerns; I got scolded for it a couple of times.) Both labor and the pushing part took a long time because the baby was occiput posterior after all (face-up instead of face-down, which makes things harder), and I was very whiny. The baby came out at last at 5:31 PM on Thursday, looking like a bag of purple eels, and things got much better.

That was day one; the rest of it consisted of some food and some sleep and a lot of baby-gazing, and a late bath (for her, not me). Day two we spent at the hospital, getting me cleared for a shower (it was the best shower EVER) and Chloë cleared for discharge, and to verify that my slight fever had abated. We got home late that day. Day three was spent trying to catch up on sleep; day four we went to the pediatrician and rejoiced that my milk had come in because Chloë suddenly started sleeping better.

Today is day five, and apparently day five is when newborns become social. We had hardly seen anything of Chloë's eyes until today. Alternately, it's the day when new mothers realize that something ought to be done about their newborns not wanting to eat, because being upset about gastrointestinal distress apparently affects even an evil overlord's disposition. After a successful administration of Mylicon and dinner we actually saw her strumming her fingers together in classic evil contemplation. The world should beware.