Mina's first 2 weeks

Wow! It's for real... we're parents.



So, we were lucky to leave UCLA after staying only 2 nights. The ride home was exciting, G was extra careful driving in the 5:00 rush hour traffic while I sat in the backseat staring at our beautiful little girl. We made it home safe and sound to be greeted by our 3 cats, all curious about where we'd been and who the little human was.

It's amazing how easily we've adjusted to our new life and new erratic schedule. Everything revolves around Mina - we sleep when she sleeps, eat when she's calm, feed her when she wants the boob juice and keep her in clean diapers. There have been a few tough nights, when nothing we do seems to calm her down, but only a few... I think she's fairly mellow, but maybe I'm biased. :) I'm sure there will be many more long, fussy nights to come. Breast feeding was painful at first, after almost 2 weeks it's finally becoming easier. My toes still curl during the initial latching on, but that ouch subsides quickly. Mina has a healthy appetite and my boobs are huge and full of boob juice. We are using cloth diapers. That took some getting used to, since we were using disposables at the hospital. Mina is so tiny even the newborn disposables were big, imagine how huge the infant cloth pre-fold seemed to us!! (if you've never seen a cloth diaper, they are approx 12" x 14".) We got the hang of it, though. Had to up our diaper service delivery from 80 per week to 120 per week. Lots of poopies and peepees. G does most of the diaper duty because I'm handing the boob juice duty. I will certainly miss him when he goes back to work. :(

We left the house for our first outing on Monday - to visit the pediatrician. It was raining - cold and dreary. A little stressful to drive in, but we made it safely to and fro. I nursed Mina in the waiting room at the doctor's office, our first feeding on-the-go. The dr. was nice, said Mina looked good. She was weighed and measured, ears and nose prodded. He answered our questions and asked us to come back in a week. We may try out a few more dr.'s before we settle on one. This guy was flexible with vaccines, said he would do whatever we wanted but if it were up to him he'd do the conservative CDC vax reccomendations. He suggested we do our own research. We've done research, enough to ask educated questions but would like more guidance when deciding how to vaccinate. Also, we'd like to find someone with a bit more of a wholistic approach in general. Wish us luck - you'd think it would be easy here in LA to find a hippie md. pediatrician who takes our insurance....


Tuesday was Mina's very first Spa Day. She had a lovely sponge bath followed by a mini-massage. Products by Weleda, all natural - of course! She wasn't really happy about the bath, but I'm sure she'll grow to love them. She had her second Spa Day today (Friday) and was still fussy, but not as bad. Her skin is peeling, the pediatrician said it was normal... she's molting. :) Anyway, her wrists & ankles are where it's peeling the most. She seems fine with it, but I bet it sort of itches. The sponge bath helped release some of the dead skin and the moisturizer will help keep her perfect babyskin extra soft.

Tuesday was a big day for Miss Mina -- it was also her first neighborhood walk. We bundled her up and placed her in the stroller for a little walk to the grocery store. It was great for us to get out of the house and enjoy the sunshine and stretch our legs. Mina was silent and mellow, the motion of the stroller kept her calm. Being in the grocery store seemed surreal, G commented about the amount of freaks that were there. We decided it's because we'd been in a bubble with the baby for over a week and being out in public was just a shock to us. I think G was just feeling his daddy protector instinct kicking in, too. I was just in a total daze. We went for another walk on Wednesday to a local cafe for a decaf and slice of coconut cake. Not as many freaks at the cafe as were at the market the day before. I find the walking is helping me in my recovery.

We have had a few visitors... Cheri, our doula, was here for a long afternoon the first week to help with breastfeeding. She's a lactation specialist and her help has been invaluable. She'll come visit us again next week. Our friend Matt (Jasper's daddy) brought us Thai food for dinner Saturday and stayed for a few minutes. Last nite Cece, G's friend from work, came to visit the whole family. She brought mice for Scooby the snake, bitter apple for Littlelittle's tail nomming habit and clippers for Luna's bum. It is nice to have visitors, but it's also tiring. Baby steps!

Milestones so far:

• Poops graduated from meconium to green stuff to mustardy.
• Mina found her thumb.
• Mommy's nipples got sore, formed scabs then the scabs fell off. I saved the scabs. Now there is a bleb in the right one.
• Mina loves being in the sling, either on mommy or poppy.
• Monday was her first boogey - nose booger. I did not save this, although the thought did cross my mind.