Week One

Oma is here! My mom has been a godsend taking such good care of us. She has made it possible for us to purely focus on Lily which truly takes up almost all of our time. She's even spruced up our garden and flower box out front just because it's what my mom likes to do for us. Too bad she can't help by being my wet nurse right now.
Looking back over the last week, I'll provide my perspective and then Nate will provide his.
Nicole's : It's been all about my boobs. It's toe-curling pain right now to feed Lily so 8x a day, it feels like Lily is trying to rip my nipple off. I had no idea my boobs would leak so much (note to self - get more nursing tops). Too bad I can't just drip drop milk into Lily's mouth. It was comical when I was trying to release some of the engorgement by taking a long shower. I had no idea the milk would just squirt out of there like a strong hose, quite the distance. I hope future generations of mom's get blessed with some kind of boob epidural they can use to make the initial weeks of breastfeeding pain-free. We're getting better at the swaddle but we still need practice. I have this irrational fear of dropping Lily or her breathing stops. As an example, last night, I woke up facing Nate and noticed his head was down in the sheets. I immediately moved his head to the side thinking it was Lily. My naps are filled with crazy dreams, didn't expect that either.
Nate's: For me it's been about doing everything I can do to make things easier on Nicole. The week has been a complete blur, and it feels at the same time like it's been a lot longer than a week and also like it's been an instant. I guess everything did change in that instant I looked over at the doctor holding this squirming bloody black-haired baby after she made her way into the world. While there's no way I can shoulder the same burden as Nicole, hopefully I can just help by burping, changing diapers, keeping Lily's hands under control during nursing, and running little errands. The lack of sleep has been difficult but not unbearable, we'll see if that answer changes over the next few weeks as it compounds. I've missed the sunrise only one day since Lily was born, hopefully tomorrow it'll be 2 days. I think Lily has taken it easy on us so far as far as fussiness, she really doesn't cry for mysterious reasons, it's either a dirty diaper, gas, being uncomfortable (changing, etc.), or hungry. It seems like we're taking baby steps in figuring everything out, and I have a hard time thinking about heading back to work Tuesday. My mind is just not in that space whatsoever right now. But there are another three days before then, so who knows what will happen in the meantime.

We've also added a bunch of new photos from the past week, to be found as usual at the link in the upper right of the page.