The Cute and The Very, Very Sad.

For starters, the cute! The picture below documents what Iris is doing right at this very moment ohmyjeebus. This whole "nap" thing is totally foreign to Iris, so the fact that she has now been doing it for OVER AN HOUR is remarkable and noteworthy and I think someone should give me a cookie. You know, since the kid doesn't have teeth yet, and someone should really get a prize here. She is asleep on her little miracle foam wedge thingie (Auntie Sarah saves the day on that one. Perhaps SHE should get a cookie?), which is the only place she will sleep that is not on my body somewhere. I guess sometimes she sleeps on Kyle, but only if she falls asleep on me and is then passed off to him, so that when she wakes up and realizes there are no boobs in sight there is much rage and woe. The wedge actually produces a happy baby who wakes up and calmly looks around for boobs, but doesn't like, need it, just would like it please, if you've got it? But speaking of woe...

(The Cute)

It is the Sorrowful Bathtub of Gloom and Despair. This is the only picture from the dreadful event because it was so horrible that we had to bathe at turbo-jet speed and get her out of there before she permanently ruined her vocal chords. I think you can sort of see over the top of her head the squinched-up, red, screamy face she was making. I had all manner of warmed up wash cloths draped over her so she wouldn't get too cold, but it didn't really help much. I figured she'd hate the bath no matter what, and our decision to bathe her at that moment was based on the fact that she was already in sort of a screamy mood, so we wouldn't be ruining happy baby time by throwing her in the tub.

(The V. V. Sad)

Anyway, I'm prepared to wait till she's at least 10 to attempt bathing her again, but that's just how I feel about it today. I suppose if we wait till she's like 30 to reintroduce her to bath time, she's unlikely to get a date so that could knock out two birds with the one stone there, huh...I'll run that one by Kyle first but I'm thinking he'll be behind me all the way.

P.S. Iris is one month old today! Yay!

Blowing her little tiny mind

omg you guys.  my chair is VIBRATING.

One outfit, then.

Wow friends, two posts in one day.  Can't believe it.

Here is the link to the pictures I took of Iris this morning (which some of you have also received in an e-mail, but I could only remember so many e-mail addresses, so this is for everyone else).  Now that I have this Picasa thing up and running I won't be limited to how many pictures I can share w/ you each day since blogger's limit is shockingly small, but Picasa is designed to hold photos, so this will be better.  

she knows

Iris is just waking up (of course!  since I decided to sit down and write this post, NOW is when she wakes up).  So I'll keep this short.

She slept for seven hours straight last night.

She only screamed for like, two or three hours preceding that magical chunk of zonk.

When she woke up this morning, she ate and ate and ate and aaaate for another two or three hours, then went back to sleep for a morning nap.  

Bless the child, I think she's finally found the best way to say I love you (ed. to add: or perhaps she just really wants me to have time for showers).  With sleeeeeep.  

More pictures & fun with before and after

Iris is sleeping right now, partaking of what we have been calling her morning nap, even though it is not morning, nor was it so when she fell asleep.  I guess we could start calling it her daily zonk, or the big sleep that happens sometime while the sun is up, but morning nap still works for me.  So this is me trying to do a good job of being productive while the baby is asleep.  I PROMISE I get enough sleep at night, so for those of you who are ready to vilify me for being awake right now, I assure you, I am fine.  Besides, if I wasn't awake doing productive stuff, you wouldn't be getting pictures, so there.  

I could have sworn I uploaded more pictures than this, but I think blogger is being persnickety about the number/size of photos that are allowed per post.  There was this super adorable one of Kyle and Iris (not the one below) where you could actually see Kyle's face and it was all super-sweet and father/daughter-ey and whatnot.  I'll get to that one next time, I suppose.  Also it's sort of sad that pregnancy/surgery does such a number on your body because as you can see from the last photo down there, I don't look so great in any of the pics that happen to include me from the first few days of Iris' life.  I mean, no one expects you to look your best or even mildly good after having a baby, no matter how that baby entered the world, but it would be nice if I didn't cringe just a little bit at all those pictures.  We'll have to make some more attempts to get a good family photo soon, especially since I don't think there are any pictures of the two of us (or the three of us) since those first few days.  

Iris just moments before she shows off her sleeping pirate face.  It involves lots of eye rolling and winking.  Please note that I do mean eye as in singular-one eye rolling while the other stays shut.  It's freaky and cool all at the same time.  I'll work on getting a shot of that next time. 

Very first visit with the doctor

Iris and me the day she was born

I realized that I'm wearing the exact same outfit today as I was on her birthday, so I decided to do an 'after' shot for comparison.  Amazing what the removal of nearly 9lb. of child from your abdomen will do for your physique.  

Grandma!

Grandma!

Edema. 

The swelling has gone down and my head is back to normal, non-pumpkin proportions, in case anyone was concerned that I might pull a neck muscle trying to heave that massive noggin up off the pillow.  

I am sure there were other things I was going to tell you about, but they are lost to me now if they were ever really there in the first place.  I think next time I post I'll try to have a little Iris fashion show & put her in some of the outfits she's gotten from everyone.  Or I'll do that until she is so totally annoyed with me that I have to stop.  So maybe I'll get one or two outfits in.  We shall see.   

Okay! Yes! Pictures!

I am still suffering from a pretty severe case of the stupids, so I'll just leave you with these pictures today & promise to return with my mental facilities in tact by sometime in 2027 at the very latest.  

Iris just a few minutes old

Hey I just had major surgery & stopped sleeping at night all in the same day.  Seems like a good time for a picture.

Please do not be jealous of my saucy hat.  

Think he looks tired?  

Iris' second-favorite pastime (her first is trying to saw off my nipples with her tiny razor-edged gums - we're working on that one).

P.S. The hospital pictures are available at www.our365.c0m.  Search using last name, city, state & Iris' birthday (2/26/09).  The password is "Iris."  

One week(ish) in...

Wow.  I feel like there is so much to say that I don't know where to even begin.  Being a parent has been totally surreal so far.  I think Kyle is better at this gig than I am--at the very least he's much more chill about everything than I am.  Of course I think that may have always been the case in pretty much every situation.  

Iris pretty much has two modes: sleeping and eating.  She does them both a lot and for long stretches of time.  So the sleeping part is great, although a little disconcerting when we're rounding out on hour four of totally zonked out kid (we wake her to eat, but I bet if we didn't she'd sleep for much longer).  The eating thing is not as neat.  Nursing for 3+ hours straight is not my kind of fun.  

I'm healing from the surgery quite well.  I am still taking some pain meds though so my thinking skills are pretty curtailed still.  I'll be back with more info when I can think a little more clearly.

Oh and Patty, she was born at 5:53 pm.