Guilty....

Ive become a pretty horrible blogger since Izzy was born, but now that she is 3 weeks old (!!), I hope to return to this lovely community. I still want to write-up the birthstory at some point, more for myself Im sure, but I am still too exhausted to commit to that (long) post. So, instead, Ill summarize a few bullets about the past week.

- Someone told us that having a baby is a lesson in unpredictability - and that is SO VERY true. This same wise person told us that "Everything is a phase, so if you love it, enjoy it, because it will pass soon, if you hate it, just hold your breath because it too will pass" -- Both of those statements have turned out to be completely true -- and indicative of the next several bullets:

- Diaper rash is _finally_ on its way out the door! I can now provide personal reviews of EVERY POSSIBLE type of diaper rash cream...in the end, the Dr. prescribed an anti-yeast cream, despite the fact that it didnt look like a yeast rash. That seems to have done the trick..or maybe it was the Butt Paste or the moratorium on wipes. Our little one is all for the bidets approach. The rash put us back in disposables, but even after 3 days of cloth, we are hooked and super excited to be back in our prefolds in a couple of days!

- Sleep was going really really well. I actually got 7 (!!) hours of continuous sleep for 3 nights in a row. I started pumping so that W could do the 2am feeding, which meant that I got to sleep from the end of the 10pm feeding (roughly 11pm) until she woke up at 6am-ish. I guess those 4-hour stretches are the "blessing" of a 9+lb baby! BUT those night of glory seem to be SO 2-weeks, because now that she is 3 weeks old, there has been a definite transition to wanting to eat every 2 hours, fussing after every feeding, hiccuping and wanting to "play" from about 11pm to 3am -- oh goodie!

- Visitors have been an amazing life-line! W has been home a lot -- only going into school for a couple of hours each day, but its SO nice to have other adults to talk to! I thought I would be someone who LOVES staying home, but in fact, im finding just the opposite! Hello, stir-crazy! In fact, last week I went into school with W for the day. Izzy did SO WELL being out of the house for 8 hours! We fed, slept and pooped on the go..thank GOD for the moby. It is my best friend!

- This past Sunday we had Izzy;s naming ceremony. W's family belongs to a VERY non-traditional (Humanist) Jewish congregation. Culturally the customs are important to her mom, who lost a lot of her family to the Holocaust, but politically they are ultra-liberal-hippies so the ceremony was more Quaker than anything else. We wrote and conducted the ceremony ourselves and it was very participatory with a few sing alongs (Child of Mine and one of our favorite Catie Curtis folk songs). My parents and other close family friends came into town, as did our donor and his parents. TONS of our local friends and colleagues were also there as we welcomed her into the community. It was really wonderful and moving -- and of course, I cried through the whole ceremony, so much so that W had to read some of my part.

- She is probably the luckiest little bug ever! So many people have come out of the woodwork to send her the cutest gifts. We like to dress her up in the cute, ur, sometimes ridiculous outfits and then pose her for photos.. I mean thats what having a baby is all about, right?

I am a flower:


I LOVE my Kimono from NYC!


I look ridiculous, but its SO soft...



Anyways, much more to say, but I can sense that she is waking-up so I better post this as I have no idea when Ill get back to my computer today.

Oh..and thank you all for your comments -- Pom -- the trick to the lighting seems to be to turn off the flash at all costs. We try to take photos in the morning when the natural light is best - but then again we only got the camera a few weeks ago and have no idea what we are doing, so it could all be beginners luck. And YES, Ruby..can we PLEASE meet up soon, I really want to meet Gray! I noticed that Megan just sent around the info from our class - yeah!