You don't write me blog posts.... you don't sing me love songs...

Well, I'm back! I do apologize for my extended absence, friends. I have a 6 week old baby and basically I'm a walking movable feast, acting as her 24-hour buffet, and being food can sap the sarcastic energy on which this blog thrives right out of a person.

Speaking of Elise, love love love that girl. She's hilarious and way cute. Right before she cries she does this tiny little kitten cough thing. So it's *kitten cough**kitten cough*... WAHHHH. Really cute.

In recent weeks the sleep schedule has compromised my sanity. As in, I would either get 3 hours of sleep in a 24 hour period (famine), or 6 or 7 (feast). She's doing better now (fingers crossed) but I will never take sleep for granted ever ever again.

That said, the shorty and I have pretty much confined ourselves to the house so far. The reason for this is twofold. First, she hasn't had her vaccines yet, and second, going anywhere with a tiny baby is such a huge production with all the stuff I have to bring that it's usually easier to stay home and have Gavin do my bidding. However, I'm finally getting antsy. So today we decided we were going to go out and do stuff. I love to do stuff with Elise, because people will almost always compliment me on how cute she is. It's a nice golden parachute from the attention I got as a preg, when everyone opened doors for me all the time. See how I only remember the good stuff? That is so typical me.

Anyhoo, we went two places today: Toys R Us to get a Baby Bjorn baby carrier thing and WalMart to do our grocery shopping.

First stop, Toys R Us. I walk in with Elise and immediately everyone in the store starts ooing and ahhing over her in her cute little pink outfit and hat and her big blue eyes, etc. Appropriate. As expected. Thank you, thank you.

Next stop, WalMart. Elise is really bringing it, because she's hanging out (quite literally) in her new carrier on my chest and looking all around with aforementioned big blue eyes and I could barely keep my eyes off her myself in all her glorious cuteness.

It wasn't our usual WalMart, but when you go anywhere with my particular shorty, you're basically on borrowed time until she has a meltdown, so I went to the one closest to Toys R Us, which also happens to be the one filled with the surliest group of folks in Tallahassee. No one said anything to me about how awesome my baby is except one nice old couple. WTF. I was so confused. I won't tell Elise about this. She loved WalMart, by the way. I think it was all the colorful packaging and socioeconomic mingling that kept her so rapt.

Anyway, here are some pics of her for your viewing amusement. She's so way cuter than the baby panda in San Diego that is trying to steal her glory.

Going to visit Daddy at work. She prefers warm weather clothes. Actually, she prefers to be naked. But it's like 20 degrees right now, so I have to bundle her up. As you can see, she loves that.

Pensive. Vaguely amused.

Watching the crackling fire. Planning world domination.

Displaying annoyance with the paparazzi.

See you soon!

She's here!

Wow, well I have so much to tell you! First of all, check out my baby's cuteness. I cannot even tell you how obsessed with her I am. I could stare at her all the time. She is actually a really good baby, too. Even when she fusses, I can almost always calm her down by sticking my boob in her face. She is a total chow hound.

Anyway, on to the birth story... on Sunday night (Nov. 22), we checked into the hospital so that I could get the cervidil to help dilate my cervix. Well, it worked! The next morning I was between 2 and 3 cm dilated, and I was having contractions. At this point I said, "I would like my epidural now, please." And I got it. I could still feel a lot "down there" but it helped enough with my contractions that I was pretty satisfied, and it turned out that because I had some feeling in certain lady parts, I was able to participate more in the pushing process.

Anyway, so after the epidural, we waited for me to continue dilating. I had more contractions, and as they got stronger, I felt a lot of pressure, and my sweet husby helped me breathe through them, just like we learned in class. My sister Nikki was also there helping coach us through them by reading the monitor and telling us when to start and stop the breathing to get the most benefit. Having her there after she had the benefit of going through 2 births of her own was really valuable to us. Once we got to 10 cm and I started pushing, our other family members retreated to the waiting room and Nikki and Gavin stuck with me, one on either side, for the duration. Nikki counted off my pushing and coached me through how to push, which isn't as instinctive as you might think. Big huge props to Nikki. It was surreal scary at this point, knowing that this was it.

Anyway, I pushed and pushed and pushed for a few hours, but the baby just wasn't moving enough. My doctor let me tough it out for a while but then told me that unless we could get her to move within the next few contractions, she wasn't going to move, and we were going to have to have a c-section. After going through all of that and exhausting myself with pushing, the last thing I wanted was to have to call it a day and go to the OR, so I gave it everything I had. The doctor also used a vacuum extractor and together we popped her out! It was the most amazing thing to see her for the first time! Here are some pics!

Bouncing on the yoga ball with Daddy (this really soothes her).

First baby-tub bath! We thought she would hate this but she actually liked it. We think she is going to be either an Olympic swimmer or a regular bather. We will take either.

In her swing! She LOVES this thing and will stay in there for hours between feedings. It is probably the most used item we own at the moment. Yayyy swing!

So that's our birth story! Every day is turning out to be an adventure when we learn something new about Elise. She is so funny and cute, no matter what, and we will basically do anything and everything to make her happy. She rules our house with little tiny pink-mittened iron fists of fury. More pics and posts to come about her, no doubt.

BIG props to my parents for staying with us since the birth and helping us get a handle on this parenting thing and special props to my mom for helping me get my breastfeeding established with all her experience and advice. Finally, thanks to everyone else for all the well wishes and support over this past week and two days! We did it, team!