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• We went to the Tolkien celebration at the Kennedy school. I'll have to go again sometime and dress Geneveve as an elf or goblin :-) #
• Stumbled on blues at acme donuts #
• Now I'm giving kim a break and hanging out with geneveve at omsi #
• Went to the zoo today. It was a free day so a bit overcrowded, but the zoo is always fun anyway. Elephants were favorite of the day. #

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• First Bikram yoga class tonight was easier than expected. Mostly just felt good to finally get some exercise since the baby's been born. #
• Can't sleep after the bikram yoga class. I think I'm going to be really sore tomorrow. #

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• I'm back from #puppetcamp and well rested. Talking puppet all day for 2 days is tiring, but not as much as babies' sleep schedules. #
• Visited a pumpkin patch on Sauvie Island: corn maze, carmel apples, roasted corn and pumpkins. And the weather was nice! #

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• Geneveve has begun smiling this week and I finally got some pictures. Smiling makes up for a lot. http://bit.ly/9Eslt3 #

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Where do babies sleep?

Things I don’t know about newborns could fill a book, and indeed, it has filled many. I even read through a quite a few of them before the birth, but there’s a lot of information that just didn’t strike me as important during pregnancy. However, once the baby arrives, there’s a lot of questions about what’s normal and why the baby does things.

• One of my favorite things in the first few days was the Moro reflex. You know that feeling you get when you’re falling asleep and you feel like you’re really falling and startle yourself awake? Babies get that all the time, and it causes them to throw their arms and legs out with an “oh crap!” look on their face.
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  Body hair – Neither Kim nor I are very hairy people, but Geneveve was born with fine hair on her shoulders called lanugo. Weird

• Breastfeeding can be really, really hard – and I’m not even the one doing it. I swear all you read about before birth is how great breastfeeding is. How did I gloss over all the difficulties that can arise?
• Cloth diapering is easy. I thought changing diapers would be difficult. Somehow it’s just not. It sounds way harder than it is. We had disposables in the birth center the first few days, and they’re only marginally easier than cloth. I can’t believe people would spend so much money on something that produces so much disgusting trash when cloth is so easy
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  Sleep really is hard. I heard it probably more than anything else: sleep while you can. Hearing about it doesn’t prepare you for it. I did all nighters in college, but that really doesn’t compare to a baby keeping you up for most of the first few weeks.

• Babies don’t smile for a long time. The first few weeks anyway. They really should, because once they do, it makes up for a LOT
• Sleep sounds. I wasn’t sure the baby slept the first few days because she made little squeaks the whole time she slept.
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  Some bars don’t allow babies. One of our first outings we wanted happy hour nachos from the Night Light. We thought nobody would care about a baby, especially if we sat outdoors. Worked for the dog. What I’ve gathered is that some bars allow babies at certain times or certain areas. So far we’ve had success with the Lucky Lab before 9pm and Hopworks in the restaurant area.

• Bouncing – babies frickin love it. I never heard of my vestibular system before looking into why they love bouncing

These are just a few of the wonders you discover about babies only by experiencing them. Some things are fun to discover, some not so much. There’s more new discoveries happening per day in my life with this baby then has happened in quite some time. It certainly helps me understand the lives of parents better than I ever did before. Thanks parents. It’s hard work.

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• Last night was the first nearly sleepless night. I think it was caused by going too long between feedings during the day. But who knows. #
• Up for the first, big, late night cry. It was quelled much more quickly than last night though. Hopefully that pattern continues tonight. #
• Geneveve's umbilical cord fell off today. She's got a belly button! #

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• We went swimming twice this weekend at the Clackamas River. It was sooo nice to get out of the heat. No baby yet… #
• First of the late night feedings is now past. Sleeping now hopefully. #
• Day 2 with the new baby is better rested than day 1. We'll be going home tonight after dinner. #
• Kim's getting a massage right now while I watch the baby. I'm jealous, but I didn't work nearly as hard as she did. #

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Born at approximately 10pm, Wednesday August 18th, weighing 6 pounds 15 ounces (3.15kg), we’re proud to announce our daughter: Geneveve Robinson. It’s a variation of the spelling for Genevieve (I like having just one vowel to remember even if every ‘e’ is actually a different sound, yay English), Eve for short, and a name Kim’s had picked out forever. We haven’t decided on a middle name for sure yet. Amazingly, she was born on her due date, at least according to the estimate based on Kim’s last period. The ultrasound estimated the 16th, so either way it was really close.

The birth was a great experience at Andaluz Water Birth Center. Contractions started at 4am, we went to the birth center at 8am when the contractions had been 4 minutes apart for about an hour, and Geneveve arrived at 10pm. 18 hours in total, which from what I can tell is kind of average (it’s hard to find good statistics that include early labor since it can vary so much). It was an intense, long day, but we had awesome midwives, Dana and Monica, to help us through everything. Kim labored in just about every place and position possible, and ended up delivering Geneveve in the big tub. I caught the baby and handed her to Kim to hold.

There was still a lot to do after the delivery that ended keeping us awake until close to 2AM, so we’re tired and resting today. We had to get out of the tub, do all the momma and baby health exams, deliver the placenta, weigh and measure the baby, get a quick tutorial in breastfeeding, clean up the room (thankfully the midwives did all that beautifully), and what seemed close to the most important thing to me by that time, eat. I was exhausted and famished by the time it was all done, so I can only imagine how Kim felt. We had some sandwiches and a bit of Thai food that had been waiting for us for a few hours, and finally fell into a fitful sleep with the new baby.

Geneveve is doing great, sleeping a lot, only crying so far right after birth and when her diaper needs changing, waving her arms around like a symphony conductor, cooing and gurgling, and sucking on everything you give her with mucho gusto. I accidentally let her too close to my nipple at one point while I was asleep with her on my chest, and I’ll remember not to do that again. Kim’s also doing great, but very tired and still catching up on sleep. Hopefully the upcoming massage will help her get the aches out for some good sleep. Today is all about resting and being taken care of, which is awesome. All our food is ordered in for us, and there’s great ladies available 24/7 for postpartum care, advice, and whatever else we need.

I’m really excited to have a daughter and can’t wait to introduce you to her.

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• I feel like my life is on hold while waiting for the baby to come. It's a little like waiting for Christmas as a kid. #
• Kim and I went to Laurelthirst pub to see bluegrass for dinner. Fun times every Tuesday night. #

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• Just caught a rat that's been living under our dishwasher and counters the last couple days. Now it's time to bleach everything. Yuck. #

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