More leisure time with Nana

We had a luxurious 3 weeks with Len home from work but it is now back to cold, hard reality. Len eased into work by starting on Friday and then having the weekend again. Part of that weekend was spent giving Kate a manicure so she could stop shredding my chest by kneading it during every feeding. Apparently she finds spa treatments as relaxing as I do since she's yawning while Len is filing her nails...



Kate spends a lot of time resting on Nana--it's turning out to be a favorite afternoon napping location.


The weather has been relatively mild (in the 30s) so we wrap her up in the Moby and try to go for a walk everyday. I just pop a hat on her, wrap both of us up in my down parka and we're off. Here we are after our neighborhood walk.


We are due for about a foot of snow starting tonight and into Wednesday. Good thing we live in a place that can handle that amount of snow (unlike DC) because our next pediatrician appointment is Wednesday. Glad mom is here to help me as I have not had to load her into the car seat, load the car seat into the car without forgetting the diaper bag and then schlep all of that into the doctor's office by myself!

Does every new mom dread that first trip by themselves??

Nana's here!

Mom arrived on Wednesday much to Kate's (and our) delight. We've managed a few forays out of the house for lunch in Andersonville yesterday and to the grocery store this afternoon. Kate loves to be wrapped in the Moby for these walks and while I do some chores around the house. Enjoy some new photos...

Hungry Monkey

Good news from the pediatrician yesterday morning. Kate weighed 5 lbs, 11 oz! That's a 7 oz gain since Friday and finally puts her above her birth weight of 5 lbs, 6 oz.

He also clipped her frenulum which she slept through and I sweated through...in the waiting room. Len stayed with her and it turns out it really did hurt me more than it hurt her.

Her tongue was not extending far enough to make breast feeding either easy for her or comfortable for me...

can you say blanched nipples?

My lactation consultant, Peggy Healy, came over Saturday to weigh her after I fed her and she was only getting about 1/2 oz total from me even though I was pumping quite a bit more. Since the frenulum was clipped today she has eaten a lot better with much less consternation. And we haven't needed to use any formula!

So now that I've shared more about my nipples than you probably wanted to know, what say we move on to cuter, more adorable things, like new pictures of Kate!

She is growing!

Just since last week we can see a difference in her cheeks and body. Her back doesn't look so much like a Shar pei anymore. We try to do some photo opportunities after she finishes eating since that seems to be when she is most alert. She is 3 weeks old today...time flies.

Out of Nepal...

Well, with almost 2 years in the queue for a Nepal adoption, it is time for us to call it quits. With our newest addition to our family, the amount of time, money and more waiting we would have to do is an insurmountable obstacle. We have too many things going against us to continue. For one, Nepal has several rules for adoption that we cannot/don't meet anymore including:

1. You can only adopt a child of the opposite sex of the child you currently have. Since we requested a girl, we would need to change all of our paperwork to request a boy.

2. They also have a birth order rule that says the Nepali child cannot be older than the child already in your home.

of course, by the time they finally got around to actually sending out referrals again, that last rule might be a moot point as Kate would probably be in high school...sorry, I'm a bit bitter and jaded about this adoption-less journey

In addition to that, half of our paperwork has started to expire and the rest will expire by June. Even without Kate, this was our self-imposed deadline for getting out if we had not received a referral by the time our paperwork was due to be renewed. We just couldn't justify spending more money when we already had 2 years of waiting with nothing to show for it.

I have mixed emotions about how this journey has ended. On the one hand, I am unbelievably grateful that Kate is here, alive, breathing and eating and pooping and sleeping. I am also relieved to be off the Nepali roller-coaster of any day now, maybe next month, for sure in 4-6 weeks, after the festival season, etc. I will not miss that at all. On the other hand, I mourn for the child I held in my heart and in my dreams. She will be greatly missed.

And for those of you still waiting, especially the women I have been fortunate enough to share meals, stories, emails, and time with, I am hoping that Nepal will find its bearings and, more importantly, homes for the children who need them. I will still be following your journeys and will report the good news of your referrals when they happen.

So what about China you ask? The good news about China is that we don't have to do anything to stay in the queue until we are fairly close to getting a referral. At that point, we will re-evaluate our situation and decide whether we want to continue. Since we don't know if that will happen next year or another 3 years from now, we cannot say for sure what our decision will be.

For now, we are reveling in the tiny surprise that is Kate...and not forgetting for a moment how truly wonderful finally being a parent is.

Tummy time!

We are giving Kate a little tummy time each day after feeding. Notice that she turned her head from one side to the other--GO KATE!



She is starting to look at our faces more now and maintains eye contact for a little longer each time


Our doula, Nancy, came over yesterday. She's just a wonderful person and I'm so glad we had her with us for the delivery.


Feeding is exhausting for everybody...

Getting close to birth weight

Kate's checkup today revealed that she had gained another 2 1/2 ounces to put her at 5lbs, 4 1/2 oz. We go back next Tuesday for another weigh-in.

She had her first bath a few days ago after her umbilical cord had fallen off. Although she loved floating in the water, she wasn't real keen on having her hair washed the first time and she expressed her outrage by shrieking as loud as she could until I could get out of the tub, dry off and get her latched on for a feeding. By her second bath, she was better about the whole bathing thing but being handed off to Len for towel drying elicited quite a few outraged screams, followed by another quick exit out of the tub and more breastfeeding...I'm sensing a pattern...maybe I should just cut to the chase and feed her in the tub.


The good thing is that she does calm down rather quickly once she's given comfort, either with feeding or by holding her close. Really, she's been quite an easy baby thus far...