Still alive

I'm trying to convince my mom to write a guest blog entry. She has way more energy than I do.

Basically, my days are nursing, changing diapers, walking the baby when he cries, and talking with my parents while doing the above things. Alexander is still a doll. I'm still exhausted.

Honestly, that's all that's happened. I have tons of pictures from the naming ceremony last week as well as updated ones of the baby, but it seems like so much effort to download them to the computer, shrink them, upload them, and then post a link. Sorry. Maybe tomorrow.

Oh yes, and it's now autumn here. It's 53 degrees, which I thought wasn't bad. Apparently that means I've adapted to Ohio. My Israeli father and California mother, on the other hand, are wearing three layers indoors and drinking copious amounts of tea, so we caved and turned on the heat.

Osher's back!

He's still mad, but he came in.

And Jonathan is now the master of poopy diapers. :)

Very quick update

- My mom is here from CA and my dad from Israel. We're all exhausted, but it's a happy kind of exhaustion.

- The naming ceremony was held today. There was a really nice turnout, we felt like we had a great community. Thank you to everyone who came!

- Alexander went to the pediatrician yesterday. He's gained half a pound over his birthweight, and measures at 21 3/4 inches! We think the person who measured him at the hospital didn't stretch out his legs, because we know he didn't grow two inches in a week! I thought he was taller than 19 inches.

- Osher ran out of the house last night and hasn't come back, though we did spot him once in the backyard. We're worried he'll get hurt, he's never been outdoors for any extended period before (unlike Simcha, who was a stray). He's been very upset all week about the baby. I'm hopeful he'll come back soon.

- My home birth community put us on their meals calendar. Yay for free food!

Who knew that nursing, changing, and comforting a newborn could literally take ALL DAY? I have no idea what people do without help...

Introducing Alexander Merraro Loving!

Alexander was born at home on Tuesday, October 7, 2008 at 9:07am. He weighed 6lbs, 11oz and was 19” long. He has wavy dark brown hair, blond eyebrows, long, thin fingers and huge feet!

It was a short seven hour labor and Alexander entered the world calmly with his eyes open, alert, and looking around. He only cries when he’s hungry or uncomfortable. Other than that, Alexander is easy-going and good natured. He loves when any of us sing to him and adores being swaddled.

The birth was an amazing experience, and I'd do it again in a heartbeat. Jonathan and I are over the moon.

The life of a woman one week overdue

I'm actually not as much of an invalid as one would expect. My brain doesn't seem to be working very well, probably due to lack of sleep and hormones; but other than that, physically I'm not so bad. I'm just trying to relax, to take the extra time as a blessing and not be anxious. That, and to roll with the false labor pains. :P

Thursday I trekked out a whole fifteen minute drive to see Anne at her place, which is always fun. Friday a couple of friends from Boston were here for a conference, so they (Jamie, Brad, and their one-year old) came over to visit and spent a few hours at the house, and then Jeffrey came over for Shabbat dinner.

Yesterday Jonathan and I went to Half-Price Books to stock up on board books for the baby as well as books for me (I'm hoping I can read while nursing). I love that store - I got so many $1 books on the sale shelf, then I found out they were actually on clearance so were 50 cents! If you're not familiar with board books, they're small, with thick pages that babies can handle, turn over, and chew on. We got an assortment of educational ones that teach numbers, colors, shapes, the alphabet, etc. Then we went on a DATE, an actual date night to Olive Garden. Our first choice had been to the place Jessica and Michael recommended (Maggiano's Little Italy), but their wait was an hour and a half, and we were just too hungry!

Today's been easy, just reading and talking and relaxing. My mom is making pot roast for dinner! Having her here has been wonderful, and I'm sure will be even better once the baby's born. Not only does she cook, clean, and do laundry, it's so nice to just hang out and spend time together doing errands, going to the chiropractor, that sort of thing.

Oh, and speaking of relaxation and books, it's been a while since I've put out a few recommendations: first, I quite liked Tracey Chavalier's The Lady and the Unicorn. She wrote Girl with a Pearl Earring, and I got into this one much more, perhaps because each chapter is narrated by a different character. It's also set in the Middle Ages, which I'm more interested in than 16th century Holland. Patrick Taylor's An Irish Country Doctor is reminiscent of James Herriot's All Creatures Great and Small, except Taylor's character is a physician, not a vet. Other than that, they're about the same: city doctor goes to small town, learns about life caring for people. Christopher Paolini's Brisingr is fantasy, and is a very good sequel to the two other Eragon books. He's definitely learned to write better since his first novel at 15! Don't watch the movie "Eragon" though, it sucked and will turn you off the novels. (Note: I'm not a book-to-movie snob, I would never say that about the Harry Potter movies, or even the first movie they made of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy.)

So that's basically the plan this week... read more, eat yummy things, play cards with my mom, maybe watch Star Trek:TNG on DVD, and answer the phone multiple times a day to say "nope, still pregnant." All in all, Wiggly will come when he's ready, right? So I might as well take advantage of the time now before he's born.. because after, as Holly says, I won't even have time to shower.

Hmph

Just saw the midwife; she thinks it'll be next week or weekend, but definitely not this one.

Figures. I hope she's wrong.

So, an informal poll: of the parents who read this blog, how many of you (or your spouses) went to 41 or 42 weeks?

Pregnancy pics from last weekend

No baby yet.

Just in case you were wondering. :)

In the meantime, shanah tovah (happy new year)!