First day at church and other tales

We ventured out today for church—all three hours of it. I was exhausted by the time we got home, but it was nice to get out of the house and have somewhere to go. Besides, it was the Primary Presentation today and I didn’t want to miss that. (No, I didn’t walk; I got a ride).

Last time I had a baby I had to miss a big primary thing and I was bummed about it, so this time I decided to go, anyway. I didn’t help out or anything, just sat back and enjoyed the children’s songs and sweet testimonies. It was lovely.

I sneaked out during Sunday School to sit with Miriam in the backyard. It was sunny and she needs to sunbathe; besides no one expected me to be at church this soon, anyway, so skipping out on Sunday School was totally justified…and it was such a nice day. The sky was blue, the sun was shining, a light breeze was blowing big, fluffy clouds across the sky—in short, a perfect day.

I spread out Miriam’s blanket on the groundcover, stripped her down to her diaper, and let her sprawl out. She’s beautiful. I wished I had the camera.

And then? A butterfly started fluttering around her and perched on her back momentarily. It was the Kodak moment of all Kodak moments…I almost prayed for a camera to drop out of the sky but I figured that would be something Heavenly Father would just say no about so instead I just smiled at my sleeping baby and watched the butterfly flit off again.

After church, Rachel asked to hold baby Miriam. Miriam fell asleep on her lap (shocker!—where does Miriam not fall asleep?) and so Rachel pretended to be asleep, too. It was adorable. And this time I had the camera at hand.

Then we had lunchtime and naptime and it’s been pretty much a lazy day ever since. Just like every other day this week. I don’t know why I’m so exhausted—Miriam is a champion sleeper. She woke up at 3:00 AM and 6:00 AM. Of course I don’t seem to be able to go to bed before midnight; perhaps that’s my problem.

Truthfully, Rachel is still the exhausting one. The other night she was up screaming and crying until midnight and then she woke up at 5:00 AM doing the same thing. It took us over an hour to convince her to go back to bed and by that time it was almost time to get up again. Of course, we all ended up sleeping in royally since no one got up to demand breakfast. Except for Miriam, but she eats for fifteen minutes and then falls back asleep completely satisfied with life.

We’ve just been busy adjusting to being a family of four. We have a lot of talks about trying to be like Jesus to combat all the screaming fits given by a certain 2-year-old. We’ve also been taking a lot of pictures.

Rachel does, indeed, seem huge compared to Miriam. It’s funny to think that I thought she looked so small just a week ago and now she seems so gargantuan. I haven’t lifted her yet, really, although lap time is easier now that there’s nothing in my tummy. I have this fear of ripping out my stitches. Before we left the hospital Dr. Tarek warned me about caring for my stitches properly or I’d “open up like a book.” That didn’t sound fun, and I’ve been paranoid ever since. Andrew reminded me that my stitches held fine after Rachel was born…but back then I didn’t have a toddler climbing all over me.

I’m also paranoid about Miriam’s jaundice. It’s very slight, according to Dr. Omar. It’s physiologic jaundice, which any baby can get, as opposed to pathologic jaundice, which usually involves something more like incompatible blood types between mother and baby, so it should clear up on its own soon, with enough sunshine.

Dr. Omar said that when he was practicing in England they’d give the mother vitamin D or give the baby vitamin D shots to help clear things up.

“But here in Egypt we have the best source of vitamin D—the sun! So just take her outside…” he said.

Then it rained the day we brought her home from the hospital and it’s been uncommonly overcast and rainy ever since. I was so happy for a bright, sunshiny morning today!

And for those of you wishing for a comparison shot of Rachel and Miriam, here’s Rachel at four days old and Miriam at three days old:

They do look pretty similar, I think. You have no idea how long I worked to get an open-eye shot of Miriam…no idea.

And because I know the general public is picture-starved, here are some photos of the last few days…even more can be found on facebook.

Rachel has to have her own spot on the floor, right next to Miriam. It’s much safer this way, so I don’t mind.
 

I have to tickle Miriam to get her to wake up to eat. She’s such a sleepy baby! And doesn’t like getting undressed and tickled just to eat, but it’s necessary.

She smiles a lot in her sleep—and not gassy smiles, either. They’re angelic smiles. This was just a little one but sometimes she does big, open mouthed grins of complete rapture…usually after she finishes feeding. She likes her milk (not enough to wake up for it, but she still enjoys it).

Sometimes she even wakes up. Usually when she wakes up she roots around and tries to latch onto whatever is closest: her arm in this case. She spends so much time sleeping that when she wakes up I sometimes feel like I have to tell her how long she’s been alive, just in case she can’t remember. She surprised me by tracking things—she’ll watch us walk across the room and she’ll follow my finger. I didn’t know that your eyesight could develop on track while sleeping for so many hours a day. I thought you actually had to use your eyes. But I’ve been wrong before…

She’s constantly wrapped up with whatever Rachel has decided are her favorites for the moment. This time, it was a toy caterpillar and Baby Nora. Rachel loves making observations about Miriam and trying to guess what she’s saying. My favorite was when Miriam opened her mouth for a big yawn and Rachel exclaimed, “Uh-oh! Nothing teeth in there!”

Miriam loves to snuggle in the mornings. After her 5 or 6 AM feeding she’ll just snuggle, snuggle, snuggle until 9 or 10 AM. It’s so nice to have Grandma here; she’ll get up with Rachel at 8:00 and they’ll play and play and play and let me stay in bed with Miriam.

But sometimes Rachel wants to join in on the snuggling, too…

I think that’s the end of my brain-dump now. It’s probably all you’ll get for the next little while…if it’s hard for you to follow, you should try fishing the thoughts out of my brain—it’s completely scrambled. I’ve moved right from pregnancy brain and onto baby brain. One day I’ll feel on top of things again, I’m sure.