Broken Comments

To you wonderful people who tried to comment on my last post, Mom Powers, Activate!:

The default comment section was broken. While it let you post your comment, the post never took and the comment was lost. I'm trying to figure out how to find those comments, but it looks like the may be gone forever. My apologies to you wonderful people who spent time and worked to give advice on this sensitive topic.  I am grateful for your willingness to share.  I'm new to blogging and didn't realize the flaw until a few of my friends/family asked me if Katie had seen what they posted.

I've replaced the default comments with disqus, which has a pretty good reputation in the blogging community. Comments should work without hassle from now on. If you're willing to repost what you wrote, your help will still be greatly appreciated. I feel bad for not realizing it was broken before asking for you to comment. Sorry again for the trouble!  

I think it's broken...

If a few of you could leave a brief comment on this page, just to make sure it's working, it would be greatly appreciated.

Mom powers, activate!

Our little girl seems to be getting more and more used to life outside the womb.  Feedings are still really rough on mommy, but she is the champion of her pain and I couldn't be more proud of her.  The help of God and her family has been precious to me.  I am so proud of her!

My heart goes out to her in her pain.  To me the experience is reminiscent of her labor in that I am fairly useless except as an emotional prop.  I wish I could do so much more.  We've been doing some research online and have found a few helpful tips for getting a proper latch and reducing pain, so it seems like there is light at the end of the tunnel.  Unfortunately, we still have to travel the tunnel.  To you mom's who are reading this, do you have any tips?  Any help will be welcome. 

I mentioned in my last blog post that there was a chance for getting a decent amount of sleep due to the cluster feeding yesterday, and that hope was realized!  I got enough sleep to feel rested today and put that extra energy and awareness into nesting.  Our bedroom is now completely clean and all of our baby stuff is unpacked and organized.  It's a nice feeling to know where everything is and to be ready to meet my baby's needs. 

Lydia and I had some nice snuggles today.  Skin to skin contact is intensely fulfilling.  As wonky as this will sound, I almost feel like I can see our bond growing from it.  I love my little girl.  I love her facial expressions!  She is full of wonderment at her world and I count it as a blessing to help prepare her to experience it.  

On a slightly funny note, I feel like I am becoming more like a baby.  I'm being more vocal with my aches/pains/efforts/feelings, but instead of words it often is expressed in noises not unlike the ones my daughter frequently makes (except an octave or two lower, depending on the noise.  I'm not that much of a tenor!)  I've heard it said that you're an amalgamation of the 5 people you spend the most time with.  With how close the surface my emotions have been lately, and with the baby-like noises mentioned above, I think there may be some validity to the saying.  

Silly daddy didn't take any pictures today and Lydia is already asleep.  I'll try to remember this and take more pictures tomorrow.  

As an aside, it is one of Lydia's namesake's birthday today.  My Grandmother, Joy Layton, is 77 today.  She fell in the shower a few days ago and seems to have suffered a mini-stroke as a result.  Joy doesn't get to meet Lydia Joy until December when we fly out for Christmas.  With this in mind, please send some prayers her way.  I would love few things more than to see Lydia held by her Great Grandma.  

Since I didn't get any pictures of Lydia today, have a picture of snuggling kitties instead.

Day 4

The reduction in my hours slept is beginning to catch up to me.  Please forgive the inevitable terrible grammar in this post.  

Parenting is craziness!  It's wonderful craziness, but it's craziness.  I have so much respect for my sweet wife right now!  She is committed to breastfeeding our child for various really good reasons that I'll avoid soap boxing on for now.  This commitment is really stretching her as a few bad latches on day one really wrecked things for her, and today Lydia decided to cluster feed like crazy.  It's barely an exaggeration to say that Lydia wanted to feed on the hour every hour she was awake today.  My poor wife is in a lot of pain, but pushing through it for the sake of our baby and sticking to her goal, and I couldn't be more proud of her for her efforts and dedication.  

As we lay in bed in preparation for a bit of sleep Katie has been pinky jacked.  Her situation is not unlike a pin in a baby grenade.  Lydia fell asleep sucking on Katie's pinky, and she doesn't dare remove her pinky for fear of waking the baby.  It's quite the predicament, especially considering the paragraph above. 

We're hoping that with all of the cluster feeding during the day that we'll be able to get a bit more sleep than usual tonight.  I don't dare put much stock in that hope, but hey, you only live once, right?

I love my little girl!!  I love her so much!  There was a moment today after we stopped by the pediatrician's office to check her bilirubin level where Katie and I were just beaming from the joy of being parents to our little girl.  It was one of those moments you turn on the video recorder in your mind in order to preserve the memory for later times when things are hard. We are blissfully happy with our little girl.  

Sadly, bliss cannot be substituted for sleep.  It makes the lack of sleep more bearable, but is a poor replacement.  On this note, I'm going to take advantage of the fact that my baby is sleeping.  

Whoa!  There is thunder outside.  I hope it doesn't scare her.  Hold on to your hats folks, it's time for Lydia's first thunderstorm! 

Picture Time!

Not as many pictures today as usual.  Daddy was a little preoccupied with trying to stay conscious.

Lydia getting ready for bed tonight

A sophisticated lady sucks on her hand with the pinky extended.

Lydia's first day home

She's home! 

Life with Lydia just became a lot more exciting!  

She seems to be acclimating well to her new environment, and her family sure loves having her here.  She's been held and played with and cooed at by everyone in the house and seems to love the attention. 

She continues to be a mild mannered child, only crying when she needs a diaper change, needs fed, or needs to see the world.  She is such an alert and curious child!  Lydia very much wants to look around at her surroundings and at the faces of the people around her.  Being buried in someones shoulder just doesn't cut it, there must be visual exploration!

Our transition from the hospital to home was fairly smooth.  It felt a little weird to be re-entering real life. Thankfully, for the next month or so real life consists only of taking care of Lydia and Katie.  Lydia picked the perfect time to arrive.  I am grateful that we have this time to bond and be together before I return to work in the fall.  I can imagine trying to father a newborn in the middle of a college semester, and I greatly prefer the way things worked out for us.

Being a father is a special set of experiences.  My emotions are much closer to the surface than I'm used to. For example, the hospital photographer visited us and took a few pictures of Lydia and the family.  Shortly thereafter she showed us a slideshow of the best pictures from the shoot and just seeing the picture below brought me to tears.

Forgive the watermarks, We haven't picked what package to purchase yet.

If you want to see the rest of the professional pictures, click here

I have been so filled with love for our new baby, and so proud of my wife for her efforts in mothering our child.  Even dealing with a fair dose of sleep deprivation, life is brighter and more fulfilling than before, and I frequently find myself reflecting on my relationship with Lydia and my relationship with God.  It's weird to think that she's only been here for 3 days.  I wonder what life will be like further down this road.  I can't help but look forward to it if it's anything like it has been.

Picture Dump!

Laying in mommy's lap

Beautiful Momma!

She loves her lil' one

I love pictures with both of my loves together

My little monkey princess

I LOVE these little toes!!  Precious feet!!

Rockin' a mohawk!

Momma's heart melting smile

I don't think she liked the flash

Grandma and Grandpa came to play

Surrounded by love

These pics are pretty precious to me

I am touched by how much her family loves her

One on one time with Grandma!

Grandpa is pretty enamoured with her

We got a really nice pic of her looking at me and smiling, and I accidentally saved this one instead.  It's still a nice pic though

If you made it this far, here is a video of Lydia and I in the backyard.  Careful, I'm a little sleep deprived.

The Story Thus Far

Once upon a time there was a couple who loved each other very much.

They married and started a wonderful life together.

(Katie loves kitties.

Can you tell?)

Strangely, they photographed what they ate more than they photographed their life.

(At least it was yummy looking food.)

Then, on one eventful day, this changed.

The change started slowly.

(This is the first time our mommy-to-be saw her baby.

Have you ever seen a more beautiful sparkle?)

A bump selfie here, a selfie there, and a labor shot.

Then, on yet another fateful day, the trickle became a flood.

 The stork brought us a baby!!!

 (Stork deliveries are really taxing on mommies.)

No longer would they take pictures of food.

They would take pictures of Lydia!

And pictures with Lydia!

And so this blog was made--

For the prettiest little baby this new Dad has ever seen.