Blueberries for a Blueberry Girl

This past weekend we enjoyed a visit from the Dumont Crew - D, Mr. Mustard - and Emma!  Our big outing for the weekend was a trip out to Grindstone Farm to get our hands on some of the last of the blueberries.  The past 2 years Jess and I have enjoyed stuffing our freezer full of summer berries - always enough to last us into the following spring!  It seems as though Baby may put a bit of a cramp on that tradition - but we've started a new one!  Being a trio we may not pick the same poundage, but it's a lot more fun with our Blueberry Girl in tow! 

It was a perfect day (for me) for heading up to the farm: not too warm, a bit overcast, slight breeze  :)  I haven't hopped into Grindstone's pond yet, but Emma, Jess, and D all braved a higher-than-it-looks-from-the-ground platform to whiz down the zip line and into the water.  No zip lines for me quite yet, but Eddy B and I enjoyed the picking and the eating and the snuggling by the water's edge. 

Later that night, Emma took charge of the kitchen and treated us all to homemade margarita pizza and a 3-berry crisp for dessert!

It was a nice weekend - an active, go-get'um Saturday and then a laaazy rainy Sunday.  Somewhere in there we also made berry frozen (Greek) yogurt with bits of chocolate and almonds, Emma and Jess whipped up a succulent loaf of cinnamon raisin bread (we can't get enough of that stuff!), and the boys put together our "pub table" out on the sun porch.  It's quite a bit taller than we expected, but we wanted it to be tall so we could survey from above the gloriousness that is our backyard while sippin on coffee and hanging with EB.

I'm going to include some pix here of Grandpa Goodglass and Edylene that weren't in the last post - also some of the Grindstone pix are courtesy of D's Iphone :)   

Becoming a Stay-at-Home-Mom

This post marks Edylene reaching the ripe old age of 3 weeks and 2 days.  It is also the day before I had been planning on going back to school for the Fall semester.  Three weeks and change since popping out this little one and already heading back into the madness of grad school - granted it was going to be part time (only 3 classes), but pretty quickly upon returning home from the hospital I began to have anxiety over jumping back into my studies.  I'd been in contact with a few of my professors at school over the past few weeks and a couple days ago Jess and I decided that I would take the plunge into Stay-At-Home-Momdom (!) for the next year.

It's a big decision for me.  Once I'd decided to go back part-time, I had assumed that would be enough of a break for me - keeping school chugging along (and extending it by about 6 months) while presumably maintaining my sanity.  However, as we've said before, "We had no idea" or rather "I had no idea."  I'm sure this is common with first time mothers but there was definitely some kind of disconnect between how I thought the first post-partum weeks would play out and how they actually DID play out :)  I was also naive enough to think that Edylene was actually going to come EARLY - placing the fanciful idea in my head that she would be more like 6 weeks old when I returned to school.  Silly rabbit.

I'm still a bit awestruck that the next year will be - for the majority - Mommy and Baby time.  I got a brief twinge of some kind of feeling walking through campus on Friday to drop off my Leave of Absence forms - but I know deep down that this is the best decision for all three of us.  I'm free to get to know Eddy B, get to know her cycles and rhythms, be there for daily, weekly, monthly (!) milestones - and luckily, I can draw from the wisdom of several stay-at-home-moms whose kids seemed to have turned out alright ;)  Jesse will be pursuing National Board Certification this year (ie LOTS of extra work on top of full time teaching) and it will be easier for him to do that while Edylene is still (relatively) immobile and I can step up to take on many of the domestic responsibilities previously allotted to his sphere (though I maintain I still will NOT be doing the vacuuming).  This will also save us a bit this year on day care and in the end, we'll only be postponing my graduation for 6 months beyond what we had already planned if I had gone back part-time.  In the grand scheme of things, it seems we'll be getting a lot of benefit for a small delay in my entering the work force - Jesse WILL however, have to get a new calendar with which to count down to that happy day ;)

So, that's the latest news on our end.  Edylene is healthy and growing (up to 10 lbs already!!) - I'll do another post tomorrow about our lovely weekend with D and Emma - in the meantime, enjoy the onesie montage . . .       

19 Days Old

Somehow this post got deleted the first time around - oops!  Amazing that we are at 2 1/2 weeks - Jess and I were just looking at photos of Eddy B when she was only a few hours old and she already looks so different!  It's partly due to the fact that she's gained over 2 lbs since being discharged from the hospital - as Grandpa Steeves would say, "She likes her grocceries!"  It is a comfort to know that at least she is eating well :) 

Every day gets a little better: Edylene seems to be sleeping a little longer at night (though her post-feeding need to "fart it out" does keep us up for extended periods of time) and I'm getting more comfortable in my handling and maneuvering of a squirmy little body (damn you "Baby Hands Steeves"!).  Our walks are getting longer as well - Grandma Lo and I figured out how to cut a "moby-like" wrap from some cotton jersey fabric and I've been practicing getting Miss Eddy B in and out of it on a few walks around the neighborhood.  We've also been out and about in the stroller - she really seems to like the bumpy Syracuse sidewalks!

The last week or so has also brought a continuing parade of visitors - friends and family :)  Auntie Lauren got to come up and meet her niece - they had fun together bouncing, napping, and even changing a few diapers!  We had Grandma Woodford and then Grandpa Goodglass come up as well - cuddle time was had by all.  Jess and I even had our first dinner out sans baby (at Alto Cinco's of course!) with Lauren while Eddy B hung out with G.W. at home.  It was only a few block down the street and I only had the energy to sit like a blob, eat my DELICIOUS Monterray Quesadilla (cheese, cilantro pesto, roasted red peppers!), and enjoy a few sips of a good dark stout - but it was a few hours "out" nonetheless!

Next came the Smithie Aunties!  They hailed from D.C., Boston, and Scotland!  Weelll Brainy didn't come DIRECT from Scotland but it's fun to say . . . DMost, Brainy, and Jen trekked up to the 'Cuse for some quality time with the GoodSteeves baby :)  One of the highlights of their stay was a trip over to Green Lakes Park for a walk around Round Lake.  I carried Edylene in  her wrap and Jess and the ladies carried the rest of our stuff (ie water bottles, diaper bag, backpack, snacks).  It was the longest walk I had been on since she was born.  It was a great walk but it definitely wore me out for the rest of the evening (and into the next day!).  I'm not quite up to walking Green Lakes every day but as our first major outing with Baby in tow, it was a success!  I was even able to discretely nurse at the end of our walk.  We can't wait til Eddy B is a little older and we can hike around with her more and get her in the water - Green Lakes has quite a nice beach - lots of families, a couple playgrounds, sand, snack bar, the lakes . . . .

So, we are still here, taking one day at a time, trying to take the time to enjoy these early weeks and push aside the desire for her to skip to the part where she gets head control, sleeps through the night, and learns to 2-putt with Daddy.  We hear that that stuff will come soon enough :) 

A Video for your entertainment...

Just a quick video of Eddy B for you all while Caitlin finishes off a post she's been working on (and keeps getting distracted from). She's a precious one - enjoy!

Edylene Bennet Goodglass

I am taking advantage of a sleepy beautiful baby and the fact that I was able to shower this morning and feel like a somewhat normal person in order to say "Hello!" from the House at Fellows.  What an experience the past 10 days have been.  As much as you try to prepare for parenthood (!) over the 9 or so months of pregnancy, there is NO WAY (cliche though it may sound) to fully ready yourself for the extravaganza surrounding birth and those first days/weeks back at home.  Our catchphrase for pretty much everything that went on from packing for the hospital, going through all the stages of labor (no, you do not magically arrive at "10 cm dilated!" and then give a few quick pushes like they show in the movies), to the roles played by the amazing Birth Place nurses and doctors, to the PHYSICAL let alone emotional toll of giving birth (for both Jesse and I) was "WE HAD NO IDEA."  As in, (in the words of Momma Woodford) "You don't know what you don't know."  So, without further ado, our Birth Story . . .minus a few of the more graphic details ;)

We checked into Labor and Delivery on Thursday July 29th and 4pm to begin the induction process.  We decided along with our baby doctor (Dr "Mac") that Miss Eddy B had cooked for a bit too long, gotten a bit too cozy inside the womb.  Her last ultrasound had measured her at 8 lbs 12 oz and even though these things can be off by up to 1.5 lbs in either direction (that's a 3 pound spread!), if we waited another full week before inducing we'd have to get another ultrasound, and if she ended up showing up as a 10 lbs baby, then we'd end up having to go the C-section route automatically. I'm sure different hospitals/physicians have different policies about when is too soon/too late to induce, how big is too big - this was the dealyo for our situation. 

Two doses of a "cervical ripener" (ok, I guess we're getting a LITTLE graphic here!) got my contractions going around 11:00pm or so - strong enough that I had to abandon any hope of getting any rest that night.  And so began the long journey on the way towards getting me to "10 cm dilated, fully effaced" before we could even start the pushing part of getting Edylene out into the world!  On this journey, I labored in a bed, I labored in a tub, I labored on my back, on a ball, on my side, in the hall!  Ok, enough Seussical rhyming . . . through it all Jesse was there, holding my hand, breathing with me, patient and encouraging.  We found that one of the best positions for me was with my arms around  his neck, the two of us rocking back and forth like a very painful, very sweet little slow dance.  By 6am I was at 9.5 cm!  We thought the end was near!  Even Dr Mac thought we'd have a baby born in the next hour . . . .fast forward to 11:30am - I was STILL at 9.5 cm even after 5 1/2 hours of contractions and a round of Pitocin!  We were exhausted and the news that we had made zippo progress was very discouraging - it was time to call in the reinforcements in the form of Momma Lo!  As our "back up" labor coach, Mom had come up to the house the night before and when she got the SOS from Jesse at 11:30, she hustled over to the Birth Place.  Having a Mama in the room must have done the trick because Jesse  only got a 15 minute break before it was time to actually start pushing! 

So here is the part where I naively thought that once I started pushing, she'd be out in a few minutes - an hour tops.  At 1.5 hours I was negotiating with Dr Mac to keep going only to 2 hours.  At 2 1/2 hours, I was calling for the surgeon!  But we were so close for so long that even the C-section guy didn't want me to give up.  The last hour was a blur of 2 steps forward, one step back; a roomful of nurses, residents, support people (did I mention that modesty had flown out the window about 15 hours previously??); my body going through contortions I didn't know I could do and tapping into energy reserves I didn't know I had.  Finally, FINALLY at 3:45pm on Friday July 30, 2010, Miss Edylene Bennet Goodglass popped (literally) her head into the world.  About 2 seconds later the rest of her came out too and in a moment she was crying and resting on my chest and Jesse and I had our hands on her, for the first time putting a face to whoever had been inside me for the past 9 months - it was bewildering for her to so suddenly be present and on the scene :) She weighed 7 lbs, 9 oz and measured 20 1/2 inches.  She had decided to come out the hard way, in a "posterior" position which put the widest part of her head through one of the smaller parts of my pelvis - way to give your Mama a work out, Kid!

Throughout the birthing process and our post-partum care, the nurses and physicians at St Jo's - BOTH Labor and Delivery and the Birth Place - were amazing.  They bent over backwards to make us as comfortable as possible, gave us much needed rest our first two nights with Edylene, and packed as many mom, dad, and baby teaching points into our brief stay as possible!  We owe them all a big basket of Morning Glory muffins . . .

Bottom line, all three of us are home, happy, and healthy.  We are also exhausted, hormonal, and slugging it through a steep learning curve.  Every day gets a little better, a little less mystifying, a little more natural.  The whole "sleep when the baby sleeps" only seems to apply if you don't plan on eating, getting dressed, or peeing yourself!  With me physically and emotionally out of commission this past week or so, Jesse has been the ambassador for the House at Fellows: taking calls from relatives, relaying news to the neighbors, not to mention doing all the driving, cooking, laundry, and general house maintenance (not to mention more than his fair share of diapers and baby-crisis-management) while I've been a hermit - it was a big step to leave our bear cave of a bedroom just to get downstairs to the couch for Netflix the other night!

Also bringing a sense of sanity to the past week or so has been the parade of support people - big big thanks to Grandparents Steeves and Woodfords and Auntie Nally for a bounty of food, house cleaning, baby rocking, and loads of love and encouragement.  We love you guys!  All three of us are so lucky to have you all (that means you, dear Readers) in our lives.

Well that's it for now.  This post marks the first of many MANY that will star Miss Eddy B.  We can't wait to share pictures, stories, frustrations and triumphs (who knew we'd be cheering at the sight of a poop-filled diaper!?!).


Love, love, love - Caitlin, Jesse, and Edylene