WEEK ONE
July 26 - Aug 2
Birth stats:
7/26/13 6:19pm
weight 8lbs 4oz
height 20.4"
Click for Birth Story - TBW (to be written...eventually)
Holy Moly! You're here! You're a girl! You're adorable and we love you!
Hello there, little girl.
(nicknames: birdie (me), bug (your dad), BG (baby girl - your grandpa lewis))
Even at 8lbs+, you started out your life in premie diapers which were the smallest things, ever. You had a teeny waist and like no butt! There was a small issue with you losing 10% of your birth weight pretty quickly due to my body not kicking into your needs right away so we had to supplement with some premixed formula and supplemental tube feeding*, but by the end of your first week, we had things under control and you gained enough weight to quickly move into a Newborn diaper size.
*formula in syringe attached to a thing rubber tubing that was slipped into your mouth as you nursed.
The nurses were very fond of you and kept talking about how beautiful you were. While they disputed my claims that they must say this to every patient, we happened to agree proudly and wholeheartedly. I couldn't stop staring at all of your miniature features and touching your little fingers and toes. Your full head of hair was amazing - predictable that you'd come out with plenty of it looking at your dad and I - and I almost felt compelled to even count your individual eyelashes. I'm still obsessed. The Carrihills, Boom, Sarah Lyman, and your Grandpa Lewis and Grandma Terri came to the hospital to meet you on day 3 and 4. And my ob doc (our ob doc?) even went out of her way to come to our room during her own totally random and coincidental stay in the same hospital (allergic reaction to an antibiotic used to treat her
mastitis). She wanted to meet you so badly that she kept calling our silenced phone (we hardly even knew there was a phone in our room) and eventually just contacted the nurses station and had one of them walk their phone over to our bed. It was so nice of her and because we had such a great relationship with her since you were in my belly, she came into the room completely smitten with you.
For the first few days of your life, we had so much help taking care of you. The nurses, pediatricians, and lactation consultants buzzed around us to make sure we were doing the right thing: ensuring proper input and output for you, ordering food for us on time, eating, sleeping, etc. They took your weight and temperature often, tested your hearing, and just made sure you were generally ok. It was a tough thing to think about leaving this handy network of people, but on Monday, after signing a bunch of paperwork and removing the lojack bracelet from your ankle, they kicked us out. Eep.
 |
| going home! |
Luckily, your Grandpa Lewis and Grandma Terri were in town to help us start to navigate life with a baby. They took it upon themselves to stock our fridge to the gills, brought a stack of recipes to make healthy & hearty meals for us, your grandpa lewis made me a gigantic breakfast every morning, they forced me to eat/drink/nap at every opportunity, held you, loved you, managing your dog, and helped us maintain any semblance of sanity. It was so helpful to have them here with us as we tried to figure out how to manage our little family that I cried/bawled when they left. How were we going to make it without them! I'm sure it's reassuring to read that I felt so confident in the first week of your life.
 |
first car ride
I obviously sat in the backseat with you.
staring. i stared at you like a stalker. |
 |
| First night home. |
Some weight loss post birth is considered normal, but it seems like it's also the norm to put so much fear into parents! We were tasked with seeing your doctor the day after discharge (tuesday) to verify that you weren't losing weight as quickly and once there, asked to come back again that Friday. It was a medical office heavy week.
 |
Hi.
First visit to your pediatrician! |
 |
You especially hated the waiting part.
Me too, buddy. Me too. |
Back at the doc's office on Friday:
 |
Warming your heel to get a larger sample of blood for some tests.
You did really well in spite of the fear in your eyes. |
 |
| Ok, fine. It sucked. |
You were a tough little baby and put up with my amateur approach at feeding you. My favorite thing was when you got a good latch, you'd grasp each of your cheeks in your teeny fists. Occasionally, you'd catch a lower eyelid and I'd have to intervene. We had to wake you up every 2.5 hours to make sure you were eating regularly. It seemed counter-intuitive to wake a sleeping baby, but we didn't have to do it for too long, just until you got back up to your birth weight.
 |
You poor thing, we didn't have any pants that fit you.
So prepared. |
Your teeny cry cut me to the core and for your first week or two, I had such strong physical reactions each time you lost it. It was a good thing your dad had a much more reasonable reaction to the mini wails otherwise I would have had to take us back to the hospital to bring those nurses back into our lives.
 |
| Your teeny hand and leetle nails. |
 |
I'd sit around for hours just staring at your little scowl.
you were so peely! |
 |
| comparing our nail size. |
 |
Fully bendy foot and that pointy heel that I recognized from when you were inside my belly
and incorrectly thought were your elbows. |
 |
| Your foot was the length of my thumb. |
Once we were home for a few days, we were able to get it together to go for a walk to introduce you to the neighborhood and even went over to the Queen Anne farmers' market when you were less than a week old. What are the chances that you'll grow up loving a solid farmers' market? ahem, probably high if i have anything to do with it.
 |
your eyes were closed the whole walk.
way to take in the sights, kid. |
 |
Day 6
We had three nights at home...can you tell we're wiped? |
 |
| Grandpa Lewis, Sarah, Cousin Emily, Aunt Barbara, your dad, Grandma Terri |
 |
You were the width of my chapstick.
Ok, not really, but I took this photo to show someone your size and needed an item for scale. |
Oh, and you didn't have a name for most of the first week.
Your poor dad was beside himself with frustration at me about it.
You'd think I would have learned from
your Auntie Devon's experience, but nah, we share too much of the same brain that even with something as big as this, I had to handle things the same way. Don't get me wrong, I
wanted to have a name for you. We didn't know your gender, but we were supposed to have a list of names for both. I just couldn't settle on my favorite without actually seeing you. And then, unexpectedly, I also couldn't settle on your name without getting to know you a little bit. We ended up walking out of the hospital and into our home with a nameless baby. Your paperwork was either blank or read: Baby Girl Kanter. I took a FULL WEEK to finally concede and, with your dad, selected what we think is a kickbutt name for you.
 |
| Even without a name, we loved you so/so/so much. |
So, the Friday after you were born, your dad scrambled with minutes to spare finalizing your paperwork with the hospital's medical records department (they held onto it without filing). While he sweated it out, I kept giving him a heart attack by pretending to change my mind**. Hee hee. Will you be my apprentice in shenanigans against him in the future? I feel like we could get up to loads of fun trouble.
**there might have been a little truth to it.
Ok, little girl, this is what we picked for you...hope you grow up loving it:
Ivy Liona Kanter
Ivy - faithfulness
Liona - lion (fierce!) in Hawaiian so you have a Hawaiian middle name like me and
a shout out to your Grandma Lucy's mother, Leonor. She was a cool lady.
Kanter - well, once again, your dad wasn't down with officially making our surname Kantahara (bummer).
xo.
