Welcoming Lorelei Belle

Just born.

7 pounds, 14 ounces! Almost a whole pound more than her big sister was!

Proud Daddy. And of course he's wearing his Niners shirt. And of course my doctor is from the Bay Area. And of course they were discussing football. While I pushed.

The first several days with Miss Lorelei have gone relatively smoothly. Lorelei scored in the stratosphere on her Apgar scores, and Mommy was doing very well, so the OB on Wednesday shift gave us the option of an early discharge, and the pediatrician also blessed it. We jumped on it (I detest hospitals) and they sped up the rest of Lorelei's tests (which they would've done in the middle of the night otherwise--idiotic, no?) and we were home sweet home by 6 p.m. Wednesday night---a mere 28 hours after the birth!

So far, Lorelei is amazingly more mellow than Charlotte. Sure, she's a newborn and thus very needy, but oh my goodness. I had suspected Charlotte was on the fussier side those first few weeks, but I didn't realize how difficult she was until now.

My days are a blur of nursing nursing nursing and revolve entirely around feeding. Lorelei is a strong sucker like her sister, so a lot of similar problems have occurred as they did with her, but this time my supply is WAY better, so I'm exclusively breastfeeding in spite of swearing up and down that La Leche League wouldn't be holding milk ducts hostage. Dang.

Charlotte has been a wonderful big sister so far, though I suspect she's losing some of her fascination with Lorelei. The rough moments are when I'm nursing and Charlotte hurts herself and it takes me a year and a half to get to where I can comfort her. Frankly, feeding that baby has interrupted a LOT of Charlotte-Mommy time, which is hardly surprising, but hard to stomach nonetheless. I usually sit on the couch and cry as Daddy leads her upstairs for potty time or naptime stories and she's in tears, crying, "Mommy, COME with me!" I still do her nighttime stories and actually plan Lorelei's feedings around Charlotte's bedtime. God bless the pacifier.

At any rate, Charlotte rocks Lorelei in her swing (I haven't had the balls yet to show Charlotte where the ON/OFF switches are), lovingly covers her with a blanket, or fixes her hat if it has come off. She asks to hold Lorelei, and we let her when we can (e.g., nursing ain't the best time, you know?). She refers to her as "Lorelei" instead of the generic term "baby," and she has done away with the "Lorewei" version to boot. I let Charlotte pick out Lorelei's oufit for the day and she helps me change her clothes and diaper.

I asked Charlotte if she like Lorelei, and she said yes. I asked her if she's glad Lorelei lives at our house, and she said yes to that too. So, I think we're doing okay on the sibling front so far.

Nights are predictably rough--like most newborns, Lorelei has her nights and days mixed up. To boot, she gets the hiccups constantly at night. It's highly correlated with her sleeping flat on her back, and that child can't hardly sleep on her back to begin with (as opposed to sleeping on her belly while on Mommy's chest or some such--fear not, I never put her to bed on her tummy). Add hiccups and nobody sleeps. I've tried everything, thinking her hiccups are related to feeding, but keeping her upright for as long as an hour post-feeding has zero effect. I think she just has to outgrow them. I'd also love to put her to sleep on her belly, as I think it's totally unnatural to have babies sleep on their backs when they've spent 9 months in a cozy environment, but the SIDS risk is far too high.

However, unlike the Charlotte days, we have yet to desperately pace the room with a crying infant. Lorelei cries when her diaper gets changed or if we take too long to hear her "I'm hungry!" sucking sounds. They can be easy to miss, since she's the loudest sleeper EVER. Squeaks and whimpers and and wiggles abound.

Mums returns home at the crack of dawn tomorrow (Monday) morning, so we're on our own shortly. Deep. Breath.

In short, we're just in love with this little girl. I know it has been less than 5 days since she joined our family, but I already can't imagine our family without her. She's just the sweetest little thing.