Six Weeks and Counting

Little baby is six weeks and some change now, and we are starting to get a groove going. A groove that involves fewer blood curdling screams and heart-breaking baby tears and more smiles every day. I don't mean to wish time away, but I am thankful that by now some of the fog of the first few weeks has lifted. I look forward to regaining even more use of my brain, the loss of which has resulted in me buying an absurd amount of poppy seeds not once but twice (turns out, you don't use that many poppy seeds in a single recipe. Not many at all). I also need to figure out how and why my dog Billy has become obscenely overweight.

Here are some six weeks baby pics. Whadda big kid!

Life Rehabilitation

My friend Jennifer is in town for a week to explore a bit of Munich, meet the baby, and to help me take some forward steps toward my re-independence. Both moving around with baby and without baby. Last night we attended a yoga class, which marked my longest stretch away from E in her yet brief existence: three hours. It was great. Though decidedly frightening. And decidedly not my most physically fit display to date. The instructor joked to Jennifer afterward that she should return to class to be a model for the other students. To me, with eyes lowered, he quietly commented that women's bodies are far less capable of many yoga postures after childbirth.

Today, we battle grocery shopping. I've been to stores nearby and just for a couple items with Edie, but have not yet made the trek out to some of my favorite specialty stores. Bavaria has decided to accumulate a good three inches of snow over night just to keep us on our toes. If all goes well, we will be dining on homemade pad thai tonight.

(photo of Rachael & Jen, pre-Edie, in San Francisco March 2010)

Baby Clothes!!

Edie's wardrobe has seriously out-cuted any outfit I could possibly assemble for myself. Even when she accessorizes with spit-up. I rarely stray from my hoodie/yoga pants ensemble these days anyhow, so I take even more joy in dressing the little baby. She's increasingly less little, incidentally - over nine pounds now!

Here are some pictures of the cutest of the cute: an angel wings/monkey onesie and a baby kimono. Come on, folks - say it with me: AWWWWW!!!

(Thanks to the Travalinis and Boivins for these fancy tops!)

Things I Thought Before Baby vs. What I Now Believe

1. THEN: Babies need to get used to sleeping through daytime noise. NOW: If. you. wake. the baby. there. will be. Consequences.

2. THEN: I will spend some of my days breastfeeding. NOW: My resume now lists breastfeeding as an occupation, hobby, and community activity.

3. THEN: One requires some degree of comfort in order to sleep. NOW: I can be found sleeping with my head parallel to my shoulder, shoved up against the headboard, with an infant lying on my chest and intermittently whacking me with her head, half-covered in burp clothes, most any day around 6 am.

4. THEN: If you go long enough without sleep, you will lose your mind. NOW: This one still seems to be true.

5. THEN: Time flies. NOW: It really, really does.

Me 'n' my Moby

Edie is going through a something right now that causes her not to tolerate being put down for more than 20 minutes at a time. Lest she get very, very angry. "Going through" is operative: my mantra is that this shall pass. Snuggling her is the best thing in the world, but the flip side is a day punctuated by blood curdling screams every twenty minutes and total incapacitation. Enter: Moby Wrap (tm). It is essentially a very long piece of thick but slightly stretchy fabric and this thing is awesome. Very comfortable for mom, and after an initial few minutes of fussing, Edie will sleep up to two hours in it. No screaming, and about 50 - 60 % mobility. You cannot really lean forward in the Moby without disturbing La Jefa Mas Pequena. So I am working on my deep squats and lunges. Yesterday I dusted our living room half time on my feet, and half time shuffling around on my kneecaps. We're making it work.

Life is changing fast. Today, Edie made it over the nine pound mark and she can now reliably locate her hand. Thanks Moby Wrap for helping us enjoy this tiny baby time while it lasts.

So Long, Amma

Big Edie headed back to the U.S. this morning. She was going to stay longer, but other family members need her, too. She came during the bleakest time of year to help us out, weathering blizzards, ice and a shoe box apartment so that she could take care of our house and teach me as much mothering wisdom as I could absorb in five weeks.

Mom took off for the airport in the cab Will called her last night. The cab driver apparently called her William throughout the trip. He probably figured that a woman from a country that allows babies to be named Moon Unit and Pilot Inspektor would have no problem with a lady named William. In Germany, incidentally, your child's name must be contained in the government's master name list. If it's not, you have to prove that the name you've picked is legit. Our relocation agent named her daughter Alanis, which is not on the list. So she had to get a letter from the Canadian consulate office to affirm that Alanis Morisette is a real person with a proper first name. I met an ex-pat who named her Munich-borne daughter Molly, which was accomplished by a print out of Molly Ringwald's imdb.com page. Luckily for us, Edith is a "good German name" so we shouldn't have any trouble once we begin our mountain of paperwork to make the baby real. Right now, little Edie doesn't exist in the eyes of any government.

Back to my departing mom, we will miss her very much. I am and always have been a mama's girl, and even now with my own daughter here, I hate to see my her go. Bon Voyage, Big E! Come back soon!

The Water is Fine. Just Don't Eat the Grapes.

Will and I have regained some of our mobility of late, thanks in large part to necessity and baby carriers. The weather has been improving, which is almost as liberating as an extra hour of sleep. Being home-bound for almost a month has left me a little dazzled by the sights and sounds of the street. A few days ago I got hypnotized by some gorgeous green grapes sold by one of the small produce stands near the subway station. So I batted my eyes and asked Will if he'd shell out some of his hard earned GE cash for my treat. We unfortunately committed to the purchase before we discovered that this tidy bunch of grapes cost about ten USD. Oopsie daisy. They were really delicious, though.

(Will pictured with Edie in Marienplatz, in front of the Rathaus-Glockenspiel)