Memorable Random Notes from Sara's First Week

-After the C-section, Dan thought it was funny I asked him if he liked our baby. His reply was, "Of course I like our baby", of course.

- We sometimes call Sara "Our little monkey" when we put her in the car seat for her first Well Child visit, she screamed so hard on the car ride that she turned purple. Dan remarked later that she had been "Our angry little monkey".

-Sara has some bad diaper rash right now. I am hoping that keeping her as dry as possible will help her to heal, so before she gets a fresh diaper, we use a hair dryer on the cool air setting on her bottom. She really seems to love it too. I first got the idea when I was using a wet wipe and it seemed to burn or sting and she was screaming, so I started to blow air on her and it really calmed her down.

-I love watching Dan and Sara together. It's fun watching him look at her and tell her he loves her. He's so gentle with her and very loving. Every kid deserves a Dad like Dan and I'm sure that Dad's like that are not easy to come by. Because I had a C-section he had to do everything for her the first few days. He spent nights patiently burping her, discovering ways to relieve her various gaseous issues. He didn't want any of the nursery staff to take her, even though we could have let them have her every night. Of course, I didn't want them to have her either because it was fun for me watching Dan lovingly take care of her and it would have been hard to be without her, she was one of us.

-Sara seems to have red hair. I thought the second day that it was more brownish or dark blond but getting her out in the sunlight, it is very clear she has red hair and eyelashes even. Our neighbor told us that they thought their kids were redheads at first but it soon faded out to a light brown, so we will see.

-We have had lots of people bringing us food at home. Our fridge is overflowing. Dan is a gourmet cook and Mom is here so we weren't short on food. Dan even went by the grocery store before I went into labor so we'd have food when we got home. The Relief Society organized some people to bring us dinners. Also the Relief Society President stopped by and brought food and gifts. She remarked that there are only a few houses in the neighborhood that aren't LDS and I just assumed she was talking about us, so I said, "Yeah, we're one of 'em" and she said, "No, your husband is". It was strange and kind of surprised me that he is still considered a member enough that people would be bringing us food in an organized way. Dan explained to me that the Church still has his records and that is why they still consider him a member, even though he's not active. The people that stopped by were very nice and generous and I think it's cool culturally that people get so excited about new additions to the neighborhood. As Martha would say, It's a good thing.

-Sara sleeps sometimes in the "Field Goal" position. She puts both hands over her hand , arms outstretched. Also she sometimes puts one arm over her face, just like Daddy sleeps.

-As to who she looks like, we think mostly Nana Sears. I think she has Dan's neck, eyes, and butt cheeks. We got out Dan's baby photo and she really does look like him as a baby. I don't know if I see any of my features in her yet.

-She is so strong, at 2 days old we noticed she could turn her head around to look at us by herself. At 4 days she could lay on Dan's chest and raise her head completely up to look him in the face. Today at 7 days old she was trying to roll herself over by twisting her body.

-I feel like a boob. Breast feeding is challenging. It seems constant . I'm either pumping or feeding. Sara knows the difference between Mom and Dad. Dad does gas and burp duty. Mom does the milk. She can tell very quickly who is holding her. When she figures out it's me, she starts breathing really fast and snorting like a piggy. I call it her nursing piglet noise. She gets so excited about food. Sometimes it's hard for me to just hold her though because she's begging for food, tearing at my shirt and snorting. Then she gets super mad at me when I don't immediately whip out a boob. The other night Dan was holding her on his bare chest and she started rooting around. I told him as a joke just to give her a nipple and see what she does with it. He thought it was a bad idea to mess with her like that.

-Dan and I think that sometimes the noises that come out of her diaper sound like a cappuccino maker, making foam..

-I came home from my doctor's appointment and Dan had been reading to Sara from his Biography of Stalin. It was pretty funny hearing him read about the murderous dictator in a story tale voice. After all at this age it's not the content of what you read, just the sound of your voice that is soothing to them, we hope...

-Dan's and Sara's favorite game to play with me is "Who made that noise".