Baby Federica's First Few Weeks

After being born on a Monday night, we came home on Wednesday afternooon.  She did lose about 6% of her birth weight (normal), but gained it back and more within a week.  Being a large baby myself, and having Ben on the big side, I can't believe I had a baby this tiny.  The newborn diapers are so big on her, they come down to her knees, and she is swimming in 3 month onsies.  I mostly put her in dresses because they fit better, and because I'm still thrilled to have a girl.  And I have been taking way too many pictures, but I love it.

 The tutu from Kim.

 The necklace from Prague.

 Bow from Aunt Missy.

 Blanket from Aunt Missy.

 She was so relaxed here because Daddy was under the blanket, so she was laying on him.

We had more visitors at home.

Her days and nights were mixed up for the first 2-3 days.  We got that straightened out, but now she still, about every few nights, doesn't want to sleep between 10pm and 1am.  Or falls asleep but doesn't want to be layed down.  Other than that she usually sleeps about three hours at a time between feedings at night, and goes anywhere from 20 minutes to three hours between feedings during the day, sleeping much of that time too.  The bad thing about having two kids is that neither of them understand the concept of being quiet while the other one is sleeping.  Luckily, it is not much of a problem at night, but they have been waking each other from naps frequently.

She still naps like this a lot.

Napping...

Napping...

 Napping...

 Napping...

 And this is how she sleeps at night.  I know it's upside down, but I didn't want to get too close and wake her.

Ben likes her.  He likes her fingers and toes, and sometimes gets excited and pinches them a little.  Sometimes he tries to touch her face too, so we are still really careful with him around her.  Fortunately, she doesn't hold his attention for long, and he goes off and plays with his toys.  He held her for the first time when she was about a week and a half.  We had been asking him, and he kept saying no, but finally we just put her in his lap.  He wanted to hold her a couple more times that day, but hasn't showed much interest since.  He still goes to daycare all day during the week, so I think that is helping to keep normalcy for him, and prevent him from getting too jealous.  He tries to help sometimes too, like bouncing her bouncy seat when she is crying.

Boats, toot-toot. Ben's first time holding her.

Looking at her toes.

 

And we finally took a family photo.

Ben's Second Birthday

We can't forget about Ben!  He had a birthday ten days after Federica's.  I made him cupcakes again, and he was a little less messy this time.  Of course, now we are in the terrible twos, and that evening he didn't want to eat dinner and almost didn't even get his cupcake.  Luckily, once we told him we had cupcakes but he had to eat his dinner, he decided he could eat.

He tries to hide his food in the cup holder on his tray when he doesn't want to eat it.

 Now he's happy!

We got him some cars that go fast if you pull them back, and have opening doors, and also a motorcycle (ling-a-ling), and a tricycle.  He loved all of it!  He usually sleeps with a couple of the cars or motorcycle, and when he's not playing with them, they ride in the back of the tricycle.

Baby Federica, at the Hospital

We stayed in the hospital two nights.  I wanted to leave after one night, but they wanted to keep me for three nights, so I compromised with two.  I had a big room, but there were two beds.  I had the room to myself the first night, but the next day I got a roommate.  She was still pregnant and about to be induced, so at least I didn't have another crying baby in the room.

The nurses were fine, but we couldn't communicate very well, so we never really got on friendly terms.  And of course they kept coming in when we were trying to sleep.  They came in one night just after midnight to take her and test her hearing.  Then they came in around 4am to poke at my belly.  Then they came in at 6:30 to take her, and they said they would have her for three hours (they take all the babies together to see the pediatrician and get baths and I don't know what else, and they put them all in this giant rolling cart, wish I had a picture).  So I thought, okay, at least I can get three hours of sleep!  But right when I fell back asleep, they came in at 7, flipped on the lights, opened the window shade, and made me get out of bed so they could make the bed.   Good morning, ha!  Then they bring breakfast around 8, more people come in to mop the floor, and the ob-gyn makes rounds around 9am.  Finally I get my baby back, and Tim is allowed to come in (he was not allowed to spend the night.)  What a productive morning doing everything except what I want- sleep.  This was the routine for both mornings, which is why I was absolutely not staying for a third.


Ben's very first time seeing Federica, he climbed up to get a good look.

 A few minutes later (and with his new bus from Federica) he came back to see her again.


The hospital itself was nice enough, clean, and fairly modern, but my room was very simple.  Bed, bed table, and one little table and chairs where they put the food.  The food was okay, pasta, vegetables, and meat.  The first day for lunch and dinner my meat was deli ham.  Apparently if you want regular food, you have be there to place your order 24 hours in advance, so the next day I was able to have chicken.  But breakfast was a couple cookies and a bowl of hot milk (optional splash of coffee in the bowl of milk) with a side of toast packets, jelly packets, and sugar packets.  I will never understand this breakfast concept, but it must be popular.  The chocolate chip cookies we buy for snacks/dessert at home are called "ore 8", meaning 8am, meaning they are meant for breakfast.  In fact, the back of the cookie package says "for a great way to start the day, have three cookies with a bowl of milk and a glass of juice."  I guess it is nutritionally equivalent to the only other breakfast option around town, a croissant.  Obviously, Italians are not big breakfast people.  On the other hand, I guess it is also nutritionally equivalent to the American options of a bowl of frosted flakes or a donut.  (On a side note, they do have plenty of cereal or yogurt options here at the grocery store, which is what we normally eat for breakfast, and on weekends I make eggs or pancakes, with pancake mix I found at the international market, but we still have to import our own syrup from the US- thanks moms.)

 

Anyway, back to talking about the hospital, they also showed me how to take care of her, change diapers, etc. They don't use wipes (but thankfully they do sell them at the grocery store). They just take the babies over to the sink and wash them, just like they do at Ben's daycare, and just like the adults use bidets.  They also kept asking if she was nursing well, and they did NOT give me a free gift "for nursing moms" that was a can of formula.  Very good nursing mentality over here.  Even out in public, which I have already done a couple times, nothing but smiles, and most women don't even bother to cover up.

We had several visitors, our friends from work.

 

So overall the hospital experience was fine, but we were very happy to go home.