A Photo Diary of Eli's First two days.

Here's Noah a few hours before he becomes a big brother. He's been helping remove the paint on the gate, in preparation for our painting it.

After mild contractions for a couple of days, I went into labour on Sunday evening. It was really good to just stay in our bedroom- this is where I ended up having Eli. My parents came and picked up Noah at around 2am, 1hr30mins before Eli was born. The midwife arrived around 2:30am, just in time to help guide the hardest part of the labour.

Eli made it out*, caught by the midwife, the placenta followed quickly,  and we could all get into bed and hang out together. Eug got to cuddle with Eli while I was checked over**.

Noah really likes his little brother, though it's hard for him that I'm not as available.

Our neighbors are lending us this beautiful cradle, which we keep in the living room- it makes it easy for us to eat downstairs in the kitchen while Eli is little and our downstairs is not clean enough for him to be on the floor. Last night, we had our first regular family meal- it's great to work on getting to "normal" life very gradually.

This is our attempt at a family photo where you can see Eli. It was chaos, as you can tell. We're just happy everyone is wearing clothes. Anna's rabbit features prominently in our family.

*By "made it out", I don't mean to imply I'm either superwoman or that labour is easy. Labour was great because of many things- many beyond my control, like physiology or the prayers of friends and family- as well as the environment and having Eug and the midwives helping.

 ** This is in case you are wondering why Eug lost his shirt. Skin to skin contact to bring Eli's temp up.

Day 1 with Eli

Once again I'm really grateful to God for a healthy birth.

Mr Eli at 5am.

Two years ago I gave birth to Noah in Boston; while I was cared for by midwives I ultimately gave birth at Mt Auburn hospital- you can read about it here. It's fairly rare to give birth at home in Massachusetts, though one of our friends has done it twice.

Not having a point of comparison, I was pretty uncritical of the experience, but looking back it was mainly a test of pain endurance- lying down in a hospital bed to give birth with 6 people yelling at me to push was torture in comparison  to today's experience. Unmedicated birth is no walk in the park either way, but it doesn't need to be as terrifying and painful as it was that day- with alarms, monitoring and the like. The difference was less in the level of pain, but in the level of control: I didn't have to ask anyone when to push and when not to, worry about when I'd get my baby back, or whether I'd be forced to leave before lunch (or forced to stay, as the case may be). I also knew my bill beforehand this time around.

Anyway, so that's my plug for giving birth at home (with backup), for uncomplicated pregnancies.

This isn't turning into a very fun read, sorry! The short version: birth was painful but wonderful (I never thought I'd say such a thing). My midwife, and the midwife who came to assist, were amazing- I feel hugely blessed to have had them assist. If I think of better insights, maybe I'll try to write again?

Day 1 with Eli (Too much information included below):

• I'm able to walk- thank you God. No stitches, after a million the first time.
• I'm peeing in the bathtub, because making it up and down the stairs is still a little too much. I have to be extra quick crouching down, because there's a window in an unfortunate place and our street is pretty busy. The first day after giving birth is not super fun, but then it doesn't need to be.
• Second time around breastfeeding is a lot easier. Less self doubt. Maybe that's like a lot of things in life?
• Eli fell asleep during his first poop. Apparently I am crazy enough to catch his first poop in the potty- he was simultaneously enraged at the feeling of pooping and tired out by it. Second poop, size of a tiny grape, same thing. Life is hard when you're new to it.
• He's been awake for pretty large segments of the day, so I'm hoping that means he'll sleep tonight.
• Noah is super, super excited. He is pretty convinced he is personally responsible for Eli. 
• We're so grateful for everyone's love and support. We don't feel responsible for any of it. 

Photos to follow!

With love.

Friday Adventures and Celebrations

Moving swiftly on from the subject of free love and communes, here's a bunch of photos.

We have a lot to celebrate: Eug finished laying the concrete, I felt excited enough to do a little on my dissertation, Tiny Blob turned, we paid our U.S. taxes (our lives are a little geographically complicated), and today I was finally able to transfer our car into our name without going into labour in the long queue. Up to now, we didn't officially own the car and the whole thing felt a little tenuous.

We've also been fighting colds this week, so almost every meal has included squeezing orange juice and somehow consuming cloves and cloves of garlic. Noah only seemed sick for about a day, I'm a little sick, and Eug is holding out. We very seldom get sick so I'm grateful this time around seems mild.

Tonight's meal, in celebration of all the great blessings, was sausage, garlic naan, and orange juice. Something in between eating out and not cooking.

This week's spinach started out bigger than Noah...

Noah is back in our bed. He thinks it's awesome here. We're not sure.

Eug fitted an old macro lens on the camera today, and the manual focus meant I could take a better-than-usual photo of the view from our bedroom. This is Devil's Peak and Table Mountain: I can never quite get over the fact that we're in a super-urban environment, yet we get to look out at this every day.

Noah sometimes baths in a bucket several times a day, if we're home. 

Unsure of a better Friday adventure, we went to our old haunt: the aquarium.

It was good to return home. Noah and I haven't been home much the last couple of weeks, mainly because the house is very messy and chaotic at the moment, and if Eug is working on laying concrete, I usually can't keep Noah away from the action. It's been really good to stay home and let Noah play again, despite the chaos.

And sourdough garlic naan: Great comfort food if you're fighting illness. I've been learning how to make them most efficiently, with least cleanup. Shaping them with my hands on the stovetop, before they go into the pan, has worked well. I love that our stove has a glass top.

And the rest of our dinner:

We're very grateful for days like today.