Sokath, his eyes uncovered!

(Note: this is easily the geekiest title I have ever given anything.  Reference )

We're partway through week three at this point, which means, among other things, that we're juuuuust starting to establish a routine.  Ky had her second doctor's appointment a few days ago -- she's back to her birthweight, which means that we've moved from feeding her every 3 hours to feeding her when she asks.  This is awesome -- she made it back to her birthweight really quickly, so she's clearly getting all the nutrition she requires.  It also means that sometimes we can sleep for 4 hours, but that generally means that afterwards we sleep for 45 minutes.  Still, she's a pretty good sleeper, and we like her bunches so far.

In a day-to-day sense, well, every day is different.  She has started to be more alert; smiley muscles are clearly being exercised a little bit, which means that we know the following things:

1) We like the nose game, which is a low-key version of eskimo kisses.

2) We like snuggles.

To summarize, this is our current roommate:

Little baby, big room.

So far, Kyla's been sleeping with us. (Yes, it's cute.  Trust me.)  This morning, however, Beth decided to try out the crib to see whether we approve or disapprove, and how that's going to work in the long term.  Well, you'll all be happy to know that it was a rousing success.  How can I tell, you ask?  Well, a number of criteria!  Number of fidgets per minute: few.  Number of minutes to fall asleep after being applied to device: 0.  Size of item to size of baby (ratio): big:little.  All in all, clearly a winning proposition.  What follows is documentation, and I would direct your attention to the fact that this crib is, you know, crib sized.  It's not a trick.  She's really that small.

Serenity

Let's begin the photo posts of Ky thusly:

Minister of Silly Faces

Here is a video of the little miss...um..."sleeping."  As you can tell, she's pretty busy all the time, and the sleeping is probably just a thin ruse designed to throw us off our game, and then BANG -- she'll repaint her nursery or sign up for hot air balloon piloting lessons or something.  Actually, those would both be pretty cool.

You might also notice that I'm less coherent than usual.  This has to do with the fact that I am unaccustomed to sleeping in 2 hour chunks.  Yup. :-)

Slingbaby

Here's one of Kyla's early rides in Beth's homemade sling.  It makes her very happy and squishy.

Stop. Nana time.

Here's a little test video of Kyla's first day with her Nana.  This video illustrates two points:

1) She loves her Nana already.
2) She doesn't stop moving for very long.  Ever.

Behind the Scenes

So, here I sit, with little Kyla asleep on the bed to my right, stuffed between two rolled-up hand towel "bumpers," and since she's clearly thinking deep thoughts (you can tell because she's trying out every facial expression in her arsenal all at once), I thought I should update our faithful readers on how our little monkey came into the world.  Thus, I give you The Birth In One Paragraph Or Less:

Here's how the birth went down.  Beth's water broke at about 6:30 am on Tuesday morning, while I was happily dozing.  We called the doctor, who had us come in to the hospital.  (We weren't even sure it was labor at that point, as there were no contractions yet, so Beth had a nice leisurely shower, I shaved and finished packing my hospital bag -- hey, no time like the present.)  A couple of quick tests later, we were off to our private delivery suite (thank goodness -- absolutely can't imagine going through this with someone else over in another part of the room).  Beth then proceeded to be a complete rock star -- I don't think she complained once, other than to say "ouch."  No meds, nothing but a fluids IV to make sure she didn't get dehydrated.  Nonetheless, Kyla seemed to be pretty sure she wouldn't fit -- she came down, and down further, and after 15 hours of contractions followed by 4 hours of pushing, well, she turned right around and headed back up to her womb.  After some deliberation, it became clear that we didn't have much choice but to do a C-section, and so, a little reluctantly, but secure in the knowledge that we had done our absolute best, and were out of options, we agreed.  It worked out fine, obviously; Ky is awesome and happy, Beth is awesome, happy, and recovering quickly from the surgery, and I am awesome, happy, and got to wear scrubs and a mask.  Everybody wins!

In other news, we may have discovered Beth's mutant power, which is to be made of rubber.  She's recovering VERY well from the surgery, and was resilient enough that, after 19 hours of labor, she was cracking jokes and bonding with the nurse on the way to the OR.

In short, I agree with our nurse.  Beth's my hero.

Kyla Nova

Ladies and gentlemen, Kyla Nova Aronoff has arrived.  She was born December 23rd at about 4 in the morning, and weighed 9 lbs., 2 oz.  Everybody's doing wonderfully, and we're already surprised at how interested we are in the frequency of her diaper changes.  Truly, it is a new world.

Harbinger

Month 9, it is upon us.  In a few short weeks, the sprout will sprout. Don't believe me? Check it:

Also, the Acquisition Of Baby Items has begun (more on this soon), which includes this super-awesome stroller and car seat.  Amazing But True Fact: it's actually easy to use!  (My distorted and superhuman leg length, though also awesome, is not due to the impending baby.)

How's this for a terrifying analogy?

My childhood is to morning reruns of "I Love Lucy" as the sprout's childhood is to reruns of "The Cosby Show." Seriously. They're the same amount of time apart.

Music lessons

Songs we like Daddy to play (so far, as demonstrated by lots of kickies and flipping about):

- Rainbow Connection
- The Garden Song
- When You Dream, by BNL

Fifteen years ago, or thereabouts, I sat in the basement of Chez Aronoff, playing guitar and thinking to myself that someday, way way WAY far in the future, I'd be playing for my own kid.  At the time, I thought that the Rainbow Connection was one of the most important songs to play for the kid, as it manages to capture a) magic, b) everything I like in a melody, c) a frog, and d) awesomeness.  Well, it turns out that I AM playing it for my kid, and it's just as fulfilling as I thought it would be.  Yes, indeed.

Some sort of pun about showering goes here

We've just finished a very successful baby shower.  Thanks to our many helpers, especially those people who took truffles home with them, as it means there are fewer to eat.  For those of you who like narrative captions, or couldn't be here because of work, flu, space invaders, or any other reason, I present to you...dum duh duh DAH!  Photos!

Beth's Baby Shower Of Awesomeness

Thirty-Three Weeks

Helloooo out there!  Thought it was [past] time for an update.

Sprout has been sprouting for 33 weeks now.  Evidently, that means she's still working on breathing, her digestive system, and regulating her body temperature, but is mostly just doing her best to gain weight.  We had to have her checked out via sonogram yesterday because she decided to have a good stretch during our regular doctor's visit, and her/my overlarge belly measurement was cause for concern.  I spent a couple of days wondering whether we were having a giant baby (yeek!), but no -- just a stretchy one.  She's slightly over 4 pounds at this point, which is right where she's supposed to be.

Since this was the third time someone told us Sprout was a girl, I think we can pretty much stop wondering.  The tech also commented on her long legs and pouty lips (and she wasn't kidding -- see the weird, grainy picture below for a nose-and-mouth shot).  They were able to locate a bladder this time... which, till yesterday, I didn't know was missing from the earlier anatomical sonogram.  Glad it's there, though.

Weird, grainy picture (she's sideways):

On other fronts, we're making progress in her room.  Matt has been putting up extra shelves and light fixtures this week; I've been sewing, and organizing the beginnings of her wardrobe.  Thanks to hand-me-downs from Max and the shopping savvy of the two grandmamas, we have a good start on what we'll need.  The stripes are painted on the wall, the prints are up, and the dressers are in place (thanks, Lisa, for your assembly help!).  It's starting to look right.  Lazlo has been thoughtfully testing out each new item to make sure it feels right, too.

The Little Things

I have never been quite as pleased to find out that someone has the hiccups as I was this morning. Woot! Go Sprout! Practice that breathing.

A fine curvature!

A curious thing has happened over the past few doctors' appointments -- because we're a low risk pregnancy, and there don't seem to be any complications, we're in and out of there in about as much time as it takes to cook a steak.  The big news from our last visit, it seems, is that Beth has excellent blood stats (no anemia, no diabetes), and more importantly, a fine curvature.  I didn't know this was a thing, but since it is, it's clearly time to document it.

Also there are baby clothes.