Leavin’ on a jet plane.

Late this afternoon, husband, Camilla, and I will be flying back home to Washington state for two weeks of visiting with friends and family.

Yes, we are going to be the dreaded Couple Flying With A Very Small (And Probably Screaming) Baby that you really hope doesn’t sit behind you.

Unfortunately, Camilla is a kind of fussy baby who emits the most amazing bird-of-prey-like shrieks when she’s really upset. So I have no idea how this is going to go. We also have hours and hours of driving to do once we get to WA and the carseat has been kind of hit or miss so far…I guess she’ll just have to get used to it, right?

But on the plus side, we’re going to get to see almost all of our grandparents, parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, and cousins, and (we hope) an awful lot of friends, which we have been looking forward to for months. We fly in and out of Seattle but will be in the Moscow/Pullman area for about a week starting next Tuesday. I’m hoping we can have some sort of barbecue in East City Park on Sunday after church…I’ll post details when we get them figured out. We’ll also be staying in an un-airconditioned house and have access to a car, which makes us pretty happy to hang out with friends during the day. Hint hint.

Blogging will probably be light for the next few weeks, but you can expect an onslaught of photos when we get back. You know: baby with grandpa, baby with great-grandpa, baby on the ferry, baby by the ocean, baby at the farmer’s market…it’s so much more fun to take pictures now that I have guaranteed cute subject matter.

Florida is nice, but I really can’t wait to get back to the Northwest.

Hair.

After a nice bath this morning, Camilla’s hair was particularly spectacular.

 

It has been growing very quickly and is now equal parts mohawk and mullet. Mm, very stylish.

Since she’s now three weeks old and it shows no signs of falling out so far, I am hopeful that her hair is here to stay.

(Thanks for the pacifier encouragement, all! There are times when she sucks on it furiously and times when it’s promptly rejected with a little “pitooey.” At least there doesn’t seem to be any kind of nipple confusion…)

Pacified (at least for now).

I wanted to wait until Camilla was 3 weeks old before giving her a paci, but today was long and fussy and I caved. 

It was greeted with some initial suspicion but she’s catching on. This child is much, much happier when she’s sucking on something, so I have high hopes that she’ll grow to like it pretty quickly.

I know that some parents don’t like these things, but I’ll invite those parents to sit through one of our screamfests and see if they’re not converted by the end.

This is what happens when I take a nap.

Mother love.

Daddy love.

This is a little post about my husband and how much he loves me. And Camilla.

Husband was truly the most amazing support person while I was giving birth. He faithfully timed contractions at home for hours, providing whatever beverages, distractions, or counterpressure I asked for. And then when the time came to make that midnight drive to the hospital, he avoided every speed bump (there are a lot of those in Pensacola), drove slowly enough not to get a ticket, and walked with me at a snail’s pace to the door of the emergency room after I decided that we absolutely had to leave the car in a regular parking spot. He stayed by my side throughout delivery – which was unmedicated and therefore rather demanding — and watched his daughter being born with the exact same auburnish hair and eyes as his own.

After we came home from the hospital, he adapted faster than I thought possible to our new rhythm of diapering, swaddling, shushing, and swinging our little babe. Since he’s a night owl, he takes the “late shift” and watches Camilla into the wee hours of the morning while I nap between feedings. Last night he pacified her for an unheard-of three hour stretch while I slept off a killer headache. It was the nicest present anyone could have given me.

I am so glad that he is my husband and the father of my child. He’s already the best daddy ever.

Those classic baby bath photos.

Today was a very good day with the babe. I have to admit that some of my immediate post-birth bliss faded when she started to cry. A lot. I think that her little tummy has been hurting, and it hurts us to watch. We’ve tried baby antacid drops and I’ve eliminated some possible culprit foods from my diet and it is hopefully starting to pay off. We also have our first pediatrician appointment tomorrow and will see if he has any additional advice.

In the meantime, it sure is nice to cuddle with a baby who’s not screaming.

We didn’t take photos of Camilla’s first bath because it involved a lot of newby-parent tension and, of course, baby screaming. Today’s bath went much more smoothly.

She made some faces to let us know that she wasn’t happy about this, but it didn’t seem to be as entirely traumatic as the last one.

She sure smells better now.

And the hair? Let’s just say that there are going to be some awesomely wild baby hair photos in the days to come.

Too cute not to photograph.

 Before Camilla was born, husband and I had a conversation that went something like this:

Husband: Just so you know, I don’t want to be one of those couples that photographs every single little thing the baby does.
Me: Um… are you sure?

Fortunately, he seems to have changed his mind. He now regularly asks me to bring him the camera when he’s sitting on the couch holding her and he was very patient when waiting for the yawning shot below. So I’m going to go ahead and credit husband with about half of these photos and lots of the ones to come.

These were the last photos with grandma (= my mom) before she had to leave on Friday. That was a sad day. Mom was amazing to have around: she got to watch Camilla’s birth, and then afterward she brought me all sorts of delicacies in the hospital and once we arrived at home. Do you have any idea how nice it is to have someone hand you a plate of hot scrambled eggs and bacon at 7:30 am when you’ve been up five times during the night? Not to mention the reassurance of having someone in the house who has had a baby before and can tell you if that thing she just did is, in fact, normal?

On the day that she left, I’m not sure who was crying harder: me, mom, or the baby. We really miss her and can’t wait to fly home and see both our families in three weeks.

Oh, and lest you think that we’ve completely forgotten The Beans, let me assure you that she still gets her little treats from time to time. Like the bits of gourmet sorbet left inside the container.

It doesn’t take too much to make this dog happy.

The baby happies.

Before Camilla was born, I admit that I worried a bit about whether or not I would get the “baby blues.” I have a past history of depression and it seemed like just the sort of thing I would be prone to.  That’s why it has come as such a pleasant surprise that I have been fairly ecstatically happy instead. I don’t want to say that things will always be like this (or that there haven’t been any tears at all), but there have just been so many good things that I don’t know how I could be sad for long even if I tried. Between a good birth experience, an amazing husband, a baby who nurses well (albeit painfully), and a mother who hands me delicious things to eat every time I turn around, life is very good.

And to make it even better, my brother just called and said that he proposed to his girfriend. And she said yes.

Also, I think I am free to spread the news that my sister and her husband are also expecting a baby — a boy — in December. Her pregnancy has been much more stressful than mine was, but the little miracle baby hung in there and is getting bigger and will make a very fabulous cousin and playmate for Camilla.

Basically, this has been the best year ever for my family. And it’s only June.