Two Months of Love and Some Pre and Post Natal Gems

Reading Dr. Seuss’ Hop on Pop with Maeve this week

All is going very well.  I am loving being with Maeve and Joe.  In particular, I love watching the way she moves her fingers, the moments when she looks in my eyes and, as the days pass, seeing the expression in her features and body becoming more clear, articulate.  I love the way she migrates around (surprisingly far and fast)  just by the wending of her limbs,  head and neck.

I love how utterly self possessed she is – she is sure – and I marvel, sometimes shudder, at how completely vulnerable she is.  Her presence seems to have flipped a switch in me around ways I have limited myself in the past.  I have more resolve to achieve my goals than before.  The days fly by.  I can’t believe it’s already been two months.

Here are three great parenting resources have come on my radar in the last couple of weeks:

Illustration from The Female Pelvis by Blandine Calais-Germain

My best friend Shinehah sent me a book called The Female Pelvis: Anatomy & Exercises – which gives incredibly clear, simple information (in words and diagrams -including the one at at the top of this post) about the organs in the female pelvis and what happens in the pelvis with pregnancy and birth.  I really appreciate having a clearer picture of all the parts and how they fit together and change through pregnancy and delivery.  Seems to me really great information for any female to have.  The Female Pelvis was written by Blandine Calais-Germain and published by Eastland Press. 

Newborn Maeve at Five Weeks: One-Month Check-Up, My Birthday and More

Happy parents Carrie and Joe with our 5-week-old daughter Maeve. We don’t have a lot of photos of the three of us together… this one was taken by Carrie’s brother Bob earlier today.

It’s been a relatively uneventful week for baby Maeve, born July 30th 2013, about to turn five weeks old as I post this. Yesterday, my wife Carrie posted some of her thoughts at one month. I am going to post briefly with plenty of photos and a few thoughts. I’ve been posting weekly updates on my our daughter’s progress, find earlier ones here.

Maeve sure looks cute when she’s sleeping and moving around

Baby Maeve’s Fourth Week: Joe Goes Back to Work

Maeve, in a somewhat typical state for this week: kind-of-alert and kind-of-sleepy

I don’t have too much to report this week, in part because last Monday I went back to my work at the Bronx River Alliance. It’s not for long, though, because I gave notice., In a few weeks, will be a stay-at-home dad, at least for a while.

Though I really like the work at the Alliance, the commute really eats up my week. I live in Jersey City, and take two trains to get to the Bronx. It takes about 1 hour and 20 minutes each way. I guess it could be worse – on the train I get a lot of reading and sketching done – but my wife Carrie and I discussed it and we decided that, for now, it makes sense for me to wrap things up there, and stay home. It wasn’t crazy bad this week (I was tired at work), but it just felt like I had very little time to spend with Maeve and Carrie.

I’ll post a few thoughts, and some photos – so I can keep up my weekly Maeve gallery. It’s easier to post photos here on the interwebs than to try to sort through them all and keep them well-organized on my phone and laptop.

Maeve’s Third Week: First Bath, Mastitis, and More

Maeve gets fussy this week (though she’s just doing her job, letting us know when something needs attention)

Maeve Margaret Linton Lincourt turns three weeks old on Tuesday August 20th. I am going to make this a fairly short blog entry, because, though being her father has been great, there’s not really tons of new stuff to report, and I am a little bit tired. Yawn.

I won’t let the lack of hard news prevent me from posting…

Maeve showing off her mad napping skills earlier today. I also include this photo to show that we do occasionally dress her up in clothes – mostly it’s been pretty warm and she’s staying home, so it’s just diapers and diaper covers, with a thin blanket accessory

plenty of photos…

Maeve ready for her close-up

from this week!

Baby Maeve at Two Weeks: Sleeping, Breastfeeding, and Being Wonderful

Maeve relaxing somewhat during a diaper change. She’s glorious!

I am trying to get in the habit of posting weekly with the progress of our precious young daughter Maeve, born July 30th 2013 – entering her 14th day as I write this. My wife Carrie and I each posted our accounts of her birth, here and here, respectively. I did an update at one week, here.

I am not going to guarantee any great parenting guru insights in these weekly posts. There are perhaps a few interesting thoughts, but it’s mostly a sort of electronic scrapbook that we can look through and share with others (especially our family and friends on the west coast.) I hope to keep posting a lot of photos of her – all the photos here are from this past week (click on images to enlarge.) Perhaps if Carrie and I post frequently enough, we’ll be able to see some of the arc of Maeve’s growth. Perhaps I will get too busy to keep posting as long or as frequently. I may to try to shift to a shorter format – getting short pieces out sooner. Maybe Carrie and I will write some stuff together. We’ll see.

Week two wasn’t radically different than week one. The new normal felt a tiny bit more routine… but Maeve is still doing lots and lots of sleeping and breastfeeding. In between these major pursuits, she takes time out to look around the room a lot. It seems like she’s just a bit more squirmy. During a lot of week one, she was sleepy and content in seemingly any position; now she wants to sit up when she’s laying down, or lie down when she’s sitting. She doesn’t like to be face down on my chest any more (awwww) because when I do this she goes into feeding mode: she smacks her lips, sometime bops around trying to find my non-existent milk-filled breast, then looks around for her mom. Week two she’s looking to her mom for comfort – maybe I just didn’t notice this in the whirlwind of week one. 

Some Musings Seven Days into the Baby Maeve Era

Maeve sleeping – which she does a lot (see below), with Carrie’s hand to help show size

Our beautiful baby girl Maeve turned 7 yesterday. 7 days that is.

She’s a newborn. I wrote my take on her birth story here. She’s doing fine. Her primary purposes in life are: breast feeding, pooping, peeing, and sleeping. Frequently she tosses in a bit of hiccuping, arm/leg flailing, grunting and looking – all for good measure.

I am not sure what format is going to work to blog about Maeve… I figure I will start with a couple paragraphs as a sort of status report, then write some not-all-that-deep thoughts about some things I’ve been noticing.