Happy Times and Happy Birthday

Today is Andrew's 24th birthday! We are dropping off Miriam at my parents' place tonight and going out to Aboca's Italian Grill. We love this restaurant. It's small, authentic, family-run, and it's freaking BYOB.

This week has been great. No, let me rephrase that. This week has been AWESOME. I think it's making up for the crappy first few weeks.

We took Miriam out a second time to--go figure--another coffeeshop. This one is called Crooked Tree and is very close to our apartment as well. What's more, it has an awesome atmosphere: it's located in a house! Or, at least, what used to be a house. The street the shop is located on is full of businesses located in adorable remodeled houses. I would totally live there.

I studied and Andrew reviewed his novel (he finished a first draft right before baby was born, and now that things are settling into kind of a routine, he is working on revisions). Miriam slept as pictured above :).

Last night was similarly fun. We accidentally took a 3-hour nap in the middle of the day, so we stayed up late that evening and ushered in Andrew's day of birth by watching four straight hours of the first season of Heroes (available on Netflix!). Miriam was fussy and wanting to be held and nursed until 2 a.m. anyway. I fell in love with Hiro, the adorable Japanese geek who can bend the space-time continuum. He is also the most realistic character in the show, HA.

When Miriam finally went to bed, she slept for over 5 hours. Almost 6. I woke up when she cried at 8:30 a.m. and my first thought was, hey, why do I feel so awesome? Then I looked at the clock and was very happy. There is a huge difference between 4 hours and 5.5 hours of sleep. I don't know why, but it is simply magical.

Miriam is beginning to make cute little gurgling "Hey I'm awake" sounds, so I will wrap this up with some pictures of our 3.5 week old, 9 lb, 11 oz turd factory.

I think babies stretching are so cute. So is M's hair--it sticks straight up after a bath.

Miriam, drunk with milk.

Hey! Watsup? I'm awake!

The Skinny Jeans are Back

Miriam is almost 3 weeks old. We made it past the painful first two weeks of breastfeeding. We weathered her waking up every hour the first few nights at home. We survived mastitis and Andrew's stomach flu. Now, she's gaining weight well. (8 lbs, 11 oz as of Thursday!) She had her first outing to a coffeeshop. (She slept in her carrier the whole time, but it was a step :). I discovered I can nurse her in one arm and take physiology notes with the other.

And... the skinny jeans fit again :).

Hell yes.

Thanksgiving Week: Trials and Tribulations

I love Thanksgiving. I love cranberry sauce and turkey and family and warm houses and cozy couches and hugs and lots and lots of pie. I was looking forward to Thanksgiving for quite some time. Unfortunately, I have to report, this Thanksgiving Week was quite a trial.

I was recovering well and feeling good on Monday and Tuesday. I studied, took care of Miriam, cleaned, was a happy, bustling momma. Wednesday, however, I got a case of cabin fever and decided to go outside, downstairs, to clean out the car. The weather was gorgeous but the car was mildewy from the other week when Andrew left the sun roof down and then Dallas decided to rain all that night. I cleaned and thought happy sunshine thoughts, left the car windows open and picked up the random trash on the floor and took out the infant car seat with the intent to put Miriam in it and take her up to the room for some sunshine.

I returned to the apartment and promptly passed out.

After that, I felt so miserable and weak I couldn't stop crying (hormones didn't help). Andrew was home and took care of me. We decided that he would stay up that night to feed Miriam with expressed milk and a bottle, and I would get a full nights' sleep. The next day I woke up feeling a little better, but after I took a shower and dressed, I dove back in bed and had the worst aches and chills. By the time my mother-in-law arrived from Tulsa, I had a fever of 103 and I cried nonstop for an hour. It was pretty clear that I had a breast infection, and my mom-in-law was able to call in a prescription for an antibiotic for me (she's a physician).

So, instead of a joint McConnell and Hironaga Thanksgiving as planned, we ate at our separate places. When my fever went down some that evening, Andrew and I went over to my parents' so he could go to work and my parents could take care of me. I developed some sort of itchy rash that was either a reaction to the amoxicillin I was taking, or a heat rash... either way my mother-in-law didn't take any chances, and switched me to another antibiotic. Friday I was still pretty sick, but just as I started to feel better on Saturday, Andrew took a turn for the worse.

He left for work that morning, but by noon-ish he called and said he was heading back to the apartment because he'd thrown up five times at work. He had a stomach bug and didn't want to infect me or baby, so the past few nights he's been alone in the apartment. Tomorrow we'll be reunited, but I HATE being away from my hubby. I'm a wimp, I confess. So last night I cried myself to sleep yet again.

Now my little brother has the stomach bug, too, so Miriam and I will evacuate to my place tomorrow. Poor little dude is puking up a storm :(. Not even pie can tempt him. My mom set up a gigantic (and I mean GIGANTIC) thing of hand sanitizer in the middle of the hallway so that anyone who touches Jason can sanitize their hands before touching anything else in the house. Germs abound!

Despite the trials, there are things to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. Family. For sure. I don't know how we would have survived this week if my family weren't in town to care for us, and if Andrew's wonderful mother wasn't around to provide medical relief. (We actually called my OB clinic, and the doc on call told me to go to the ER for evaluation!! Why would a sick, nursing mom who obviously has a breast infection want to wait for hours and hours in an ER and expose herself to all kinds of infections??)

I am also grateful that through all this, Miriam is still healthy. She has diarrhea from my antibiotics, poor thing, but she should be fine otherwise. She sleeps well and feeds well and isn't spitting up or inordinately fussy, so that is a lot of things to be thankful for right there.

My dad just brought me a slice of a fresh cranberry and pear pie my mother made. He also brought a cup of tea and whipped cream for the pie. I'm going to eat this, relax, and enjoy a few hours of quiet, because Baby is sound asleep with a full belly and clean diaper.

It's been a crazy first few weeks of parenting! But all Miriam has to do is smile in her sleep and I know it's all worth it. As always, Blessed be the Name of the Lord.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Miriam Aki McConnell

Baby is here! Born at 12:57 pm on Monday the 16th, our beautiful little girl is officially: Miriam Aki McConnell. Her middle name is Japanese and means Autumn. Here is the kanji:

For all of you who have been pestering me for details and pictures, this post will be a multimedia feast. Thanks for waiting so long (almost a whole week, WOW! Has time really gone by so fast!?).

Before I continue, let me quickly relate the labor. Sunday night at 10 p.m., Andrew and I checked into Presbyterian Health on Walnut Hill, and induction started at midnight. It was all so surreal and exciting! The labor itself went about as I expected: lots of pain, haha. Sort of like being knifed in the gut, and shot in the kidneys, and like pooping a watermelon all at once. Everyone hug your mother when you next see her. She suffered a lot to have you! Salvation (an epidural) came at 10 p.m., by which point I was still only 6 cm dilated and at the end of my rope. I gotta say, drugs are good. Very good. I like drugs. Modern medicine, however, still cannot take the "labor" out of "labor."

And then, joy! Miriam was born!

She was so peaceful after she was cleaned up and swaddled.

I like this clip of daddy and his new girl.

She did great the first few days. Her swelling went down to reveal this little angel by day three.

I like to think this shows her first smile.

On Thursday we went in to the birth certificate office at the hospital and officially named her!

Thursday was a day of a lot of firsts. First encounter with the government (we applied for a SS card for her), first time to be an official McConnell, first "real" outfit...

... first car ride home...

... and later, first sponge bath!

So now it is Sunday evening, and Andrew and I are almost a week into parenting, with many weeks to go. Thus far it is a mix of joy (she's so CUTE!) and agony (3 a.m., empty belly, full diaper, piercing screams). I look forward to the challenge of raising a baby. And, meanwhile, the second week of physio begins tomorrow, and I will make my first attempt at studying *some.*

Mega thanks to everyone's generosity in showering us with baby things and love! We need some weeks to recover from the work of keeping a baby alive, but when things start settling into a pattern we are excited to show Miriam off to the world.

Now, time for a nap...

Waiting for Baby

Andrew and I are anxiously awaiting Miriam's arrival, as most of you know by now. Only, in true McConnell style, she is being lazy. If she doesn't arrive naturally by Sunday, we are scheduled for inducement on Monday. So most likely, we will have a baby by Monday or early early Tuesday, depending on how things go. So for those of you who are miffed because you haven't received baby pictures or announcements yet, fear not! You are not forgotten.

Meanwhile, we have been enjoying the past few days. We went to a craft store and picked up goodies for Christmas and modeled this stylish wreath hats.

Just spreading some Christmas cheer! And here is Andrew with a sad, sad stalk of celery. By the way, we did eat it :).

And here is Haidee and I at Vanida's wedding last week.

Can't wait for the baby! Or for Christmas!

The next time I post, we'll probably be parents ^_^.

Baby is Due and Genetics is Pwned

Today is the official day. Today is the day Miriam is due!! I've been having good, strong contractions. Not the "real thing" yet, but Miriam will be here by next Sunday at the latest, because at that point they'll induce. I'll try to post something on facebook before we hit the hospital, but no guarantees. I am so excited!

In other awesome news, I owned the Genetics mini-exam that I took Friday. Despite having contractions the whole time, I am pleased to report I kicked its ass.

"Dear Jenny,

We've scored the MiniTest you took on Friday, November 6.

You scored 19 points out of 20 (95%)."

4 hours of sleep, 9 months pregnant, contracting heavily and two days from my due date. Not bad, not bad.

Pipe Tobacco and Baby Loot

Here we are at Urban Dog. I was studying for Genetics (I took the midterm today, and despite only having 4.5 hours of sleep due to a false alarm this morning, I think I did just fine).


Andrew smoked a pipe after a fruitful trip to a completely awesome pipe shop downtown called Up In Smoke. I managed to capture the smoke coming out of his pipe as he lit it. Coffee and pipe tobacco: two of my favorite smells.


Here I am putting on my game face. I am tired and ready to pop out a baby, but I must study study study!

And here are some pictures of the cute baby stuff after this evening's baby shower, kindly hosted by the neighborhood ladies with whom I grew up.






I am blessed to be surrounded by such generous people :).