Feb. 21: When Bryan and I went out to Olbrich the other day, I packed my diaper bag/purse with essentials for the first time. It was quite a mental exercise. Nursing supplies for me, check; diapers for Andrew, check; diapers for Sylvia, check; extra outfit and blanket for Sylvia in case of a diaper blowout, check; crackers and sippy cup for Andrew, check; camera, check; cell phone – charged, check.
Bryan got Andrew bundled up, and he led him out to the car while I got Sylvia in her seat. It wasn’t until I was walking out toward the car that I realized that I still had on my slippers – and no socks.
Oops.
Getting out as a family of four
Feb. 20: There’s a lunar eclipse going on right now. It’s really amazing looking. We showed it to Andrew and told him that people used to think that a dragon was eating the moon. Afterward, he kept asking where the dragon was:)
We’ve had some nice outings this week. On Monday, I had a most incredible massage in the afternoon. I took Sylvia with me, and she got a little fussy a couple times. I had her sleeping on my chest for the second half of the massage, and it turned out to be a really peaceful and centering experience. A little life lesson in how to tend to one’s self as well as one’s family.
Yesterday was my first just-for-fun outing. I put on my contacts and jeans and some makeup and the four of us went to Olbrich Gardens to walk in the conservatory. It felt good to be out in public. My body feels nearly back to normal, well, maybe that’s a bit of a stretch, but I do feel mostly like myself other than being pretty sleepy.
Today the four of us went to Mad Town Twisters gymnasium where Andrew had an absolute blast running and jumping and climbing. Sylvia slept the whole time we were there. This week is speeding on by.
My friend and co-worker, Pam, had a baby girl on Monday. Mercy Caroline. So Clara is a big sister now too. All these fresh babies.
It’s enough cuteness to make a person turn to ooze.
I stayed up too late last night. I think my previous bedtime of 8:30 or 9 is much more conducive for an awake day than the 9:30/10:30 bedtime. Sylvia is having some longer sleeping stretches (2 1/2, even a 3 hour sometimes), but she also often wakes up every hour to nurse.
She sure is cuddly in the bed, my little sweetie.
I’m going to try to upload some pictures, but I have to re-install programs to do so. Bryan has our computer up and running again, but there’s lots of little things that need tweaking to get them working!
Photos from the last several days are in the gallery.
What Andrew thinks of his new sister
Feb. 20: Andrew thinks that his new little sister is pretty wonderful. When he met her in the hospital, I suggested that he touch her on the nose (Granny wisely had suggested a kiss on the forehead). Today he probably touched Sylvia’s nose 40 times. It’s his little way of checking in. “I want to touch Sylvie’s nose.” Fortunately, she can sleep though a gentle nose-touch. Today he bent down to kiss her forehead and then went back for two or three more kisses. She’s very kissable. And Andrew isn’t a boy who gives kisses too freely.
Yesterday, Andrew was prancing around the house singing to the tune of “Mary had a little lamb” “Where did little Sylvie go, Sylvie go, Sylvie go? Where did little Sylvie go? I want to see her.” And he pronounces “little” “widdle,” so it’s especially enduring.
Before his nap earlier this week, I asked Andrew what he thought he would dream about today. “I’m going to dream about Baby Sylvia,” he said.
And today as we were leaving the house, I asked him who was in our family. “Daddy,” he said, “and Mommy and Andrew and Sylvia.” I think he has the new family member thing figured out. I feel so lucky to have two so amazingly sweet babies.
Naming our baby
Feb. 17: It’s been so much fun these past days to look at little Sylvia and to call her by her name. I’ve been writing her baby announcements, and it feels sort of crazy to write her name over and over. Sylvia. Sylvia. Sylvia. We could have given her any name, but that’s the one we chose. That’s what people will call her for the rest of her life. It’s a big thing! I have no previous context for the name Sylvia, so now I’m creating the association with this new little member of our family.
Joe did a post on his blog with musings about her name: http://platosfootnotes.net/2008/02/13/sylvia/.
I found the name in December when Bryan and I were pouring through The Baby Name Wizard book. They said, “Concentrate hard on this one. Put aside your preconceptions, close your eyes, and really listen to the name. Lovely, isn’t it.” In the 1910s, it was #73 in popularity. These days it is #561…pretty uncommon. I think the nickname Sylvie is really cute. And I like spelling it with a “y” since Bryan is spelled with a “y.”
I think my favorite part of the name is that it means “from the forest.” So there’s a lovely link to nature, and it also happens that Bryan’s maternal grandpa’s name is Forrest. To me, Sylvia makes me think of a quiet forest painted lavender in the moonlight.
According to one of my mom’s name books, “Sylvia is from the Latin silvanus, meaning ‘forest.’ In Roman mythology, Silvanus is the good of the woods and fields. Silvia is variant spelling. In ancient times, Sylvia was a favorite name for a shepherdess.”
When I did some web research on the name, here are some fun things I found:
There was a good discussion on the Baby Name Wizard discussion board about why Sylvia hasn’t become more popular in recent years.: http://thebabynamewizard.ivillage.com/parenting/archives/2007/11/who-is-sylvia.html
Here’s a poem by William Shakespeare to a Sylvia of alternate spelling:
Who is Silvia? What is she?
That all our swains commend her?
Holy, fair, and wise is she;
The heaven such grace did lend her,
That she might admired be.
Is she kind as she is fair?
For beauty lives with kindness:
Love doth to her eyes repair,
To help him of his blindness;
And, being help’d, inhabits there.
Then to Silvia let us sing,
That Silvia is excelling;
She excels each mortal thing
Upon the dull earth dwelling:
To her let us garlands bring.
Wouldn’t you know…
Feb 19: On Sunday afternoon, I was working on a post about Sylvia’s name. I noticed that Windows wanted to do an automatic update, so I told it to go ahead. When I restarted the computer a bit later, all that came up was a blank, black screen telling me that a system file was corrupted and Windows could not start. Fortunately, my computer-brilliant husband took over. I don’t think I am emotional centered enough this week to deal with either the loss of our web domain or with the loss of our computer. Bryan has been able to remove the hard drive from our laptop and back up (what we hope are all) the important files. Now we’re going to wipe the laptop out and reinstall Windows. Geesh!
I’m typing now on our old laptop that sometimes does and sometimes does not allow you to use the “enter” and spacebar buttons. I guess it woke up on the right side of something this morning.
All is well here aside from the computer fiasco:)
We’re on our own…
Feb. 16: Little Sylvia is sleeping on my lap, and Bryan and Andrew are in the kitchen playing with Play doh. Granny Lu flew home this afternoon…a very bumpy, exciting trip, I hear…and now we’re on our own. It was so _very_ nice to have her staying here with us these last couple weeks. And this last week since Sylvia has been here, it’s been just amazingly wonderful to have a third adult in the house. She worked really hard on our behalf, and I know that Bryan and I both feel so very grateful.
I got a bit more sleep last night, and I woke up this morning feeling the best I have all week (baring perhaps the euphoric day Sylvia was born). Sore muscles are improving, and the world feels like a good place:) Maretta and Kyle drove down from St. Paul yesterday to meet their new little niece. It’s such fun to introduce Sylvia to the world!
Andrew has been asking to hold and kiss Sylvia a lot, and yesterday when he went down for his nap, he told Bryan that he was “going to dream about baby Sylvia.” Before Bryan’s mom left today, we had Michael, Lisa, Terry, Maretta, and Kyle over for breakfast. They brought treats from a new patisserie on the square called Sucre.
Mmmmmmm.
Bryan has all of next week off work, and he is planning on working only mornings the following week. So now begins a new chapter of our life. It’s us and our two kids. Wow. Such cute kids. I think my lips are going to get worn out from kissing them both so much.
Pictures from the last couple days are in the gallery.
Settling in
Feb. 15: It’s a sunny morning, and the world is feeling a little clearer to me. Sylvia has been napping for longer stretches – during the day she’s been asleep for nearly three hours. At night, I don’t think she’s gone for more than about 1 1/2 hours of sleeping at a stretch. One major improvement since the prior nights is that last night she would eat for 10 -20 minutes and then go back to sleep rather than just pretty much nurse constantly. That gave me the opportunity to get some much-needed sleep:)
This morning she’s been snuggling in her little chair under her beautiful, soft pink blanket from my Aunt Kate.
Andrew spent much of the morning listening to a Fantasia 2000 CD we got him for Valentine’s Day. He just loves Fantasia, and it’s neat to sit with him, curled up under the blankets and talk about what is happening during each part of the music. He gets a far-away look in his eyes, and you can just tell that he is visualizing it all in his head. “What happening now?” is his oft-repeated question. He likes to be held during the scary parts and sometimes sings along or clucks his tongue in time to the music. What a neat kid:)
Sunshine and sleep. A good combination, I think!
I just copied all the photos that Granny Lu took over the last couple weeks, and I added them to the last few albums in the gallery. Enjoy!
My little Valentine
Feb. 14: Happy Valentine’s Day! I’d intended to post loads of new photos this morning as a Valentine’s Day treat for everyone, but I entered a new state of exhaustion and just didn’t have the energy. I wonder why? We came home from the hospital on Tuesday afternoon, and it’s felt great to be back at home. Bryan’s mom has been terrific…I’ve been so pampered and catered to these last few days.
What a treat!
Sylvia’s main interests right now are eating, sleeping, and eating.
Last night, I think she nursed or was asleep while nursing almost all night. Unfortunately, that meant that I didn’t get as much sleep.
Today we’ve found that if we can amuse her (jiggling, walking, swaddling, holding) for a while, she’ll eat a full meal and then sleep for a couple hours. I’m hoping to employ that technique tonight to try to get a couple hours of solid sleep!
Andrew has been doing really well. He’s having a blast playing with Granny and Daddy, and he’s so sweet about wanting to hold or kiss or look at baby Sylvia. I just love that boy:)
Sylvia had her first doctor’s appointment today, so Bryan and I made our first foray into the world since our drive home on Tuesday. Sylvia is back up to her birth weight (7 lbs, 9 oz), and she passed all the healthy baby tests.
She’s currently sleeping on my chest while I type, and her little fingers are curled around the edge of my shirt. I’ve uploaded new pictures to the gallery, so enjoy!
Introducing Sylvia!
Feb. 11: We settled on her name, Sylvia Dotzour this morning. No middle name for this little miss. In my mind, her “silent” middle name is after me and my mom…no middle names there either:)
Sylvia was born at 12:55 am on Monday, February 11, 2008. She was 7 lbs, 9 oz and 19 inches long. Labor lasted about eight hours. It’s hard to believe that 24 hours ago was when I was really starting to go into labor! And now she’s here:)
Andrew got to meet Sylvia this morning. He came in bearing some cut out cookies that he and Granny made. His interactions with his sister were so sweet. Bryan encouraged him to sing her a song, so he did a boisterous rendition of “Old McDonald Had a Farm.” Before leaving, he also sang her “Rock-a-Bye Baby.” We gave Andrew the Bitty Baby that my mom had picked out for him as a big brother present. He really liked how its eyes opened and shut.
The little one has been nursing well and sleeping lots on this first day.
Photos of her and of our steady stream of visitors are in the gallery.
She’s here and all is well!
Feb. 11: I’ve so been wanting to write a post like this! Our sweet little girl was born last night around 1 am. The labor was powerful, and positive. We’re still confirming a name for the little one, and we haven’t gotten much sleep this evening (it’s now 6 am), but I’m so full of joy and excitement that I’m having a hard time sleeping:)
I felt so loved and supported through this whole pregnancy…especially this last week of wait, wait waiting. Thanks for being part of the circle of people who is welcoming out little one into the world.
Jessica shared a song with me last week that was so poignant that it made me sob to listen to. If this baby news makes your emotional barometer go haywire, listen to this wonderful song for a little push over the edge. It’s song 6 – Welcome to this world.
With love,
Althea