This just in from the baby bunker

Today the daughter, or, as we call her here on Knitcrit, db, is one month old. I have learned a lot about babies in the past four weeks; I have also learned that there is no end to the number of ugly-ass pink baby outfits that China can churn out. Is it rude to beg relatives - and particularly in-laws - to lay off the pink? Or at least lay off the pink velour?

I can almost imagine doing non-baby care related things again - I am planning a new small project for Todd's incoming niece (description forthcoming) and I am making some progress on db's blanket (recall: October deadline). The gift for the last of the May babies needs to be felted and then it's done. I've never felted before and fear a disaster, either with the project or with the washing machine. Knitty has a good discussion of how to felt but I'm open to other sources of information if there's anything good out there.

For db's fall wardrobe, I am thinking of Topaz from Knitty:























It looks like a quick, fun, wearable knit. I don't harbor any illusions of db appreciating it, though, if her reaction to her first knits is any indication:

It's a Girl!

Contrary to the freely volunteered (which is to say, largely unsolicited) opinions of friends, family members, and random New Yorkers on the street, it was in fact a very active, carried- high-and-all-in-the-front girl. She arrived at 7:27 pm on Saturday 25th July and weighed in at 7 pounds, 11 ounces. About the 77 hour labor that preceded her birth I will not say much at this moment since said daughter is maybe finally asleep and I want to get this post done before she wakes up.
















Isn't she adorable? I can't believe how bonded to her I feel already, and that is saying something given how hellish it has been establishing breast feeding. Two choice bits of information on that front: (1) She came out of the womb sucking so hard that she'd sucked her upper lip into her mouth, causing the doula to exclaim "I've never seen such a powerful suck before! Wow!" and (2) Mastitis.

But yeah - 77 hours. For real. By which I mean real labor - strong, extremely painful, regular contractions that progressed quickly to 5 minutes apart and then continued for three days and three nights. And the best guess the doula and midwives have is that she had too much room in my pelvis and so my contractions wouldn't force her head down onto the cervix properly, and this made me EXTREMELY - we might even say INSANELY - slow to dilate. As in, my daughter had so much room in the pelvis that when the midwives would attempt to check her position vaginally, they would feel the top of her head shaking back and forth (in a "no" gesture - as in "no, I will NOT leave the womb"), which meant she had tons of room up there - a crazy, abnormal amount. Which means that, combined with a genetically-bestowed large pelvis, maybe all that yoga opened things up a little too much. Oh, the irony. With a regular doctor I would certainly, absolutely have been c-sectioned, but my midwife team was just brilliant and in the end, I was able to deliver vaginally, so there's a happy ending to the labor story. Plus, I don't have stretch marks at all and I can fit into my old clothes already, so those are some nice consolation prizes.
















But mainly, I love my little girl! I really do. It's amazing. I'd post a picture of her in her hat and booties, but the hat was too big and the booties were too small. Already, she rebels.

And she also has great comic timing: