Cora

Cora was born on January 8, 2010 (although not named until January 10, ha). I posted some photos of our new miniature family member on picassa. If any of you have seen my facebook album, these are the same.

http://picasaweb.google.com/MorganGMac/Cora?feat=directlink

Her birth went better than I had even hoped, and our two days in the hospital were actually quite nice. The nurses would bring her to our room every four hours so I could feed her. We'd play with her, listen to music with her, contemplate what to name here, and so on until she went to sleep or pooped. Then, Chad would stroll her on down to the nursery, where she'd get changed and rocked back to sleep until the next feeding. Wonderful. We were convinced we could manage a baby like this, no problem.

Then, they sent us home. The first four hours were an endless loop of us putting her in her crib (or car seat or swing) until she cried. We'd give her a pacifier, pick her up, calm her down, and try again. There's nothing like incessant crying to fray your nerves. Finally, we broke down, called my family to come over, and passed her into their patient arms while we took a nap. The first week pretty much went like that. There was little sleep, a lot of crying, and much gratitude toward family for being there to hold Cora while we took a nap. Chad got used to walking into the nursery to find Cora and I both crying hysterically at each other. Not my proudest moments!

Eventually, we figured out how to feed her, put her to bed, and get some sleep without the help of family. We learned to tune out the crying too, so our frayed nerves are now numb. Five weeks later, and Chad and I are both working at our computers with dinner in the oven and Cora asleep in her swing. (Oops, she spit her pacifier out...Put it back in and return to typing...) At night, we sleep in three-hour chunks, but we're grateful for that. Cora can lift her head pretty well, coordinate her arm movements, hold her weight on her legs, and follow objects with her eyes. Chad's also teaching her to conduct and to dance. We expect those to have slower progress. We read to her from the Wall Street Journal, Tom Clancy, and the Robin Hobb novel I'm currently reading. She also watches 24 or trashy Telemundo shows with Chad late at night. All-in-all, we're doing quite well these days. Look for more pictures and updates soon! (And, yes, I'll still be posting Argentina things, sorry for yet another delay.)