Baby Jonah

Jonah's here! It didn't go smoothly as I hoped but he is happy and healthy. He was over a week late and the waiting really sucked. I stopped work a few days before my due date and I was really bored  for about two weeks. People kept telling me to relax and enjoy the quiet but I definitely would have preferred an extra week with the baby over a week of waiting around for him. I don't really believe in it but I even tried out a few of the stupid old wives tales to induce labor like eating pineapple and getting a foot massage.

I really didn't want to be induced but at my checkup they had some concerns so I ended up having to at 41 weeks and 1 day. I had a check up with a different doctor who wanted to induce one day earlier but he was awful so I waited until my regular doctor was available. The other doctor referred to inducing labor as wanting to "close my case." Seriously, it is a baby, not a legal brief. I was really glad my regular doctor delivered Jonah.

Jonah was born 9:30 pm on Christmas eve. We will forever continue to get comments about him having a Christmas birthday and how great it will be for him getting double presents. He isn't getting Christmas presents. When Jonah gets bigger he needs to think up some clever jokes about being a Jew born on Christmas eve.

Inducing sucked. I'm not the type to be excited about the natural childbirth thing but I'm kind of scared of drugs, I don't even like to take Tylenol, so I was hoping to take as few medications as possible. I ended up getting all kinds of stuff to start labor and stop the pain and I had some unusual complications in the middle and had to be sedated part way through. Jonah's heart rate was weird for a while and I almost needed an emergency c-section. They were all prepared for him to have problems but he was totally healthy when he arrived. The hospital care was pretty much as good or better than what we'd expect to get in the states. The nurses were all really nice and helpful but being in the hospital was exhausting and I barely slept the whole time. When it was finally time for us to leave we found out Jonah had jaundice and we needed to stay and put him under UV lights for an extra 12 hours. He hated it and it burned his skin and gave him a heat rash. Once we got home from the hospital things got a bit easier and Danny and I were able to sleep a lot more.

The first few weeks with Jonah were a bit hectic. We had all his grandparents visit from the states. First, Danny's parents came. We thought Jonah would be born before they visited but since he was a week late he wasn't born until halfway through their visit. After they left we had two days by ourselves and then my parents came. In the meantime, Danny had to go to the states for a conference for ten days and by the time he got back he missed half of Jonah's life. Now things are finally settled down into a normal routine.

Before I had a baby I thought changing diapers was the part I'd hate but it doesn't really bother me. I even mostly got over the fact that he has managed to pee on his own face mid diaper change on two separate occasions. That required some serious bathing. (DANNY NOTE: More than 2, Shoshana doesn't know them all...)  The lack of sleep everyone warned us about hasn't been that bad. We actually have managed to get 6 or 7 hours total most nights and Jonah generally hasn't been that fussy late at night, usually he wakes up once or twice, eats and goes right back to sleep. Turns out breastfeeding was the toughest part of having a baby for me. I don't understand these people who think breastfeeding is this beautiful magical experience. At least my experience the first few weeks was really awful, and painful. Also, why didn't anyone ever tell me about cluster feeding... he wants to eat nonstop for hours... it sucks. At least he sleeps for a long time afterward. I kind of wondered how I'd spend all my time after he was born. I spend most of my waking hours feeding him. I frequently use a free hand to research information about all the random things Jonah does, including cluster feeding. The one really good part of breastfeeding is it makes you lose weight really fast. I barely looked pregnant by the time I left the hospital. Feeding him is a whole lot better now that I have started pumping and can give him bottles instead but pumping really makes me feel like a cow. At least it gives me the freedom to leave the house by myself now and then. Anyway, the first few weeks were tough but things are much calmer and happier now that we've gotten more used to caring for him and he's in more of a routine.

After having a baby, I can understand better why Chinese locals have so many postpartum customs. I had a really easy pregnancy but the few weeks after he was born were tough health wise. I had more annoying postpartum symptoms than pregnancy symptoms. The concept of having a relative or yue sao take care of the mother and baby the month after birth makes more sense to me now. Most of the Chinese postpartum customs in my opinion are kind of crazy and irrational though. That is my general opinion on Chinese medicine but especially on the rules on what foods to eat and avoid after having a baby and the thing about not being allowed to do anything including taking baths for a month after the baby is born.

I have less than two weeks left until I am supposed to go back to work. Even though I'm going to miss Jonah I'm looking forward to getting back to having a regular routine and getting some time out of the house. So far in the 5 weeks since Jonah was born I left the house without him twice, once was for a doctor's appointment and once was to pick up some dinner. The scary part of going back to work is leaving him with a nanny or as they are called here an ayi. We still haven't found one. We have had six interviews so far and most of the sounded like they are more skilled in cooking and cleaning than in childcare. They also seemed to know absolutely nothing about child development. We interviewed one woman whose answer to what activities would you do with the baby during the day was watch tv...  Awesome. Read stories, play with toys, at least make something up. Am I expecting too much here?

The fun parts of having Jonah around are that he is super cuddly and cute and every day he learns new things that are pretty amazing. At a week and a half he started to be able to hold his head up. Yesterday he figured out how to roll over on his side. He is getting a lot more alert now and he stares at our faces like he is trying to figure us out. He is really funny when he sleeps, he giggles and pouts while he dreams. It is fun to notice all the little things he does and watch him change every day. He also is really fun to snuggle with.