4 Weeks Old

Sleeping in Daddy's arms after walking to the main beach at Lake Nokomis and back. (My longest walk since the c-section. It's going to be awhile until I'm up to running 26.2 miles at a stretch again!)
Waking up.
Hungry hand munching.
Well hello there, Lefty...
It doesn't seem possible, but as of today, Josephine is four weeks old! The time has passed in a blur, but even so there are little changes that we've noticed: she is sleeping longer at a stretch, and seems to be nursing more efficiently. (Either that, or she's just in between growth spurts at the moment.) When she was born she weighed 8 lbs., at her 2 week check-up she was nearly 8.5, and now I suspect she's somewhere close to 10. She has lost her bandy newborn look and gotten softer and rounder, and her cheeks are starting to get that fullness that I associate with breastfed babies. Her range of noises has expanded to include grunts, coos, and the occasional enraged bellow (when she doesn't have access to nourishment at the moment she wants it. . .) Her facial expressions, too, are getting more varied. When she sleeps she seems to be practicing different emotions with all the exaggerated enthusiasm of a community theater actor: Surprise (milky mouth in an "oh", eyebrows raised halfway to her downy hairline), Suspicion (brows drawn down, mouth flat) and Happiness (this most often when she has fallen asleep post-nursing, stretched out across my lap with her mouth and nose still nuzzled against my chest). When she is especially frantic to eat she latches on with a comically furtive look that I long to catch on video, and once she starts the milk flowing her face morphs into a beatific mien that reminds me of Bill Cosby's zany smile in a childhood's worth of Pudding Pop commercials.

She really is amazing.

Update to the Belated Update

Sleep when the baby sleeps...
The beneficent Grammy L.
After coming home from the hospital, I got an infection in my c-section incision, which was no fun, and then also developed a hematoma about the size of a softball in the sheath around my abdominus rectus muscles...so I have had a rough couple of weeks, but feel that I'm getting to the other side.

In better news, Josie is excellent, and has surpassed her birth weight by 6 oz., which is wonderful. We are very lucky to have my Mother in Law staying with us/looking after us, and days in the household are spend napping, eating and changing cloth diapers. I spend a fair amount of time feeling like a zombie milk truck, but in the best sort of way. Sometimes I have these moments of clarity in the middle of the night, when Josie has finished nursing and dropped into a noisy, contented sleep, when I just look at her and marvel that Scott and I were able to make something so amazing.

I'm sure that lack of sleep makes these moments especially profound, but even so, it's pretty incredible.

We have had so many visitors this past week. Just today A. Boof and Dude stopped by to meet Josie. She was very pleased to meet them, too.

Great Aunt Boof loves up baby Josie.
I so remember cousin Will when he was Josie's size, and here he is, all grown up.

Belated Update

Josephine Frances made her way into the world at 3:30 P.M. on
Saturday, May 31st, via C-section after 14 hours of active labor.
Mother and baby are both doing very well, and after 3 days at
Woodwinds we are glad to be home and settling into our new roles as
Mom, Dad, and Most Adored. The pets aren't quite sure what to make of
this new creature who demands so much attention, and can made such
loud sounds for someone so small...

For those of you who appreciate statistics, Josie weighs 8 lbs and is
20" long. She took her own sweet time, making her appearance 10 days
after her due date. We are 100% delighted that she's finally here, and
look forward to introducing her to everyone.