baking a bun

"Here I am with this tiny, warm body so close to me, breathing so fast he can barely catch up, sharing his newfound joy of simply being alive with me. The sublime joy of this moment, and all the other milestones – the first smile, the first laugh, the first “dada” or “mama”, the first kiss, the first time you hold hands. The highs are so incredibly high that you’ll get vertigo and wonder if you can ever reach that feeling again. But you peak ever higher and higher, with dizzying regularity."

Jeff Atwood, On Parenthood

Pain-coping techniques we practice

breath awareness
non-focused awareness
centering (going into the wave)
circular breathing

"I met a woman who is an engineer for a large corporation. Having recently returned to work after a three-month maternity leave, she had just gone on an out-of-town trip, her first overnight experience away from her son. She was committed to breast-feeding and so […] she had hauled a small suitcase of equipment that included a breast pump […] How different her life would be if she could simply bring her baby on the plane and into the boardroom, as a San woman would carry her infant on her gathering route. But Western culture has distinctly separated woman as the worker from woman as the mother. The workplace, at times, is conducted in such a way that it seems to deny that we are mammals."

Meredith Small

"Today more often than not, American women are without the support and care they need in postpartum. It is commonplace for a woman to return to a full-time job, away from her baby nine or ten hours a day, just weeks after the birth. That women feel pressured to leap into the hurried pace of modern life so soon after giving birth is a tragedy."

Suzanne Arms, in her introduction to this

via

24-hour Cribside Assistance: for dads, by dads

I love the angle and the heartfelt commentary!

Things about labor I’ve learned in childbirth class

You can imagine the cervical dilation as the neck of a turtleneck sweater as you stretch it over your head.
The lips/jaws and birth canal are connected; relax the former, and you relax the latter.
The baby rotates itself (first head, later shoulders) and you can help the head rotation by shifting your pelvis into a variety of positions.
The noises you make evolve from low moaning to modulated moaning to almost-grunts to grunts. (from doula)

Your Baby and Child (★★★)

I highly recommend the newborn/infant care how-to chapter with its pictures. Of course, that’s what DK does best. Way more helpful than the class we went to (my advice is skip paid infant care classes…and try to find other resources).

I only skimmed the first few chapters of the book and if I were to point out its faults they are mainly the dense textbook feel of it and the total-80s photos.

Amazing breastfeeding

Dad and I both couldn’t stop talking after the breastfeeding 101 and supporting breastfeeding the breastfeeding mother classes we went to, respectively. Pat and Gina were fantastic. Some things we learned:

During the first weeks, the task is to “rest and nest.”
The head of the baby needs to be able to go backward to drink…just like adults do.
If you need to supplement off the breast, the baby’s position should be upright.
The “C” or “U” breast hold should be parallel to the baby’s lips, no matter how they are positioned…it’s like making a big sandwich more manageable.
Stomach to stomach is an ideal position.
Sleeping with the baby and breastfeeding is good.
Adults should cut their nails short for the fingers they will inevitably put in the baby’s mouth to soothe or break a latch.
Skin-to-skin contact resets the baby (and mother) when they feel overwhelmed.

The one book recommended was Breastfeeding Made Simple. And various co-workers have said that lactation consults after the baby was born made all the difference.

Nature’s proportions

Did you know that the centimeters a pregnant belly measures correspond to the weeks of pregnancy +/- 2? For all women, regardless of body type? Amazing.