Life with baby, day 74.

Chaya is asleep. I am tired. As per usual. She sleeps well at night though. Anywhere from 6 to 7 hours at a time, then a brief session of feeding and back to sleep for another 2 and a half hours. This morning we woke up at 7:30. Well, actually, she started making noises at 7, but I stick the pacifier in her mouth a few times, like she is an alarm clock and I am pressing the snooze button. She had pooped, hence her fussiness. Plus, then she wants to feed as she is starving. My little monkey. She still has a temper, when I don't satify her demand quickly enough, her crying turns into hysterics. Sometimes it is funny to watch this tiny little thing exert her power. She is growing so fast. It is unbelievable how fast they grow at this age. I am amazed by her everyday and everyday I feel closer and closer to her. I didn't have love at first sight. I was interested in her, but I think the shock of having her and the shock that this little thing came out of me was too unbelievable. It took me awhile to really feel bonded. It came more when she started smiling. Now she waits for me and when I smile she smiles. She waits to see what I am going to do to entertain her. She really thinks I am funnier than Jerry Seinfeld. It is so gratifying. I wonder if Jerry Seinfeld was offended when his kids thought their mommy was the funniest thing on earth. I would be, as a comic, offended if she thought David was funnier than me. That will never happen...Haha.
Am finding it hard to lose the baby weight. I gained weight in places I never thought I possibly could. The tops of my arms are fat. My hips have grown. I still can't fit into my prepregnancy clothes. It is rather alarming. I need to look up weight watchers on the net for Israel. I am a lifetime member but as I haven't been in ages, I don't know if it gets cancelled. I don't think I even have the card anymore that identifies me as a lifetime member...
Anyway, just a quick update on life with baby.

Happy Chaya

Chaya is asleep and I am at the computer, looking at the new Kollel website, watching one minute shorts and feeling nostalgic. I really miss the Kollel. I really miss the community in Vancouver. My community in Vancouver, which is made up of so many different people and places. I had another one of those moments yesterday where I came home feeling dejected, as happens so many times for me here in Israel. We took Chaya for an immunization at the public health clinic and the nurse happened to be from Canada. This was really nice for me, to be able to speak to someone who could understand me, not just in words, but culturally as well. I asked her about things for children, babies, things to do here in Ashdod, hoping that there might be something. Nothing. Nothing for babies. Except a baby massage course which she will enroll me...FULL. Of course. This is how it always is here. I get my hopes up that perhaps there might be a solution and then BAM. Hopes dashed. It is so very frustrating.
Really frustrating.
Chaya was fine when we came home from the clinic. She went to sleep, but when she woke up she was crying hysterically. In pain. Her little leg was a little swollen and red and hot hot hot. I put her in the bath, put a cold water cloth on it, bounced her, tried to feed her, she didn't want to eat. We gave her some tylenol and eventually she calmed down and slept and was happy for the rest of the day. She did, however continue to be hot, so I repeated the bath and gave her more tylenol later on in the day. She was in a really good mood yesterday, smiley and happy, she even laughed out loud once. She is getting more fun. Today, she is a little fussier, doesn't really want to stay asleep. This is more normal behaviour for her...
I love her so much.
It is amazing how you can love someone this much. It is a hugely different love than what you feel for a husband, boyfriend, mother sister brother father. She is amazing and delightful. She loves me. She sees me and her face lights up and she gives me the little gummy grin. No matter how upset or depressed I may feel at that moment, to see that, I can't help but smile myself.
Amazing.

Talking...

Chaya has started talking. OK, it is not talking with words, then she would be some sort of freak of nature. But she is making sounds and she looks at you and makes them. Then she will wait for you to answer her back. It is amazing. She is amazing. She is having more and more periods of wakefulness where she is content to play on her own and then when she is bored she cries so that we will pick her up and entertain her. She loves to see me and David and Emil. And she loves David's sister in law Orly. It is so cute. We went to Orly's today, walked over there, it really isn't so far, except that they live on the ninth floor and since it is shabbat, we had to take the stairs. NINE flights, with a baby in the front pack. But it was good exercise and Orly, dependable as ever had some good chocolate cake for me to replenish any calories I may have lost!
Chaya is changing daily, I can't believe how much she has grown in such a short period of time. I told David the other day, during one of her crying fits that she is probably going to be a child who has temper tantrums, as it seems she already is. But she is lots of fun and it certainly cancels out all the screaming that she does! Today, thank g-d was one of her good days. May there be many more of them in a row!