Considering that our last post was about a month ago, and in the weeks preceding that our posting was spotty at best, it might feel like Mike and I are those absentee friends that you used to know but then they started listening to soft rock, moved to a suburb with a lot of small dogs, and promised that “Yeah, sure, we’ll go for a drink sometime…” but they never call.  That’s sort of true, actually (except for the soft rock), but we didn’t really fall off the face of the earth or the edge of reason.  We just kind of….fell apart.  In other words, we had a baby.

After the kind of completely atypical labor and delivery that will forever redefine how I think of the phrase, “hard and fast”, on August 15, 2012, we welcomed 9 pounds and 5 ounces of beautiful baby girl into the world.

Note: I had a late-date ultrasound appointment the day before and they guesstimated her weight to be right around the 8 pound mark.  Thank god for lies like that, because when you’re girding your loins for a drug free delivery, any suspicions over 8 pounds are just better left unsaid.

Anyhow, I think that about 5 of those ounces have got to be made up of lip…

..and at least 3 ounces are comprised of her funny, unkempt mop of pseudo-electrified hair.

I will spare you the description of what the rest of her weight is comprised.

So how did we spend that first month?  Well, the first few weeks were spent desperately trying to get her to feed, dementedly trying to get her to sleep, and then feverishly trying to wake her up again to eat. I like to think that years of working multiple jobs and/or long hours, combined with my most recent role providing support to a manufacturing facility, was kinda like boot-camp training for these sleepless nights. In fact, that is likely the only reason that I could keep some semblance of smile on as we muddled through those early days, attempting not to hiss, ” ‘Sleep when the baby sleeps’ only works when the baby sleeps…so piss off!” to well meaning bystanders who bravely came by to offer us support.

And hey, she did sleep occasionally; I slept when she slept, and Mike captured each one of those instances on film so that looking back on these early days I appear to be the laziest new Mom in the world.

Speaking of Mike, he is as brilliant a Dad as I expected, and despite the fact that neither one of us has any idea what we’re doing, he has mastered the art of Snuggles, Tummy Time, and “Daddy Loves Me” songs.

It still seems a bit surreal that we have finally met our little Flipper, and we appreciate your patience with both the brevity and questionable frequency of our posting as we work to get through these first crazy and exciting few months.

Eventually I hope to once again get more than 4 hours of sleep a night and be able to take showers that are longer than 4.5 minutes, or, you know, cook a dinner that didn’t come from the freezer.  In the mean time, know that we miss you and can’t wait to start posting again as soon as the little babe will let us…hopefully soon, because Mama needs her stove!

(Photo courtesy of the charming and talented Jacob Hanania)