I'm so mad at my mother!

After weeks of effort and ups and downs, within inches of success, we won't be breastfeeding Sara anymore.

It looked like we had actually succeeded, despite many ups and downs. I spent a lot of energy encouraging Gan when times were hard.

But then when we were on the razor's edge, my mom, frustrated with trying to convince me to give up on breastfeeding, took matters into her own hands. Since Mom had failed to breastfeed, I guess she didn't want to see why anyone else might want to overcome the difficulties and succeed. So, she went for the jugular and sent this "caring" e-mail to Gan (not copying me, of course).

Dear Gan: Steve told me about the mastitis. I feel so sorry for you. You're having a hard time, with heavy bleeding and sore, inflamed breasts. My heart goes out to you. If you were my daughter (and therefore I had the right to give you advice whether you wanted it or not) I would say, "Put Sara on a bottle and enjoy her." Your overall health is more important than the small benefits to Sara's health. You gave breastfeeding a valiant try, which is all a parent can ever do.

I love you. Please don't be mad at me for meddling. When Sara is all grown up and on her own, you will still tell her how to live. Mothers are like that.

--
Regards,

And what do you know, it worked!

Kind of like saying to a recovering alcoholic "So sad about your wife leaving you. Come let me buy you a drink!".

Good job, Mom.

Welcome to the Machine

At the tender young age of 3 weeks, Sara has already been stamped and labeled. Actually, i think it's pretty cool that she received some mail in her name. It's her second official document, after her birth certificate.

Plus, i had fun figuring out how to smudge the secret information on the image.

One more recent photo

This one is just too cute to leave out. It captures Sara at her cutest. She must have just eaten, and not yet fallen asleep when i took this photo.

New Parents Photo update

Due to popular request, here are some more photos of us and the baby.
I think most of these were taken when Lauren came to visit.

isn't she lovely?

Here is some video of our new daughter set to the great Stevie Wonder song from "Songs in the Key of Life". I threw this together quickly, so i apoligize to the techofiles out there for the low quality...

On the 4th day...

We think that she's getting cuter with every passing day.

Sara with Mom and with Dad

Here's a couple of photos of the proud new parents, taken when Sara was about 2 or 3 days old.

Sara Mei Weighing in...

Here's the first photo of Sara, taken on her way from the delivery room to the nursery. She was screaming the entire time.






And here she is on the scale, weighing in at 8 lb, 7.9 oz. She was screaming and flailing her arm around for this photo too.

Isn't she Lovely?

Well, here she is! I fell in love with her at first sight.

This is a photo that i took on Sara Mei's birthday, Friday November 2, 2007. This picture was taken a few hours after she was born. I took the photo with my cellphone and e-mailed it to Rusty. I'm sure that more, higher resolution photos will be posted here soon, so keep your eyes on this site.

The cesarean delivery went smoothly with no complications. Gan is recovering wonderfully. She's up and walking around the maternity ward several times a day. She's the greatest.

Sara is a screamer, our little Jersey Girl, but she's easy to settle. She weighed 8 1/2 lb at birth, and in excellent health.

It's day 3, and finally the parents are learning from the hospital staff how to handle her. We're much more relaxed and we're really enjoying our sweet daughter. We're looking forward to seeing her grow.