Well, the second blood proved good news as Leina’s billirubin count dropped from 17 to 14 over the last twent-four hour period so it looks like she’s cleared the jaundice hurdle and won’t have to go for a baby tanning session. Phew. Even better, she has started gaining weight and is back up at 8lbs 1oz today which is another relief.

I had thought that birth was the hard part. Nobody warned me about this whole breast feeding thing. I guess I supposed you just kind of put them on the breast and nature took over. That would be incorrect… at least for Leina. There has been a very tough learning curve in this house. It’s so frustrating to hold this hungry crying baby in your arms, know what you need to do, but unable to do it. The worst is at night when you’re so tired and groggy. All I think about is her wasting away to a little stick baby becauce I’m unable to do my duty as a mom.

Thank goodness, Granny Tutu is here to reassure me that Suzy and Daniel went through the same process. Now, that kid is a chunker so I know there’s hope. Leina and I are just beginning to get our nursing grove together but there has been a price. A steep price.

My boobies.

Yes, I have sacrificed my boobies on the alter of motherhood. I know this because last night after nursing, Leina feel off the boob not with the usual milk mustache but a blood mustache. Horrified, we examined my poor mangled boob and sure enough, it had been sucked raw to the point that blood was flowing freely.

Upon seeing this, I immediately turned to Leina who was sleeping happily and said, “you mean baby, why are you hurting your momma?” My mom replied, “don’t blame Leina!” Well, who else is there to blame? Unless some other kid is sneaking in while I’m sleeping and nursing without me knowing, I’m pretty sure that my kid is to blame here.

You see, Leina doesn’t nurse. Nor does she suckle. Oh no, my darling girl guzzles. She claims down with gums of steel and sucks like a vaccum cleaner. I’ve started calling her my little Hoover but after that first blood, we’ve changed her name to the little baracuda. I wonder how you say baracuda in Hawaiian? We might be changing her birth certificate if she keeps this up.

The funny part was, after the initial shock, my mom and I thought, “quick, grab the camera a take a picture!” Our next thought, thankfully, was that maybe this wasn’t the sort of picture you want to send to friends and relatives. Good to know the lack of sleep hasn’t totally robbed us of all sense of decorum or you’d be starting at a digital picture of my left breast and trust me, it wouldn’t be anywhere near sexy.

Our first outing to the doctor is over. It wasn’t easy. Baby Leina is looking a little jaundiced so they ordered a blood test. Now, on a five day old baby, the only way to get blood is one drop at a time. Yes, you heard me. They pricked her little foot and then squeezed out her baby blood drop by drop. It seemed like it took hours for the tech to fill that little vial with enough blood for her test and boy did she scream! (Not that I blame her really.) The truely horrible part is that the test that she might be jaundiced enough to require sunlight treatment so today we are heading back to the hospital for a follow up test. This means another prick and five for agonizing minutes of watching her scream and kick. Poor little girl.

This is partly my fault, you see. I should have questioned Kevin much closer before saying “I do”. Turns out both he and his brother were jaundiced as babies and had to undergo treatment. Is jaundice inherited? I dunno but I’m thinking this doesn’t look good for my baby girl.

Leina girl is still working on settling into a routine. I spend most of my time huddled over her crying form asking, “what do you want baby?” Since she doesn’t appear to be able to converse yet, I guess I’m just going to have to get better at reading baby cry language.

Artie, however, appears to be mildly disgusted with this turn of events. I swear I saw him shoot me a look this morning that said, “what were you thinking bringing that home and did you keep the receipt?” He has proven himself above and beyond though. With all the relatives marching in and out of the house, Artie as been a true gentleman and shared the sofa. He hasn’t eaten a single guest yet. What a good boy.

However, he hates baby crying. This is a problem since there’s quite a bit of that going on night and day now. Whenever Leina kicks in, his ears go back and he slinks upstairs away from the noise. He’s definately not impressed.

I, however, am developing a real tolerance for crying. I look at it more as a form of excersize. She gets to work out her lungs, legs and arms all in one shot. Not bad really.

Right now, Leina girl is curled up in Granny Tutu’s arms getting extra snuggling. Later this morning we have our first outing as we head for her first doctor appointment. Wish us luck!

As our good friend Shanda put in the last blog’s comment Leina is looking less and less like me everyday. Most people think this is a good thing since Chrissie is prettier than me but I already miss my little girl. When she first arrived all the nurses and grandparents exclaimed with surprise that she had my lips, my nose, my chin, even my chubby cheeks. But slowly, over the course of hours, as Leina blossomed into the little snuggle-buggle she is today (at day 4) everyone now says she looks like Chrissie. She now has HER eyebrows, HER nose, and I’m sure she’s going to get Chrissie’s hair. She was my beautiful baby girl at first, but now I have to share her. Oh well, she’ll always have my dimple 🙂

It’s only pictures from the first day for now, but take a look…

More wonderful baby updates later, for now I have to thank Elmo for fixing the digital camera:

Without him nobody would be getting any precious baby info!

Thanks Elmo!