Maya 1 Month old!

Long long time ago, I know, but didn't want you to miss these moments.
Working on a few posts right now, so check in again in a little while.

Head upright!

My mum asked for a picture of Maya holding her head upright. The first picture is me trying to get a shot when Keith is not around. The pic is not really illustrating the point, but kind of cute anyway. The second picture is when Keith was home and Maya had another chance to model her new hat, even though it was t-shirt warm outside. What baby wants, baby gets.. or is it what mommy wants, mommy gets? - hope this goes for Christmas too!!

Hanging out in the Bouncy chair!

I regret to say that it has been one month since I last posted anything on the blog. Needless to say, there has been a lot of change. Maya is growing like there is no tomorrow. Keith has finally finished up with a busy semester teaching 3 classes (and keeping up his hours at Starbucks), so he will have some much needed time off during the next few weeks - and so it will be easier for me to get on the computer - or at least that is my hope. Maya doesn't have her 2 month check up until Jan 22nd (3.5 month more like!). While we were waiting for an official check up, we were curious of how much she has actually grown in length, she seems soo long. We measured her, and it seems she has grown 3 inches (7,6 cm) since her birth. Not bad for our little peanut. Since the beginning of Dec. Maya has been practicing smiling and cooing, she makes some truely adorable sounds. Sometimes she sounds like a baby bird . On the same tokin, her hungry/wet diaper/angry-tired cry has become more distinct and hmmm LOUD. The upside on that last point is that up till now, she has been pretty easy to comfort - as long as you keep moving. Maya is taking a liking to the bouncy chair. She will sit there quite content for about 10-15 minutes, waving her arms and kicking her legs, concentrating on her morning gymnastics. In the top photo, she is sitting in the doorway taking in the garden view. There was a chill in the air that day,so she got to model her new home-knitted girly hat and blanket. In the second photo, Maya is enjoying a rare moment of self-imposed sleep. In the third one, Maya is being Maya.
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Infant Massage!

For a few weeks Maya and I took infant massage classes. Unfortunately, there were only 3 classes - not quite long enough to make friends with the other mothers. Maybe, in the New Year, we will try out exercising with the 'baby boot camp' group of mothers. If we pick the right time a day, which doesn't seem to be the same time a day everyday, Maya enjoys getting her massage. We usually get around the leg and foot massage, the tummy and chest (good for gas and digestion). Once I turn her over on her tummy and start on the back, it doesn't take long before she has had enough. So far we haven't really done much with the face and arm massage. I'm not absolutely positive of this, but I think she sleeps better after having a massage. Well, it would make sense, getting a massage can be so draining.

Darla & James!

Darla and James came by for a short visit one Sunday before returning up to their neck of the woods in Central (close to Greenville). They have two gorgeous kids - Emma and Noah, who they left at their grandma's, so they could give Maya their full attention. Too bad for us, because we haven't seen their kids for close to half a year. Emma is maybe 3-4 and Noah almost 1, so they grow quickly too. Maya can finally fit the cute little pants mormor and morfar sent over a while ago.

Daddy's girl!

Maya loooooooves her daddy! You can't help but laugh a little when Keith walks around the house with Maya on his arm going; 'this is your room, and this is where we change your diaper, and well... here we have your extensive wardrope', or 'this is the fridge. We keep food in here. You can have some later' and 'The laundry room... hmmm we wash your poopy diapers here'. Often, when Maya is upset, Keith takes her on the arm and walks back and forth in the garden. Even, from a distance you can hear the constant chanting of '2+2=4', '4*4=16', and later in question form 'what's the square root of 264?' Of course Maya loves it, and she almost always calms down, sometimes she even falls a sleep.

Bath time!

One thing Maya truly hates, is when we give her a bath in the small plastic tub. Luckily, she loves taking a bath with me - otherwise I'm sure we would end up with a somewhat dirty baby. I guess it is a comfort thing, the close body contact that makes her more adventurous? She floats while starring at the ceiling, or rather the light patterns on the ceiling. It looks like she finds it quite amazing when I pour water over her head before and after shampooing. The noise from the running fosset seems to mesmerize her. When all clean, I hand Maya over to Keith, who stands ready with a towel. It is now up to him to struggle with the falling temperature on the wet baby. When all done this morning Keith was positive that she cried for a little less time than usual. Maya's good mood only lasts for so long. In this case, Keith is catching the bad end of the deal.

Quite a schedule!

Just came back from our daily walk. Maya is sitting in the front pack on my tummy/chest. We always start out with Maya lying in the stroller, but about halfway she gets unconsolably unhappy, and I then carry her in the front carrier. Anyway, so she snuggles up and falls a sleep right away. A little while later, I try and put her down in the stroller once more, which lasts for about half a minute, and again she screams bloody murder. I just keep trying! It is beautiful fall weather outside, and well it was nice to get out.
Every week we have had to make a trip to the pediatricians office, sometimes even twice. Maya has been doing great, and the only problem has been that she didn't put on weight fast enough. It took a little more than a month for Maya to get up to her birth weight (they like for this to take only two weeks). From week to week the pediatrician wasn't worried about Maya's health, because she seemed to be hydrated enough etc. She wanted to keep an eye on our little girl, because of the slow weight gain. In the meantime, I did what I could to increase the milk supply... drinking mother's milk tea, taking fenugreek herbs, drinking a guiness beer now and then, (though I don't think that helped anything) and bought a brand new breastpump, so I could pump after each feeding. It has been really important for us to breastfeed (and still is), and it was heartbreaking to realize that I couldn't supply our little girl with enough milk. That was my first reaction - then of couse I was just happy that there is an alternative out there, so she would be able to get enough! After about a month, it became clear that we had to supplement with some Formula after each feeding. So this is how it would go: Maya would breastfeed for about 40 minutes (give and take a little, she is a slow eater and tends to fall a sleep a lot), then she would get a little Formula, then I would pump for about 15 minutes. Two hours from the beginning of this schedule, we would have to start all over (by the way this includes the nights, so yes we tend to nap when we can). The first few days of this was extremely stressfull, but then I found it easier to enjoy this one on one time with the little one. Anyway, now things are opening up a little. Maya had yet another trip to the pediatrician on Tuesday, and she now weights a little over 10 pounds and measures a little less than 23 inches. From then on we have stretched feedings at night from two hours in between to 3 hours (believe it or not, this makes a whole lot of difference) and we only supplement when she needs it, which amounts to about half the feedings. So a whole lot of information on the feeding schedule - not too interesting really, if you are not in the middle of it. The picture is of Maya claiming the lovely patchwork blanket she got from Mormor & Morfar.

Chris & Melanie

Chris and Melanie came over to meet Maya. Melanie was one of the only ones who predicted the baby to be a girl - I had everyone else convinced it would be a boy. I hope she cashed in on that bet!

Magnolia Plantation

We all went for an afternoon walk at Magnolia plantation the last weekend my folks were in town. The plantation is less than a mile down the road from here, and as you can see from the photos - very beautiful. We would go there more often if it wasn't so crazy expensive. Anyway love the photo of the four grandparents sitting on a bench like little school children.

Our own private helpers!

Mormor and Morfar (Dorthe's parents) came over from Denmark to stay for two weeks when Maya was almost 1 week old. It was absolutely amazing having them here. We all did a few outings together, and many times they ventured out by themselves - walked over the new bridge and scoped out downtown. Keith's parents took them on a Charleston house tour one evening, which they really enjoyed, eventhough it happened to be on a very hot and humid evening. Mostly though, we were here enjoying having extra hands to hold Maya while jumping in the shower etc. Both my mum and Poul Arne had many projects going on during their stay. Poul Arne attacked the wallpaper in the master bathroom (I'll have to show you a picture later), which turned out to be very hard work. My mum was busy doing a fall cleaning throughout the house - the fridge even got its turn. Best of all they served us a homecooked meal almost every night, which included many of my favourite recepies - such as pork meatballs in curry over rice (ris og boller i karry) - sounds good ehh? What a difference it makes when you have folks to cook for you... Speaking of which, Keith's parents have just been over and they brought excellent mexican food - yummi!

Off to Folly Beach!

The first weekend my folks were here, we went out to Folly beach for a walk. On the way there, we just had to stop by Starbucks for a frappuccino - uhm. Unfortunately, Keith had to stay behind because he had a load to prepare for for class. I think he was quite pleased with the empty house for increased concentration. Keith had a day off yesterday though, so the three of us repeated the success and I added a few of those photos. Note the cute little booties on Maya that my mum brought over. If I remember right, my mum knitted them, gave them to my brother and Anette's twim babies (who are now 1 year old toddlers), who in turn gave them to Maya. When my folks, Maya and I went to Folly beach - mind you, this was in October - quite a few people were sunbathing and a few even ventured into the water... Crazy right? Anyway since my parents left, it has gotten quite a bit cooler here. The sun is still shining but thankfully without the humidity.

Lounging!

Here's some pics of Maya getting comfy!

"0" Birthday!

When we came home from our walk on the Battery Wednesday - well a few weeks ago now - A Birthday cake for Maya had been delivered. See photos above for the purple wonder. It came from my chiopractor Dr. Evaline Delson, whom I went to see the last few weeks of my pregnancy. Initially, I went to Dr. Delson, because I was afraid that the baby was 'breached' (head up) - I was 36 weeks and, usually, after that point it gets increasingly difficult for the baby to turn, because of less and less room. Dr. Delson has an amazing 'track record' - for, as she says 'making room for the baby to turn'. It turned out that Peanut had turned by herself by the time I got to see Dr. Delson, but needless to say there was still plenty of adjustments to be done on my swollen pregnant body - so I kept seeing her a few times a week. Maya had her own first adjustment/check up thursday last week - everything was great! Back to the wonder of the cake! The following day - thursday - we had a little delayed birthday party for Maya. Tea and cake, delicious - I think we ate of the cake for an entire week. Note the pink and white '0' yr. candel.

"0

Mormor & Morfar was here!

It is due time to finsh some of the many blog entries that I have started (well at least in my head). Maya is 4 weeks and one day and we are struggling to keep up. Maya started out as a very agreeable little girl (we knew it was too good to be true) - Lately she has proven to be a little more of a handfull, but of course a joyful handfull. For the most part Maya does not want to nap or hang out unless she is hold - preferable with a boob in her mouth, which of courses makes it hard to accomplish any of the tasks requiring a full set of hands - you know, like typing... or hmm showering - Can you smell me from afar? So here is an apoligy for all the e-mails I yet have to return.
I was called away yesterday by an 'AHH' 'AHH' cry (which stands for 'Feed me pronto'), and the rest of the day simply flew by. But I am back, with a sleeping (and snorring in a very cute fashion) Maya in a sling. So lets see if I can get back to blogging.
My parents arrived one day short of Maya's 1 week birthday (oct 8th) after a long trip from Denmark. You can see the proud grandparents (mormor & morfar = Dorthe's parents) above. They stayed for two weeks and enjoyed seeing Maya grow and change from day to day. The other two photos are from a walk on the Battery in Charleston when Maya was one week and one day. It was my first 'fairly' long walk and it felt so good being out in the amazing weather. The wather pretty much stayed gorgeous while my folks were here, though there was some complaints about it being 'too hot and too humid'... I take it they will never venture to Charleston in July and August!

Corrections!

So I noticed I made a mistake when sending out the e-mail announcements to everyone. Of course Maya wasn't born on October 22.... The two must be a little loose on my keyboard. She was born on October 2! Also, her weight was 8 lb and 14 ounces - and not 8 lb and 16 ounces, which I'm told is really the same as 9 lbs. Pardon the confusion.

Eat and poop!

A whole week has gone by and some. Because we left the hospital after 24 hours of recovery, we had a one week appointment with the pediatrician for a weight check on Maya on Tuesday this week. During the first week it is amazing how much time we spent worrying about little things (well a lot of the time little things that can turn into bigger things). During that first week we vigorously kept a chart of her eating habits, and the appearance of her dirty diapers - worrying mainly if we were doing things right?? Anyway long list of worries made short - she is doing great, and really that is all we wanted to know.
Keith's dad took a bunch of photos during those first few days - here's some we just have to share with you.
So the photos are of; Keith and Maya, Maya burping but having a very hard time staying awake, Maya Big Foot, and two photos of Maya in her fluffy reuseable diaper having a cozy time with mum. - It's hard to imagine she can get any cuter than this, right?

Hello Ankles!

I noticed yesterday that I'm no longer walking around on tree trunks - so deligthful. Maya is one week old tomorrow. It's amazing how quickly things go - it has been a good week for all of us. Lots of time to sit around and look at our little girl - marvelling that the little critter has been so cozy in my tummy for months and months. So far everything has gone pretty smoothly - Grandma and Grandpa Lopez have been super helpful, both around the house, painting and hanging art work, and they have turned up with food several times, which has been a life saver. You can see the proud Lopez grandparents above. There is no doubt about it, Maya is taking after her father with a full set of dark hair and eyes and an unmistakable K-lo yawn. This past week, Maya has been pretty mellow working on her various lounging positions. We will have to try and catch her in the act later on. My mum and Poul Arne just arrived from Denmark. They are staying for two weeks, so hopefully there will be a little more time for blogging. The photos are of daddy's girl rocking out in her 'I love NY' onsie, Keith walking our Rock Star Baby stroller ... That's right!! - Jon Bon Jovi got one apparently (or designed it or something)... and one of myself and Maya on a stroll in the neighboorhood. And yes, it is still pretty warm and humid here.