Adventures with babybison- first week at home

Zooey, almost two days old

Our Zooey has been home now for a week. Today she is 10 days old. Here are some of the adventures we've been on with her thus far:












Baby meets Elly.
You all remember how much I love my convertible, Elly. I love her so much there was never any question that we would be keeping this admittedly impractical baby car. I certainly will have days without the baby in tow where I can still enjoy top down, yes? (For example, yesterday Adam and I ran to Target sans baby with the top down, thank you Grandma!) But getting her in and out will be what I call the "car seat shimmy". Won't be easy, but we'll get it done! Generally speaking I plan to hop into the backseat with babybison and get her in the seat. But the hospital likes to see the baby properly in the carseat before you leave so we had to put the top down in order to get carseat with baby already loaded into the back. Quite the sight. Glad we have documentation! (Btw, the valet said this was NOT the craziest thing he had seen- apparently some family tried but failed to get their newborn into an Aston Martin on his watch!)

We look so worried!

Putting the top back up

Tour of the apartment.
One of the baby books I read (Secrets of the Baby Whisperer) noted the importance of giving your newborn a tour of her new home. So after staring blankly at the baby for a couple minutes, we did just that....

Staring blankly at baby...."what do we do with her??"

Break for a feed mid-tour

Happy new Daddy.

Time for a nap in my awesome crib!

Meeting the grandparents....multiple times.
Babybison is lucky to have her grandparents nearby and has already spent quality time with all four of them. Here's proof. (Don't worry- pics of grandfathers to follow in future post!)

Grandma Lilly

Grandma Nelson aka Grandma Bison

Getting in dailymiles with Mom, Dad and Grandma
No running for mom or baby quite yet but since I have been getting in my dailymile by walking Dad, babybison and Grandma have been joining me weather permitting. Thank goodness spring is starting to arrive in Chicago! At less than 5 lbs soaking wet, it's important to keep babybison warm so she doesn't burn excess calories trying to keep herself warm. To emphasize how small she is, look how totally ridiculous she looks in the stroller! Thankfully, loving friends and relatives have provided some preemie and smaller newborn sizes she has a sufficient wardrobe until she fits into all her newborn gear.

Is she even in there??

First (and second) bath
Babybison tolerated her first bath remarkably well. As she gains energy and strength, however, she makes her opinions known a bit more frequently and her opinion of her 2nd bath was "thumbs down" or at least that's what I took her screams to mean. She calms remarkably well- she really only cries when we've insulted her by undressing her, getting her wet, or not feeding her frequently (or quickly) enough. She still is an A+ on the good baby chart. We all hope she stays that way!

After her first bath at home, 7 days old.

Umbilical cord falling off
When I asked Adam what I should include in this post, he mentioned the umbilical cord falling off. I initially thought, no that's not very interesting, it happens to every baby and I don't have a cute picture to go with it. But then I said, "Oh, by the way, what did you do with the cord when it fell off?", to which Adam looked at me confused and said "I thought you had it!". The cord fell off during breastfeeding practice (Zooey is still working on strength for full feedings) so she was upset, we were otherwise occupied, neither of us had picked it up. So we have no idea where it is. Under the couch? Did the cleaning lady find it and toss it? Suddenly little Zooey's umbilical cord falling off story becomes a bit more blog-worthy, if unceremonial;)


Favorite quote:
Adam was feeding Zooey in the hospital on day 2 of her life. Before I head into the hall for my laps to walk my mile, I asked him if he needed anything. His response: "Just a box to hold all this cuteness". Love.

Mom and Zooey (2.5 days old)