I pledge allegiance... to Yellow Leaf Cupcakes

I know I talk about cupcakes a lot on this blog, but I love cupcakes (and ice cream) so you are just going to have to put up with it.

The Studly Hubby's Studly Parents are in town this weekend to visit their new granddaughter (#5!) and so of course we are getting lots of treats while we celebrate our new little one.
Normally we would just head over to Trophy Cupcakes as a default but we don't want to get into a boring rut so we thought we'd diversify and head over to Yellow Leaf (in Belltown). They have a wide variety of interesting flavors (like pancakes 'n bacon, champaigne almond, and strawberry macaroon).

We LOVED Yellow Leaf cupcakes. They were very VERY yummy (whereas Trophy is just very yummy). If you live in Seattle, you must try this place. Don't get stuck in a boring rut like we almost did.

Crash course in 'Baby' (and a sewing project)

It is now the end of Layla's 3rd week, and I have been home taking care of the baby by myself most of this week. Since my mom and I had a Crash Course in 'Baby' last week I have been doing pretty well. Yesterday I took her to the zoo, I've been walking her around the neighborhood in the stroller and even got some ice cream on Monday, and we've been using the Moby wrap around the house so I can get housework done and I've started to do a little work on my computer.

Another thing my mom and I did while she was here was have FUN! We went to an awesome fabric store in our neighborhood and did some sewing projects, which made my mom use the sewing machine for the first time in many moons.

She made a nursing cover-up for me, which she designed herself.






She also made a curtain for the window in our door:

Another thing we did while my mom was here was introduce a pacifier, and a bottle. Both went very well. I know people have mixed feelings about pacifiers but let me tell you when a girl needs it she really needs it and I was totally relieved when we started using it.

The Studly Hubby also took care of Layla by himself two times last week. The first time she slept on his chest the whole time I was gone. The second time she sucked down FIVE OUNCES of my precious pumped breast milk and then passed out in the Moby wrap. Both times I worried a lot but had a nice time being away too.

And we've had a lot of time to do mommy-daughter bonding, which is what maternity leave is all about. I think she is already starting to look very different than she did when she popped out four weeks ago.

Layla's 3 week birthday

We have been celebrating each of Layla's weekly birthdays with cupcakes from Trophy cupcakes. Here is a recap of the last three weeks.

Week 1:

We spent the first 36 hours in the hospital, getting hassled around the clock by nurses and doctors, including a really scary Russian night nurse that seemed to be constantly yelling at us but we figured out later it was just her accent.

We got almost no sleep, and almost no help from the hospital staff (who was more concerned about taking our vitals than about helping us with the baby, who entered the world pooping and HUNGRY). When they asked if we needed to stay a second night we were quick to say NO.

We had just barely figured out nursing when we left and we hadn't slept in two nights so we weren't really prepared to be at home either. I was especially unprepared for how freaked out I would be - I couldn't sleep because I was so worried the baby w0uld die (obviously she survived). Also the baby was still pooping and HUNGRY and it took some effort to figure out how to get us all to bed when she had so many seemingly complicated demands.

Fortunately for me I was having some sort of awesome baby-high that made sleep completely unnecessary for the entire first week we had her at home. That came in pretty handy because by Tuesday I still wasn't sleeping even though both the baby and the Studly Hubby were sleeping great (the baby nursed nonstop for the first 3 days but after that started taking nice long naps at night to sleep). The doula came for a visit Tuesday night and I asked her about all my deepest darkest fears (will she die if she is too cold? can I suffocate her with my boob?). The doula reassured me that we were doing everything right and showed us some neat tricks to get the baby to sleep even better so that I could go without nursing her for four hours in a row sometimes.

So we survived the first week, but by the end of it I was pretty wrecked. On Thursday, her birthday, I had some Trophy cupcakes and scheduled a massage for myself.

Week 2.

The massage absolutely ruined me. I finally relaxed, which meant I could sleep, and then my body demanded MORE sleep, and I basically passed out for the weekend. Unfortunately the baby didn't agree with that. She preferred to eat all weekend. The Studly Hubby did his best to try to make it work for both of us and by Monday we had all agreed on a good routine and I had caught up on a lot of my sleep. This was mostly due to my amazing ability to sleep while I nurse, something the Studly Hubby helped us figure out in the early days.

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were awesome. We had good weather, went out for a bunch of nice walks, the baby was well behaved, and we all enjoyed each other a lot. Wednesday night my mom came into town, and we had more cupcakes on Thursday to celebrate Layla's 2nd week birthday.

Week 3:

The third week was great. Having a mother in town is really helpful. She addressed many more of my fears and helped me work through some of the next big hurdles like taking the baby to a restaurant, putting the baby in the moby wrap, getting the baby in the carseat and driving across town, going out for a walk when it's raining, and bottle feeding (with pumped milk, which I also figured out in week 3). By Wednesday (today) I had accomplished all of this and more, and the Studly Hubby was back to work and cooking dinner for all of us and the house was staying pretty orderly. Tonight we are having more Trophy cupcakes and celebrating getting through Week 3. I have another massage scheduled for Saturday, and I will be going BY MYSELF which will also be a whole new thing (something I haven't done for 10 months!).

Every week is a major adventure!

Here are some pictures from the past few weeks:

Recovering at the hospital

Our first couple of days at home, I wore my pajamas every day!

The Studly Hubby showing off the Moby (with the baby in it)... now he can see what it's like to be pregnant!!

Me with my Studly Mommy at the beach on Saturday... lovely day!

Dr. Poops

One of the nicknames our daughter has earned is "Dr. Poops" because of her great capacity for pooping. She pooped 8 times just on her first day in the world!! Her daddy learned very fast how to change her diaper, as quick as possible because she HATES getting her diaper changed, and then cheer her up afterwards.
We've noticed that when she poops, she makes a great and easily recognized 'poopy face'. My mom and I had the brilliant idea of taking pictures of her poopy face.Here she is peacefully sleeping before...

Then she woke herself up, and started making faces.

She let us know when she was all finished too!


Understandably, she doesn't generally tolerate having poopy pants for very long so a big pooping incident is almost always followed by some general fussiness until we get her changed. Thankfully my mom and the Studly Hubby are still happy to do this!

Grandma comes to town!!

The Studly Hubby's rockin' awesome employer gave him two weeks off after Layla was born. I didn't realize before she was born how much we would NEED that two weeks - I was totally not ready after one week. We did really enjoy his time off, especially after the first week when I was feeling better and the baby was finally taking short breaks between feedings so we could venture out of the house. Below is one of our first times out with the stroller, we went to the park in the neighborhood.

Just before the Studly Hubby had to go back to work, my mom (Layla's GRANDMA!) arrived in town for 10 whole days to help me out.

She was thrilled to finally meet her granddaughter.


On Grandma's first day here we gave Layla a bath and then went directly out to buy her a pretty bow for her hair and some other nice things.


We went on so many adventures that I got all worn out and so did Layla - she actually slept 6 hours in a row on Saturday night! I couldn't believe it.

Having Grandma here has been GREAT. She is helping me figure out how to take care of her on my own and she is helping with all the housework and many diaper changes. She is also making sure I get out of the house a lot so I don't get bored and worn out from nursing.

I heart my doulas

My doula is kick-ass. And she had a pretty kick-ass apprentice too. Below the doula is on my right and the apprentice on my left.



Not only were they both great labor coaches, which was all I was really hoping for, but they were also there for me right after the birth to get me warm blankets, water, a cool washcloth, and a barf bag. The doctors and nurses did not think of this. Then to top it off I got some MUCH needed post-partum attention too. Our hospital was great in many ways but post-partum care was not one of them. They sent us packing about 36 hrs after the birth (although we were happy to leave - don't get me wrong). When I called the lactation consultants a few days later for some help nursing (little Layla caught on a little TOO well and has become somewhat of an addict) I got totally useless answers, like "it's legal to nurse anywhere in Seattle" (GREAT but can you help me figure out how to stop nursing long enough to go to the bathroom?) and "this will get a lot better after six weeks" (FANTASTIC, but how do I deal with the blisters that I'm getting right NOW?). My favorite: when I asked how/when to introduce the bottle, her answer was 'but why would you want to use a bottle?'. I need an answer, not an opinion! argh.

The doula, on the other hand, gave me practical advice that I could actually use. She showed us how to figure out the difference between real nursing and 'comfort nursing', and how to stop nursing at that point and comfort the baby other ways. She also had helpful suggestions for dealing with the blisters. Then she called back a few days later to check in - and offered even more helpful advice. The blisters are finally healing, and we have a lot more tools in our toolbox for dealing with a boob-addicted baby. Thank you, doula(s)!

Layla's glam shots

Yesterday our awesome photographer came over to shoot some early newborn pics. Layla was not very cooperative! She is supposed to go to sleep so that the photographer can maneuver her without protest, but she was way too excited. The poor photographer had to hang out with us for a few hours before Layla finally grew weary and dozed off (and then we only had about a half an hour). Also Layla was butt-naked and she peed and pooped all over all the photographer's props! We were assured this is part of the process and there would be no hard feelings.

The Studly Hubby, being completely taken with his daughter and wanting to capture every minute of everything, put together a little video of it which is below.



The photographer's pics can be found here. These are a few of our favorites: