Frances and James

Auntie Jocelyn and I wanted to get some pictures comparing Cousin James and Cousin Frances. Some of us (Jocelyn, James and Morgan) enjoyed this experience more than others (Frances). I imagine James would have been saying something along these lines, if he could talk:

James: What's this funny little thing crying over here? Don't cry, baby. See, I'll pat your head and everything will be alright.



James, continued: Hmm...You're still crying. Here, try this. It's a yoga pose called The Happy Baby. See how it makes me happy?



Then again, he might be saying something more like this:

James: Run for your life, you naked mole rat! Run for your life!



Works either way, if you ask me, take your pick.

Mammoth!

Frances had yet another weigh-in on Wednesday. The little bruiser is up to 6 lb. 12.6 oz.! She gained seven ounces in five days. All that nursing and pumping and supplementing are paying off! Now we only have to supplement every other feeding during the day. Hopefully we can soon taper off the supplementing at night and get some more sleeping done.

Daddy duty

More from Auntie Jocelyn: Frances is on a three hour feeding schedule, round the clock, of nursing, pumping, and supplementing. Morgan nurses Frances and then pumps. While my mom was here, she gave Frances the bottles of pumped breast milk and formula during Morgan's pumping sessions. But then she went home, and Morgan called on Mark to bottle feed one night. They made it, but this is how they looked in the morning. And yes, that is a dish towel that Frances is wearing!

Two week pictures

Auntie Jocelyn again: We made it to two weeks! Our naked mole rat (but man is she cute!) is doing well. Lots of eating ... lots of sleeping ... and lots of diapers! We went through 5 diapers at one diaper change to get a clean one on her. It was impressive.




Frances is lying on a blanket I knit for her - well, it was started for one of my own children, but Frances ultimately was the reciever.

When asked what Daddy wanted to say about Frances at 2 weeks, he said "beautiful as ever!". Morgan agrees.

Loads of pictures!

Auntie Jocelyn here - Frances's mother is busy lactating. Besides, she misplaced a whole folder of pictures and gave me the mission of finding them. So here they are:

Frances perfecting the art of sleeping.

A sleepy newborn smile - one of the sweetest things in the world.

Squirmy naked pictures:

And look, Frances's cord fell off!

Never say never

I've been warned repeatedly during this pregnancy never to say I'd never do a particular thing as a parent, because that's exactly the thing I'd end up doing. I thought I'd been doing a good job never saying "never," but I do know I said I didn't think I'd ever chart my child's feedings and diapers like I know some parents do. Then I had a preemie. To make sure she's been getting enough calories, I've been recording every feeding and every diaper since Frances' birth. But the charting has paid off! Frances went back to the pediatrician on Monday and, finally, she is gaining back some of the weight she's lost since birth. She now weighs 5 lb. 15.8 oz. and is in good shape. Here she is looking good and chubby.


We have another weighing today. Fingers crossed

The Birth of Frances

I'll try not to make this too gory. On Monday, Nov. 2, I drove myself home from Brooklyn and a wonderful surprise baby shower (pictures to come). I thought I was feeling great, but on Monday night, I started having some problems. I pulled Mark out of a class and told him it was time to go to the hospital. At the hospital, it was decided that Frances would be safer on the outside than in the inside and I was given drugs to get labor going. So from Monday night until Friday at midnight, I looked something like this:



It looks like I'm sleeping, but don't be fooled. I perfected many new skills over the week: deep, patterned breathing; visualizing; walking and showering with an IV and external fetal monitors; enjoying liquid meals; etc.

On Saturday, labor was finally progressing with the help of some more drugs. The midwife broke the amniotic sac around 2 p.m., by about 2:30 p.m. I gave up the idea of child birth without an epidural, and by 8:33 p.m., we had (brace yourselves):

She weighed in at almost 6 lb. 6 oz. and is 18.5" long.

Daddy was very proud...

...and tired...

...and smart (he sent this gorgeous bouquet).

And we think she's perfect, from her surprisingly dark hair to her freakishly big toes!

About Frances' name: I've been telling people for months that we were going to name our daughter Frances Elliott and call her Ellie. Turns out I was wrong. Her daddy held her a few times and decided she felt more like a Frances. Then Mark's parents called to say they'd been calling her Frances. Then my sister reported that names like Ellie and Elle and Ella were terribly trendy. So, "Frances" it is!

Ta-Dah!

Frances Elliott Upton arrived a little early, on Saturday, Nov. 7. I'll write more later, but I wanted to get some pictures up before too many more of you made rude remarks.

Here she is, just before her first bath:







Ready to leave the hospital, at last: