Communicating

Communicating with a baby that doesn't communicate back is bizarre. It's not bizarre when you do it for an hour or so with someone else's baby, but doing it for about 12 hours a day with your own baby is funny. I tell her everything we're doing - "We're throwing away your diaper where dirty diapers live. Playing on your tummy is really important for your neck muscles." We talk about what we have done - "This morning we cuddled in bed, and then we went for a walk. Then we played with Susie and said hi to daddy." This part is usually fine - but it is sort of weird to be talking all day when the person you're talking to doesn't really respond. Luckily she has started to smile and at least look into our eyes, which is nice...

The funniest is when I'm trying to get her to go to sleep. It seems right to sing to her - that's what you do to get babies to sleep, right? Well, when you're 32, you don't know a tonne of songs that are kid friendly. What songs do I know? Some Bob Dylan, Dar Williams, Indigo Girls, Kingston Trio...and TONNES of Jewish songs. Every night, we sing eshet chayil, shalom aleichem, the entire birkat hamazon, the shema and we get through parts of kabbalat shabbat. I actually have a siddur next to my bed - and you might think that I'm religious, but it's really just that it has all of the words, and we don't have anything else to sing! Seriously - I wonder what people sing to their kids/babies if they don't know all of these Jewish songs and prayers!

In other developmental news, Samara has started to speak to us a bit. We got a few babbles and goos. They're awesome. She has also opened her fists. They have been closed since she was born (for the most part), and now they're open and exploring the world. She can even see her hands. It looks like she expects them to do something exciting. I have spent the last two days picking the crud out from between her fingers. I swear we wash them every night in the bath, but it's sort of like her neck folds - stuff just gets stuck in here.

If you're reading this far, then you're probably genuinely interested in us/me, so I'll give more details. Yesterday I had to have a yucky procedure (D&C) to fix me up a bit. Apparently I had a "satellite placenta" that was attached to the normal placenta, and it was stuck "in the corner" of my uterus. Gross, right? TMI? Then stop reading. Apparently the placenta is supposed to attach itself loosely to the lining of the uterus, and mine did that, and they took that out with the c-section, but there was a piece that REALLY attached itself in there, so it was apparently difficult to scrape out (gross) and wouldn't have come out on its own. Basically, I had reason to be concerned (though it turns out I had reason to be concerned three weeks ago...), so I went to see the doctor, and he said they had to do this immediately. I got to go under general anesthetic for the first time. I also got to go back to the fabulous operating theatre where I had my wonderfully traumatic birth. It was mostly horrible, but I got out of there in seven hours and was in my bed afterward - and this time I could keep reminding myself that I have a beautiful and healthy baby, and it is all worth it. I should be totally better in a week. This is the birth that will never end, but it seems like it will finally end. Just about seven weeks late.