A Word to the Wise

Good idea: reading the Kindle your mom gave you for your birthday while feeding your baby

Bad idea: reading your Kindle while you slice tomatoes.  Ouch.  (Don't worry--no stitches or anything)

Oh yeah...

One more important thing happened right around Thanksgiving--I deposited my dissertation!  I had finished writing it a few days before Abby was born, but I had to give the committee time to read and tell me if I needed to do any revisions.  They took their sweet time (and one member at first said he couldn't get to it until after Thanksgiving break, which would have meant I wouldn't make the deadline for December graduation.  I told him "hey, I understand--I guess I just won't graduate in December and will have to pay tuition and fees next semester" and that sufficiently guilted him into hurrying up.  Actually, I discovered later that I wouldn't have had to actually register for spring in order to deposit spring semester, but I didn't know that at the time and it definitely helped my case!)  Anyways, the graduate college just had a few minor revisions for me, and then it was officially done!  Woohoooo!!  I did still have work to do for my Science manuscript, but at least I officially finished and whatever happened, I had a PhD!

Miscellaneous Cuteness

Nothing much happened the next few weeks--I took care of Abby of course, and also worked on our manuscript here and there.  I even started going out and doing stuff with Abby occasionally--visiting teaching, watching my friend's kids (well, sitting on her couch while they took naps.)  And I actually cooked dinners (some of the time anyway).  I also had my 6 week OB appointment and was declared completely recovered and ready to resume all normal activities.  Part of me was excited to start feeling more normal again, but part of me was a little scared to be out of my 6 week recovery buffer.  I mean, now I'd be expected to *do* stuff!  Besides taking care of Abby, I mean!

 But all in all, I was feeling confident.  And Abby was cute.  So things were good.  :)  

Don't mind that weird leaf thing--it's part of her swing.

Abby smiles!

Another thing that happened right around Thanksgiving was that Abby had her first real smiles!  I think the first one I noticed was the day before Thanksgiving, but I wasn't sure if it was really real or not.  But she did it again the following two days, and then I was sure!  She was most willing to smile right after waking up from a good nap.  Makes sense, I suppose!

I can't really explain how my heart leaped when I saw those first grins!  Just one little smile seemed to make all the hard work and sleep deprivation worth it! 

Thanksgiving week

Orange in honor of Thanksgiving of course!

The week after Kevin's mom left was the week of Thanksgiving.  I didn't feel up to cooking a full Thanksgiving dinner, but I did want to celebrate the holiday, so we just did a laid back dinner--I cooked a turkey breast and Stovetop stuffing, and we had mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie (Kevin cooked the pies!)  We could have gone to a potluck Thanksgiving at church, but it seemed more of a hassle to try to coordinate the baby's needs away from home with the timing of the potluck.

Is it wrong of me to think a picture of my baby screaming is funny and cute?  

Earlier in the week, I ventured out back to my lab for the first time since Abby was born.  Kevin came with me and we took Abby in to meet my advisor and labmates.  My advisor *loves* babies.  It was pretty funny--he actually offered to babysit sometime!  The main reason for the visit, though, was to have a meeting with my advisor and one labmate about my paper manuscript.  (We were working on submitting the stuff I did on my thesis to Science magazine, and one of our collaborators was being VERY picky about things, so we had to do lots and lots of revising before submitting.)  Kevin took Abby back home and I stayed for a couple of hours.  I think that was the first time I had been away from her that long!  But Kevin did great with her and I came home just in time to feed her, so it all worked out great.

We also took Abby in for her 1 month doctor's appointment the week of Thanksgiving.  Her collarbone was officially pronounced completely healed, and we were given the go-ahead to treat her normally (pick her up under the arms, etc.)  She was gaining weight well too, now that we were supplementing with formula.  Everything looked great!

A couple of things I want to record about Abby during this timeframe:  she almost always had her arms tightly tucked into her sides, with her hands clasped at the chest.  She had very strong arm muscles and it was tough to get her to move her arms any other way!  (Especially hard to try to wash her under there!)  Here's a couple of examples:

Another funny thing she often did was what we liked to call the zombie pose.  Sometimes when she was asleep she would stick her arms straight out in front of her, with her wrists flopping downwards--just like a zombie.  Aww, our little waking dead princess.  I don't think I have any really good pictures of this, unfortunately,  Here's one that kind of shows it, but not really--her arms were usually sticking out more.  

Blessing Day

My mom flew home just short of Abby's two-week birthday (five days later than originally planned--we begged her to stay and bought her a new return flight using frequent flier miles--the very BEST use of ff miles EVER spent!)  We decided to take Abby to church the next day--just to Sacrament meeting.  I was feeling more myself, and it felt good to get out of the house.  Plus, I had an adorable dress that I was dying to show her off in.  :)

 About five days after my mom left, Kevin's mom flew in for a visit.  (Hooray for airplanes!  I don't know what I  would have done without all this help.  I was so lucky to have 3+ weeks of helpers between my mom and mother-in-law! )  She stayed for about 10 days, leaving on my birthday. We decided to have Abby's blessing day on the Sunday she was in town.  It was a beautiful and sacred event, and the blessing Kevin gave her was unique and wonderful.  She wore a beautiful ornate dress that my mom bought for her.  Alas, she had some major infant acne going that day, but she's cute enough to shine through all that.  ;)  She slept peacefully through the blessing.  In fact, she slept all three hours of church that day--how accommodating!  :)

For my birthday, Kevin's mom offered to watch Abby while Kevin and I went out to eat.  In the end, though, I decided the extra time it would take to go out wasn't worth it to me.  Instead, I figured we could get take out AND I could have an extra 30 minute nap in the same amount of time.  Gotta have priorities, after all.  So, we enjoyed a lovely take-out meal from Biaggis at home, and then it was time for Gigi to head out.  (Kevin's mom has her grandkids call her Gigi, in case that wasn't obvious.)