We Done Been Warned

We took Danika for her two week check-up yesterday. The kid has already gained 1 lb 4 ounces! I felt a certain sense of satisfaction knowing that the countless hours she has spent attached to me have added up to something significant. Our pediatrician is great and he's been practicing for like 20-30 years or something. At the end of our visit he said "she has a strong personality, you're going to be pulling your hair out". He said he's always been able to tell a lot about a kid's personality from seeing them as a baby and I suppose he should know. The funny thing is that just two days before, my mom told me out of nowhere that Danika's going to be "strong willed" (she has that "womanly" sense of things so I generally take her seriously). I think this is good. It may be tough, but I can appreciate having a daughter who can take names and kick some ass.

Pictures

So, two weeks have come and gone and life is going well at our house. Miles is really sweet with Danika. He looks for her around the house, offers her his most coveted toys and lovingly pats her on the head whenever she is within his reach. He has never seemed so big or adorable to me. Miles also seems to be enjoying spending so much time with his daddy. Robert's been doing it all - the meals, diaper changes, naps, baths... he may not do things exactly the way I do (i.e. the RIGHT way), but the kid is fed, clean, relatively well rested and happy so I can't complain. He even does the wash and dishes somehow and I have to confess I have learned some parenting "tricks" from him which I will surely steal.

Where have I been you ask? I have been feeding Danika in her room, sitting in our ridiculously comfortable new gliding rocker seen here. It's not the one we ordered but ours was delayed so the store sent this one out for us to use until it was ready and I fell in love with it. It reclines all the way so you can totally sleep in it and red is my favorite color - it doesn't really go with the room but when she gets older it will look better in our living room. I may be premature in saying so but I think breastfeeding is going to work out this time. It's getting a little better day by day and if it never gets any better I could handle this pain so woo hoo, I'm pretty pleased with myself :)

Made it through the first week

So as you heard, Danika arrived last Sunday. I've had trouble finding time to post since then as sleeping, eating and bathing have taken precedent during my 15 minute breaks from feeding her. Seriously, the kid eats like a horse. I'm attempting breastfeeding again and it pretty much sucks, again (no pun intended). I really love being able to do it and the closeness I feel to her when we're all snuggled up together but so far it still smarts. I plan to stick with it though.

Labor was not so bad this time around - though considerably longer than with Miles. My epidural didn't quite take all the way leaving me with a mysterious thing the doctors called a "window" essentially meaning an area that did not respond to the drug leaving me able to feel more than I should have. They kept giving me extra shots of the drug to see if they could fix it which left me with legs so numb they could have pulled out my toe nails without me knowing. This worried me considerably having heard lots of epidural failure horror stories however once I got to the pushing part I felt no pain just like last time so it all worked out great.

Motherhood is wonderful the second time around and Danika is just precious. As I type this she is in her swing behind me and sleeping for what seems like the first time today! I find myself easily doing things it took me weeks to be comfortable about when we had Miles which is nice. Robert has two months off again which is really essential as Danika needs to be fed on the hour and I can't lift Miles for two more weeks. I have no idea what I would do if he had to go back to work right away, I would have lost my mind. Miles is doing really well with the transition so far but he really needs to be kept active and out of the house or he gets kind of moody. On a positive note he's gotten more comfortable being cared for by other people and he's fallen head over heels with his uncle Ryan who lives next door. Ryan was in charge of him when I was in labor and honestly I think Miles would have preferred we stay away a little longer so they could have more uninterrupted time to play. He really loves him.
Ok, see, she's rooting again. I swear it's only been 45 minutes.

Welcome Baby Danika Mislang! - a post by sister Jenny

Today, Sunday March 4th Lara and Robert Mislang welcomed their daughter Danika Secord Mislang. She was a healthy 6 lbs 15 oz and 19 inches long featuring especially elegant hands. Both mom and baby are happy and healthy and as I type this, Lara and Robert are getting to know their daughter at Cottage hospital. Lara said "She's so sweet, I just want to play with her" She'll be there for two nights and then home. Big brother Miles is home tonight with me (aunt Jenny) and Uncle Ryan. For photos of the day please visit my flickr gallery for Danika and my personal website www.jenredstar.com for stories.

Danika's Room

Here are some pictures of Danika's room. We split our bedroom in two to create this room so it's small but still cute and the high ceilings make it feel bigger.