Wow!

What an amazing 12 days this has been so far. I was so grateful and happy to have my parents and my sister visit John and Madeline and I. I'm sure they loved it too! Many pictures were taken.. I will share a few with you since this is going to be another short entry. The baby is sleeping and I'd like to take advantage of this time to do something else like, oh, brush my teeth.
Madeline's umbilical cord stump fell off yesterday. Yay! She's so grown up! :)

She eats ALL THE TIME. So far the hardest thing about all of this was getting the hang of nursing. I was in so so very much pain at one point, that I called the midwife and asked her if I could go to her house so she could tell me what I was doing wrong. It was 8:30 at night. I told her that I couldn't go through another night with so much pain. I would sweat and shake while the poor baby nursed, and I would be so scared to let her start nursing that she'd start screaming and work herself into a frenzy and would suck even harder, making the original problem even worse... it was a mess. Anyway, the midwife arranged for a lactation consultant for the birth center to see me that night. John and I packed up Madeline and were at her house by 9:30pm. She watched me nurse and explained that one of the problems was that I was holding Madeline incorrectly, and that I was putting my boobie into her mouth instead of bringing her to my boobie.. so my nipples were getting all bruised up. I was also instructed to let my nipples air dry to keep them from cracking even more, so I have been walking around pretty much topless for a week. I'm sure John likes that. :) One strange thing about nursing is that when the baby is drinking from one boob, the other one starts leaking like a faucet. Or just starts leaking because it feels like it. Yesterday morning I woke up and there was a puddle the size of a dinner plate under me.

Anyway, here are some pictures. Enjoy!




Boris, reclaiming the part of the couch that my belly had recently taken over..
The king of his universe..


Mommy and baby sleeping their cares away..

Madeline looking like an old man with her Tante Karin..

This is what angels look like when they sleep..

Madeline with her Omi and Opa at the airport when they flew away.. :(

That's not a nipple, Maddie!