baby Sam is one week old

One Week Already

Samantha turned a week old yesterday. We sang "Happy Birthday" to her in bed in the morning, my father playing his mandolin and Marcus leading the chorus. She is beautiful. She looks so much like Marcus as a baby, but she's so different--her chin is pointier, she's nursing better right from the start and gaining more weight more quickly, she burps more--a lot more--than he did, and on and on and on. Like Marcus as a baby, she's working on head control, she loves riding in slings and wraps, and her first pediatrician visit went great.

 

Big Brother, Big Help

Marcus is still so thrilled with her, so gentle--he runs home from school to kiss her, he helps at every diaper change, he begs to bring pictures of her to school with him, he wakes up at night and comes into our bed and wants to be as close to her as possible (usually the compromise is I sleep between them and curl my body around Sam's and Marcus nestles into my back and stretches a hand out to try to touch her).

 

First Trips Out

Kelley came by last Saturday, and then a visiting nurse on Monday, and we saw the pediatrician on Wednesday. We've had friends stopping by with good wishes and presents and delicious food, and yesterday I took Samantha out to Target and the Whole Foods just for a brief excursion. At the supermarket everyone made a fuss over her, which just made me happy--this is the Whole Foods just five blocks from my house, so I've been in there 1-2 times a week for the past eight years. The staff knew me before babies, then saw me pregnant with Marcus, then wearing him as a tiny one, then wearing him as a big one, then pregnant again (and still wearing him), and now today wearing another tiny one. It's such a small thing, but I relish the connection to others. Sometimes people say they don't understand how we can live in a city, especially one like Boston, where they assume people are cold and unfriendly and there's no sense of community, but that's just not the case: I feel like I know everyone in our little neighborhood at least by sight, from the burly guy who sells incense and African dolls outside of the subway station and nods at me, to the Jehovah's Witnesses ladies who sit on the benches (usually just in summer, but it was so sunny and warm yesterday, in the 50s, that they were out again) along Mass Ave and smile and hold up copies of their tracts, to the people who work in this supermarket. Yesterday the sun was shining, the South Bay shopping Center was full of activity and seagulls and the Boston skyline looked so crisp and clear, and just getting out and about felt really good.

 

Memories

The day before I had Samantha, I. . .

 

The day before I had Marcus, I. . .

 

With Samantha,

 

With Marcus,

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Created: 12/23/11. Last Modified: 12/23/11.