Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Catching up

(This was written on 3/23/10.)

Today is the proverbial first day of the next chapter of our lives as parents. Today is the first day I actually return to the regular working world of a 9-5 job...or in my case, 7:30 - 4:30 p.m. I've been working on a special assignment for a week, but thanks to a wonderful boss, I've been able to do it from the comforts of my home, with my beautiful baby girl by my side.

Needless to say, Miss Cora Ann arrived safe and sound at 6:19 p.m. December 16, weighing in at 8 lbs. 4 oz. They measured her at 18.5 inches, but that was at least an inch short. Those darn newborns - always scrunching up their legs! j/k. Like her big sister, Savena, aka the squid, the "monkey" came exactly five days early. Must be something about my body that says 'I'm done' on that particular day. One thing that's certainly true - second babies do come much, much quicker. Cora took a whopping 15 hours - one third the time it took the squid to make her grand appearance back in June 2007. It also took much less time "pushing" as well. Mark likes to tell friends that it only took 3 pushes and there she was, but I think it was actually more like 3 rounds of pushes. I'll spare you the details, but it was much quicker. I like to think that I learned how to push w/ the squid! The only negative outcome of pushing so hard was that I threw my neck out and was in major, major pain until our neighbor told me that the pain was likely exacerbated by the epidural and that I needed caffeine. A cup of black tea later I was already feeling better - with fewer painkillers!

Life since Cora's birth has been a whirlwind of doctor's visits, walks in the park, lazy mornings, plane trips to Gaga and Papa Chris' house, play dates and snow. Yes, snow. In Dallas and Santa Fe. We've actually christened Cora the snow princess because since her birth, Dallas has seen more snow than it has in decades. We've had more than 17" inches this winter - and I'm honestly not sure if that's since Dec. 21 or Jan. 1. We even had a white Christmas! Go figure.