The Maija is here!!!

So since it has been a while...a long while, since I've updated this blog, we might have to split this series up.

Pre-Maija life...Post Christmas-

Since Christmas time Ryan and I have been pulling the house together to make it ready for our newest addition, Maija. We gathered all kinds of clothes, hygienic supplies, bottles, we received diapers from sweet sisters, and then all kinds of Baby books. One of the things that I wanted for Maija was a baby sling. My wonderful mother-in-law supplied us with a ten foot baby sling that she had ordered on line. Ryan was against wearing the thing at first, but when I made it into a game and first showed him how to wrap it around yourself and then timed him to see how fast he could tie it, he succumbed to temptation. After throwing it around himself, which took an amazing 46 seconds, he admired himself in the mirror and exclaimed "I look like a Ninja!" Hence the baby sling is now called the "Ninja wrap". Ryan likes to wear it as often as he can, which really helps both of us out since we still have our hands to get things done and Maija feels like she is in utero. So I've noticed I've strayed from Pre-Maija life... The first week of school Ryan wanted to make sure that we had a schedule down and that we understood when we had to do a "Maija switch" so we practiced walking and driving to our classes and coming home even though Maija wasn't there. One hectic morning the weather didn't agree with us and the traffic was really terrible. I needed to drive Ryan up to work, quickly drive back home, and then finish getting myself ready for school since this was my day to go to classes. We live about three seconds from campus... and it took me twenty minutes to get 3/4 down the main road (8th north which is the street that my driveway empties onto). It was at this time, when I'm really upset at the traffic and all pedestrians ( I almost hit two of them), that Ryan informs me that he didn't really need to go to work today, he just wanted to practice our schedule... you do not want to know the thoughts that were going through my head. Ryan then asks... "So what did we learn from all of this?" Ryan almost lost his head after saying that. Well, in hindsight the practice was very smart thinking on Ryan's part and the whole thing was pretty funny. Even though we didn't have Maija there with us physically at the time, she was there in some form really... Ryan took it upon himself to send us back in time to Junior High when everyone had to carry around a flour sack baby...well ours wasn't a flour sack, and it wasn't even realistically the right weight, but our bag of 1 lbs beans took up residence in Maija's car seat and her bed for the time being. It was terribly funny to cart around the bag of beans, but it was also potentially embarrassing. I had to fight Ryan one time when he insisted on bringing pseudo Maija into Walmart with us. Nevertheless, it was really funny.

Maija's Arrival-
About 5O'clock Thursday morning I woke to terrible cramps and figured that I just needed to use the restroom, when the cramps didn't subside I decided to wake Ryan up and inform him of my discomfort. After a few more minutes of terrible pain he decided to wake my mom up, who had flown in from Colorado and graciously stayed with us for about two weeks to help us out. The first couple of pains were about ten minutes apart.... after about four of those my contractions (I was no longer in denial) they became five minutes apart.... then four... then my mom and Ryan scurried around the house packing the car up whilst I moaned in agony on the bed and shouted out items to throw into the car in between contractions. Then they finally convinced me to get into the car, I was all for not moving a muscle and having the baby at home. In the car Mom told me to sit properly and put my seat belt on to which I yelled "Oh Mother!" This was meant to be a curse, I blame it on the contraction that had just hit it's peak. I didn't put my seat belt on. Moving right along I went through three hours of labor without an epidural and three and a half with a marvelous epidural. After about 45 minutes of pushing, the forceps, and an episiodemy, little Maija popped out to say hi. Poor Ryan got blood on his shirt while he cut the umbilical cord... he was all dressed up for an interview that he had to postpone a couple of hours because his wife was having his baby. The interviewers were very gracious and took him later in the day. Well after the doctors did other terrible things to my poor body I got to hold my sweet little girl, she is so beautiful.

Post birth life-
We've adapted. Sleep has become a stranger in our home, I hear this is pretty normal. Everyone tells me that I need to sleep when she does, but that kid makes so much racket and I'm paranoid that she will wake up and cry at any moment that I don't get much sleep during nap time, so I've sort of given up on naps. She seems to sleep very well while I'm holding her, at least she makes less noise, so I get a few winks in after I feed her and I'm still holding her. She likes to smile, a lot, especially in her sleep. I just like watching her sleep, she is SO beautiful! She also looks like a little Who from Dr. Seuss' The Grinch Who Stole Christmas... now I know where my mom got my nickname "Cindy Lu Who"... seems like Maija does look like me.
People love looking at my little Maija and everyone says that she is SO beautiful... tell me something I don't know. However, upon first glance they ask if it is a she or a he... this doesn't strike me as odd because anyone would get mixed up when they see a baby wearing a pink or neutral outfit and has a blue blanket and a very boyish blue burp cloth... My sweet, funny husband was upset that there was so much pink stuff in the house that he had to macho my baby up and give her a couple of boy items, especially the ones that he had to wear as well (burp cloths). Well we are having tons of fun, but we aren't getting much done during the day. That is also to be expected. We've finally hit the stage in Maija's life where she will cry for no particular reason in the evenings. I hear that this will subside a bit after 2 months... I'm counting down the days. This might explain Ryan's disappearances in the afternoons. I love it when Maija smiles and her little dimples show. She loves taking showers with me and has absolutely no fear of the water. She likes to sleep around noisy things, which is great for me, and she laughed this morning for the first time. It sounded like an angel laughing. I wonder what she was dreaming about. Well, I'd better wrap this up and throw some pictures up here before the Maija wakes up again...oh... too late.