Naptime with Daddy

Today is a nice and quiet day at the Cimino house. Anthony and Sophia have been napping together for the past couple hours and, naturally, I had to snap a picture. They just look so cute.

"You have a baby... in a box"

So yesterday Sophia's nanny, Brooke, was sick and couldn't come to work so Sophia got to come to work with me! Nanny Brooke usually puts Sophia down for a nap around 10 or 10:30. So I brought Sophia's travel bed along and that's where she took her little nap.

If you're looking for a fantastic and user-friendly travel bed, this one from Eddie Bauer is the one that I'd suggest getting. Sophia loves it. So here she is sleeping; I couldn't resist snapping a couple pictures of my little officemate. :)

Maternity Pictures

Even though I'm not pregnant anymore, I thought I'd share the maternity pictures I had taken when I was about 7 months pregnant with Sophia. An old friend, J.P. Stephens, and his wife, Wendy, of Lumos Studio Photography (http://www.lumosstudio.com/) took them and did an incredible job! These pictures were a surprise Father's Day gift for Anthony. J.P. and Wendy are going to be photographing Sophia in November and I just can't wait!!

Background

So let me give you a little background in case you haven't been in the loop... I gave birth to my first child, Sophia Elizabeth Cimino, on August 11, 2009. Sophia was a c-section baby and I have to admit, my experience was incredible!! My doctor made her first incision at 9:29am and Sophia was born at 9:34am! When it was over, I looked at Anthony and said "The rest of our kids are totally coming out this way!" The recovery was even a snap for me. I was up at 5am the next morning taking a shower and walking around all on my own. As a bonus, we were discharged after two nights because Sophia and I were doing so well! My only complaint really was that I ended up with a spinal headache from the spinal block. I suffer from migraines and all I have to say is that migraines have nothing on a spinal headache!! But now I know what it is, so if it happens next time, I'll know to say something to the nurse instead of just sucking it up and hoping it'll just go away.

My first couple of weeks as a mom were pretty hard. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't because Sophia was a difficult baby. From what other mothers have told me, she's a dream baby!! But I had a nice case of the Baby Blues and found myself very insecure and very scared. I cried a lot. I don't know what I would have done had it not been for my girlfriends, my family and my incredible husband. Every single day I had something new to terrify me and every single day I felt absolutely alone. My biggest issue was breastfeeding. Ugh. Breastfeeding made me a neurotic momzilla!! See, when I first got pregnant, I didn't think that I'd be able to breastfeed because I had a breast reduction back in 2005. I was totally fine with formula feeding -- I mean, I was formula fed and I think most would say that I turned out just dandy. Anywho... around my 7th month of being pregnant, I noticed that I was leaking colostrum. After seeing that I decided that I'd try to breastfeed Sophia once she was born. The very first day in the hospital, the lactation consultant at the hospital came into my room, whipped my boob out, took a look at it, deemed me "flat nippled," smacked a nipple shield on me and shoved Sophia on it. Man did that hurt. This was not at all what I was expecting. I had heard that nursing, if done properly, wasn't supposed to be painful. I'd heard that it was a wonderful bonding experience for both mom and baby. I swear, I wanted to punch Anthony every time Sophia latched on (in fact, now that I think about it, I think I just might have done that a few times there in the beginning -- it's all such a blur now). It actually brought tears to my eyes! How could something that was "so natural" and "wonderful" be so painful and miserable?!?! To make matters worse, it turns out that the breast reduction affected my milk supply. So while I was able to nurse, I was only producing about one third to one half of what other mothers produced. For whatever reason this made me feel like a failure. Like somehow it was my fault that I had a low milk supply. So I cried. We were supplementing with formula, so Sophia was absoutely fine. I, on the other hand, was a mess. I decided to go talk to the lactation consultant at the pediatrician's office to see if she could give me any pointers. Like the nurse at the hospital, this lady just pulled my "girls" out to have a look! So much for modesty! Hahaha! Anyway, she suggested we try to get Sophia to latch on without the shield to see if that was easier and it was! Sophia took right to it and it didn't hurt nearly as bad!! Then she hit me with "Well, you need to nurse as often as the baby wants to and you also need to pump between 6 and 8 times a day for at least 15 minutes each session." Ummmm... can you say "Mooooo"! Now this might earn me the Mother of the Year award (see my very first post), but there was no way that was going to fit into my schedule! So I kindly thanked the lady, put my boob back in my shirt and headed home. I did try though. I really did. I nursed Sophia every time she wanted to, but I just couldn't bring myself to pump 6 - 8 times a day! When was I supposed to sleep? Eat? Pee? I mean really. It's been 11 weeks now and I've managed to at least pump up to this point. Now that I'm back at work it's a lot harder for me, but I pump 3 - 4 times a day -- enough to give Sophia a bottle of breastmilk every day. Like I said, she's fine, I'm the one with the case of the crazies. ;)

All joking aside, the day Sophia was born was the best day of my life so far and I still pinch myself to make sure all of this is really happening! I really am the luckiest woman I know. I love being a mom and look forward to each new adventure that each new day brings!

Introduction

So yeah, I'm blogging now. I guess it's the thing to do now that we've got Sophia so I can keep everyone updated about the happenings in Ciminoland. What really sealed the deal about blogging for me was talking to Grace this morning about the "Mother of the Year" award she's trying to make to pass around to girlfriends when they feel like a less than great mom. We were talking about how it would be fun to have a website or a forum where we could share these stories with each other (1) so we know we aren't alone and (2) to give each other a good laugh. Being a first-time mom, I find that I worry about everything and I feel guilty about all the decisions I make. Talking to my friends has helped me realize that I'm not the only one who's done whatever it is that I've done or has gone through whatever it is that I'm going through. So whether you're reading this Blog to keep up with Ciminoland or to read about what I've done to deserve the Mother of the Year Award and maybe share one of your own stories, thanks for stopping by!!