Today felt wonderful. Alexander has taken the week off even though Luka is still in the NICU, and it was a day of regrouping, resting, focusing on all that has happened the past few months, and on where we would like the next few months to go. I had to laugh at how a coffee date with Zander at the hospital cafeteria felt like a real date, and we both spent a lot of time playing with the idea of how wonderful it would be to have a year or more off of work together. It's hard to compare the US system of maternity/paternity leave with that of Germany without feeling like we are doing something wrong or living in the wrong place. The hugeness of a birth brings up a lot of ruminations, and somehow today seemed to focus on the fact that we are only given one life to live, so we'd better LIVE it well. Having our three sweet children is definitely a step towards living our dream....now we need to figure out the next step. Whew.
Today was also a day of rest. Attempting to breastfeed a baby in the NICU brings all sorts of challenges, and my milk supply was beginning to wane over the past couple of days. I finally allowed myself to nap during the daytime while letting Zander take over all of the other responsibilities and it was DREAMY. Add to this an extraordinary meal delivered by loving friends, and the milk problem seems to be taking care of itself. Luka was so excited by all of the milk today that he decided to latch on and not let go...he had his biggest milk day yet: 24 mL in one feeding! Felt like a huge success to me.
We still don't know when Luka will be coming home to be with us, but for now are just taking it day by day and trying to use this time to recover from the birth, get our house in order for his arrival, and otherwise decompress from a very stressful last couple months of pregnancy. Here are a couple of photos of the past few weeks in the Life of Miles and Anina....and also one of Luka doing the newborn thing.
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