eight weeks

my little Dahlia arrived 8 weeks ago. She came fast and fierce, as I have heard many second babies do. Between my intermittent overnight contractions, dropping Acorn at her Grandma's, and rainy Friday morning school traffic, we only got to the birth center 22 minutes before she was born.
This means I did NOT get my strep B shot. (but, it turns out that infection risk goes way down when the baby comes so fast)
This means our doula arrived a few minutes after the birth. (she did help the midwife clean up, took some photos for us, and went and bought us some croissants)
This means the midwife barely got her gloves on, and I was halfway in the tub and the baby just came out!
 
She has a wonderful latch, nurses well, sleeps comparatively well(for a newborn, hey, we take what we will get)... Some nights she wakes 1-2 times(between 10-6) and sometimes more.
Acorn is a really wonderful big sister, and if she gets jealous, she gets frustrated at me and Mr. S, never taking it out on Dahlia.

We go out pretty often(because being home, alone, with a very talkative 3.5 year old and a newborn makes me stir crazy), mostly to places within 10 minutes of here. We are lucky to have so many friends and kid-friendly activities nearby, I am still on nursing lockdown(in that baby sometimes wants to nurse every 1-2 hours, and does so for 20+ minutes).
I have SO much less anxiety than I did with Acorn. Oh my. I don't expect her to die, if I ignore her or don't hear her, for 10 minutes. I do have weird paranoid thoughts, especially when up at 2 or 4 am, such as "If a baby gains a lot of weight, is it a sign of a health problem?" or "Her head is too slopey- she must have a brain defect." But in the light of day, I usually realize how crazy those thoughts are.
I can tell she is growing, and her poopy diapers are the right color. She has started to smile, and moves her head when wanting to watch something.
In these first weeks, it is the small things!