  urlLink urlLink &quot;Olivia&quot; &amp; The Fairies Originally uploaded by urlLink funkyjam . Today we received a beautiful work of Original art created for Olivia by an English artist, whom Jay & Lisa saw on the cover of a magazine when they were on vacation there. They actually contacted her and commissioned this piece, which is Olivia's name, with beautiful fairies painted in and around the letters.
This will surely be one of those special pieces that Olivia will have and cherish for life. It will probably also be the way the she first learns to spell her name! I remember one of my mother's friends made a needle point for my birth gift. It had a cat in a tall, upright position, with my name, birthdate, birth time and birth weight. It hung in my bathroon and I must have read it thousands of times up until I was 10 (then I discovered the newspaper!). I already hung "Olivia and the Fairies" in a much more dignified place; in her room, over the blue velvet chair. When the lights are low and we sprinkle some sleepy dust in the air, the fairies can relax their poses and glide effortlessly in circles over Olivia's crib.
May they inspire her thoughts and dreams and encourage her imagination. Speaking of visitors, we've been keeping it low key. It's wonderful to share Olivia with all our friends and family, but it's also been important for Sang to catch up on her sleep and get back 'to normal. ' Breast feeding is encredibly energy draining and time consuming. Olivia feeds every 2-3 hours, and one feeding takes approximately 40 minutes. On top of Sang healing from the delivery, she has to make sure to get plenty of nourishment as Olivia's agent in all matters nourishing.
The bonding that takes place between a breast-feeding mother and child is nothing short of miraculous. Watching Olivia latched to Sang's bosson, sucking non-stop, dozing and waking, is heavenly. The instinct of the child and her ability to smell her mother and home in on the milk is a little scary. I say this because as adults interacting in our world, instinct seems to be so much more buried benath all the layers external brandishings that we've acquired. I suppose instinct is all about helping us, as individual creatures, to survive. When it's a baby, it's about finding nourishment and as we grow it's about protecting and feeding ourselves and our families. I also think that those who 'trust their gut' when making decisions are relying on instinct. Is instinct by nature "basic?
" or is basic instinct a newborn's instinct to suckle at his mother's bosom? As a result of the feeding, Sang sometimes feels fluish and simply has to sleep it off. Luckily we have Mel, who has been through this many times over with the newborns she's taken care of. Having someone who has seen it all and is truly an expert, is a huge source of relief and encouragement.
Now Sang has her mother, Mel and me making sure that she eats well. I don't know if anyone watches the Daily Show with Jon Stewart - as an aside, he is a recent first-time father - but I am going to log off and end my day as I do most, with my TiVo'd episode of today's show. I think it's healthy to go to bed laughing. Here's a link to today's photos. urlLink http://share.shutterfly.com/osi.jsp?i=EeANGzJy0cOGTFKg 
