One Week Reflections

There are so many things I want to type, but I just wanted to post a few bullets about our little blessing's first week out of the womb.

I think I am still in shock. It's strange to be pregnant one minute and to hold your baby in your arms the next. It's unbelievable. I'll type out his birth story later, but it really was everything I could have hoped for. When he was born, it was pretty much just like my dream. He didn't cry (but was definitely alert) while he was on me, but the minute they took him away, he let them know he wasn't very pleased.

My tailbone is still slowly healing, but now that swelling has gone down, I feel my stitches a bit more. It's not a huge deal, but it isn't comfortable, of course.

One thing I noticed almost right away after delivery is not needing to go to the bathroom every 20 minutes. It's funny how easily noticeable the number of times you go to the bathroom is.

Pretty much "having my body back" has been strange. Growing bigger and bigger was just fine by me, but now being back to about normal is so weird. It's strange to look at myself in the mirror. It's also strange for Hee Suk, too, because he's so used to having his hand on my belly and talking to Nehemiah there. He still puts his hand on my belly, and we just cherish the memories together.

Breastfeeding was a bit of a challenge at first. Nehemiah was not interested in feeding for about half of the day, and for the first couple of days, it was painful. I am thinking that maybe a poor initial latch led to it hurting me more, but it is really wonderful now.

The rooting instinct just amazes me to no end. It's incredible to watch him try to find his milk. When he is lying on my chest and is hungry, he makes the most adorable and hilarious piggy grunts. There are definitely many things I cherish about his feeding times.

Nehemiah is so curious and loves to just lie down and take in the world around him. He loves looking at his Appa especially, most likely because his face is a little more dynamic having dark hair and dark eyes. I feel I look even paler than usual still, so I am not much to look at for a newborn. He does love looking at me as well, though.

Ah, you might be wondering how we chose his name...

We picked out his English name two years ago when just casually discussing baby names. We wanted something from the Bible, and I had suggested Micah. To Hee Suk, the English pronunciation of Micah sounds like a Korean trying to say "my car," so that was a no-go. Out of the blue one night, I suggested Nehemiah. We talked about who he was in the Bible and later looked up his name to see what it means: "Comforted by God." We fell in love with it for him. What wound up being a little ironic is that we chose the name as a sort of prayer for him to be comforted by God, but in the end, it was I especially who needed the comfort. It was no surpise to us when we found out we were having a son--truly God's timing and will.

His Korean name changed several times. Hee Suk kept trying to come up with a boy's and a girl's name that were related to the Bible, but a girl's name never did come to him. When we were at the hospital for my food poisoning, I asked him about a Korean name, and he mentioned Pyeongan (평안 - 平安), which means "peace." It was perfect. It obviously turned out that a girl's name was not needed. Again, truly God-led.

Anyway, those are just some bullets from the past week. It really is incredible that we were in the hospital one week ago, adoring our son for the first time and learning his personality and how to take care of him and that we are home now making so many new blessed memories as a family of three. We are so, so incredibly blessed, far beyong measure.