Two Weeks

So, right now it is 5:34 a.m. and I am waiting to see if my little one will eventually tire out and want to get a little more sleep. She just had a good feeding, which this time of day usually results in her immediately going back to sleep for at least a couple of hours, but today she just wants to wiggle. So, we are both sitting on the bed, me on the computer and Sarah right next to me, perfectly content to be doing her "baby tai chi" as David calls it (which is surprisingly appropriate, given the time of day!)
In two hours it will be exactly two weeks ago that Sarah was born! As I was changing her a few minutes ago, she and I had a moment I can't completely explain or describe. I set her down on the bed, as I always do, then started spreading out her changing pad. This has become routine for me, and there was something in the way she looked at me that conveyed that this was routine for her as well--that I was doing exactly what she expected me to do and that she liked that. Something in her manner expressed something miraculous--trust??? Ok, so I know I am dealing with a two week old here, and maybe its sleep deprivation that is making me imagine something that would seem to make more than worthwhile all the sacrifice and discomfort of middle of the night feedings. I admit this possibility.
Still, things have changed. Where there used to just be confusion and blank stares, Sarah is now comforted by my voice, by my touch. Obviously, her concept of "mom" still needs a lot of developing. More than anything she just knows me as the "Dairy Queen" (new nickname from David; also a new favorite: "Lunch Lady"). But we are definitely getting somewhere, and we are both enjoying the trip. Its been a good two weeks.
On a related but different note: lingering pain. So, for those who haven't given birth, maybe you are wondering what your body feels like two weeks after giving birth. Well, I am sure it is different for everyone, and certainly different for those who gave birth the "old fashioned way", whereas I had a c-section. But currently the most sore part of my body, lingering from the birth experience? My left hand. That is where they put the IV they used to administer the pitocin and the nasty antibiotics they gave me during labor (penicilin burns like heck, just so you'll know!) That hand got really swollen from the IV, and the swelling has yet to completely go away, and the whole hand and forearm remain really tender to the touch! Who would have thought something as inocuous as an IV could give me more lingering pain than 30 hours of labor and major abdominal surgery? This only serves to deepen my intense hatred of needles (unfortunately).