Being Mom
Now relegated to Blogblivion...Wednesday, March 30, 2005
Box those socks!
So Sadie’s finally become an expert at removing her socks. It’s a good thing for her poor little feet that it’s supposed to warm up soon, because the put-the-socks-on-the-baby game has already lost its appeal. Of course, it’s just a preview of the put-the-clothes-back-on-the-toddler game that we will no doubt be playing in an amazingly short period of time. This girl is going to be our nature child. I can see it already.
Tuesday, March 29, 2005
3 weeks past a year
QuitMeter Counter courtesy of www.quitmeter.com.
Monday, March 28, 2005
Time flies: six month edition.
So Sadie will be six months old tomorrow, which means that six months ago right now I was waiting patiently for my chicken broth supper and starting to get just the slightest inkling that I should have blown off the nurse who told me not to eat on my way to the hospital and gone and gotten myself that last guilt-free-because-I’m-eating-for-two-here-dammit Big Mac before I showed up for the excrutiatingly slow process of verifying that my body really wasn’t in the mood to have a baby that day. If I had it to do again I would have made somebody at the office check me before they sent me to the hospital, so that I would have known that I was sitting just where I was a week earlier and the pit wouldn’t be coming to the game until the next morning and that the risk of being sick from having eaten was close to zero and the risk of feeling awful from not eating was pretty much 100%. Not that I cared all that much at the time, but everything is easier to face on a full belly, and as it turns out I got to face a lot in the following couple of days, and starting off on the right foot would have been nice.
I never wrote up her birth story, something I don’t think I’d find at all strange if I hadn’t fallen into the habit of hanging around bits of the web where such things are popular, and I don’t suppose I’ll do it now, though enough time has passed that I can look back on the event almost fondly now. There’s a weird stigma about daring to say that you had a lousy birth, and believe me, I still feel guilty about being unhappy with the process given the awesome outcome. I am very, very happy that Sadie and I both made it out healthy. I’m also very, very happy that I can elect a C next time and I’ll never have to go through that again. Fair enough, I figure.
It’s almost impossible to believe that my life didn’t start six months ago. I remember life before Sadie, but in those washed-out-sepia-tones of ancient photographs. It’s damned hard to believe that in only six months she’s gone from that adorable, squalling, red-faced bundle of needs to the bright-eyed babbling little hellion she is now. The girl who couldn’t lift her head is now rolling across the room and sits up for as long as she pleases. The girl who didn’t want to nurse not only nurses like a champ now, but eats a wide variety of food and eagerly. Absolutely amazing.
Thursday, March 17, 2005
She sits.
Actually, Sadie’s been sitting to various degrees for a while, but yesterday she discovered that her balance was good enough that she didn’t need a hand on the ground to keep from falling over, and thus could use both hands to play with something in front of her. She doesn’t fall over now until she gets so excited that she waves those little arms so hard that it becomes impossible for her to keep her balance. She can’t get up to a sit by herself yet, though, so if you’ve wondered what I’ve been doing the last few days instead of posting, there you have it: I’ve been my baby’s sitter-upper.
It’s so interesting watching her. A few weeks ago she wanted to be left the heck alone to play with things by herself--just leave her some toys and leave her alone, thankyouverymuch, she’s going to figure the world out without anyone’s help. Now she’s much happier being played with and gets downright cranky if left to play by herself for more than a few minutes. I estimate she’ll change again soon. I think that’s maybe the wildest thing about all of this...I surely didn’t know beforehand that I’d have myself a new baby every couple of weeks. But for right now, I do, and it’s definitely the Coolest. Thing. Ever.
Pictures as soon as I get around to dumping the latest batch off of the camera.
Wednesday, March 09, 2005
Since I know nothing about cloth, this is a disposable conversation.
Speaking of Sitemeter, somebody came through the other night looking for “diaper comparisons.” So in service to the Great God Google, I offer up my thoughts, which can be summarized as follows: the best diaper for your kid depends on your kid.
OK, not helpful and not even especially deep, but oh-so-true. Different brands fit different kids. Hopefully you’re lucky and the cheap ones will do. One thing I *have* found is that when we’ve just moved up a size, pretty much any one will do, but as she grows through a size, more and more of the things leak, until we’re left with but one brand that fits. For us, that seems to be Pampers, and specifically the Baby-Dry variant, which is, thankfully, cheaper than the pretty Swaddler/Cruiser variant. It also doesn’t have an overwhelming reek of whatever vaguely-baby-powder scent they put in the more expensive ones, which is a plus in my book, though one of my closest friends loves the smell of the things and actually waxed a bit nostalgic about it the other day.
In any case, Huggies are narrower through the crotch than the Pampers are, and taller in the body. The off-brands seem always to be patterned after one or the other. Luvs is made by the Pampers people, and despite also smelling of something powder-like, have become our most-of-the-time diaper. BJ’s house brand, which we tried last time, is cut like Huggies. Wal-Mart’s White Cloud brand we’ve had lousy luck with, but some folks love them. Haven’t done any extra store-brand exploring, since we’ve found something of reasonable price that works for us.
The only other diaper tip I have is that if it looks smallish and it’s leaking, move up a size, even if you’re nowhere close to the suggested weights.
As far as I can tell, this is like all of parenting: a trial and error process where the solution is constantly shifting. But that’s part of the charm, I think. (Of course, if I didn’t think that they’d have hauled me off to the looney bin by now...)
Monday, March 07, 2005
So today I…
Got the laundry from yesterday folded, got the “upcoming” baby clothes out of the most excellent plastic container they were in and into under-the-crib size boxes instead, refilled the most excellent container with newborn and 3-6 month sized clothes to go into storage and got it sealed and labeled, shopped for Jay’s birthday present, and got a full-on belly laugh out of the baby (she’s a serious little thing, it’s almost imposible to make her laugh). That leaves some dishes but they can be done along with supper. Not a bad day’s work…
Back…sort of.
I wasn’t originally intending to take a week (plus!) away from the computer...a day when I wasn’t feeling talkative just sort of evolved into an extended break. I’ve got a tremendous amount to do around the house right now, since we’re planning on moving some more rooms around so that Sadie can sleep without our interference, and I’ve been cooking up a storm, and I think I blew a circuit breaker with some of the news this last week. Maybe more later on that, maybe just cute baby posts. Probably still not too many, though, since I’m planning to work on packing away baby clothes today and I probably won’t be able to see the screen through the “she’s not a newborn anymore” tears. *sigh*
Wednesday, February 23, 2005
Toward a new mobility
So the baby’s latest thing is trying like hell to push up and get on her hands and knees, then sobbing pitifully when she can’t manage it.
Somebody slow down time. Please?
Monday, February 21, 2005
In a few more days, I might be human again.
You know how when you haven’t gotten a lot of sleep for anywhere from several nights to several months and then you get a chance to sleep for a long time and you do it a few nights in a row and as you start to catch up you get more and more tired until you’re just terribly sleepy all day and you can barely stay awake at the keyboard and you wish you had the good sense to just take a nap but having already slept like half the day you don’t want to and you write terrible run-on sentences about it instead?
It’s like that today.
Thursday, February 17, 2005
Why is it that as soon as I sit down with hot food, the baby starts screaming?
I suspect this is one of the questions of motherhood that will forever remain unanswered...a universal mystery, if you will.
Sigh.
Wednesday, February 16, 2005
Ms. Loveable is moreso this morning.
So last night the baby, having rolled over and awakened me for the third time in four hours, found herself deposited by her father in her much-despised crib, where she promptly rolled over, sighed, and fell asleep.
Go figure.
This while I’m in the middle of a medium-sized stack of “how to teach your baby to sleep” books, too. Heh.
Monday, February 14, 2005
And then it became the Sadie loves prunes song…
We spend a lot of time making up new versions of the Winnie the Pooh song. I suspect that this is a universal illness suffered by new parents, tailored to whatever it is that plays most often in your house. In our case, Pooh is the culprit, Sadie having been gifted with a mobile that plays the song. It used to hang over the changing table, leading to a rather obvious variant that nonetheless makes the girl smile with the wattage of a thousand suns, but I digress…
I was planning to give her oatmeal next, now that rice and bananas and apples have been conquered, but prunes turned out to be the more appropriate choice. And Oh.My.God. does she love the things. Jay got some pictures that he’ll no doubt post later. Did she get them everywhere? Yes she got them everywhere, she even got them in her hair. She thinks food is the coolest thing that ever happened to her. Definitely our daughter.
It’s still hard to wrap my mind around how ridiculously happy I am. Maybe that’s partially because I never imagined that happiness would come in this form. I purely never envisioned being so excited about baby food…
Saturday, February 12, 2005
Sadie Appleseed
This girl loves her apples so much she might just decide that growing the things ought to be her life’s work. This morning, the end of her portion was met with lunging for the empty dish and a very clear request for more. Heh. Curiously enough, she doesn’t seem to like them cold, while the bananas she prefers cold. We have yet to heat any of the foods for her, figuring if she’ll eat them as is it makes our lives much easier.
This is way too much fun. Next we’re going for the oat cereal, I think. After that, who knows? Maybe prunes. LOL.
Thursday, January 27, 2005
Somebody has quite the sense of humor.
...giving mothers only two hands.
Ha, ha! Very funny, Big Guy! 
Busy here, so no deep thoughts from me. The baby is now bored with rolling over for the day, so I’m off to figure out a new game. A rousing round of peek-a-boo, perhaps?
You know, I have a lot of trouble posting sometimes because I still haven’t figured out to let go of my own agenda, how to adopt the little one’s rhythm, how to think and write in the pauses she gives me. I’m working on it, but I haven’t been in someone else’s groove before, and I find it startling in its difficulty.
Tuesday, January 25, 2005
Lies, damned lies, and twisted interpretations.
Believe it or not, I’ve actually seen people argue that the US infant mortality rate is evidence of *too much* medicine, and that the reason that rates are lower in some suprising places is that because without doctors intervening in the natural processes of pregnancy and childbirth things go better.
Gotta say that I’m with the Coyote and Captain Ed on this one...there are several factors inflating statistics for the U.S. relative to other countries, and none of them are that capitalist doctors are evil people who kill babies with their degrees and their monitors and their big scary knives.
You know, this one gets my back up more than most. Might have something to do with the fact that if I had waited for a natural labor and a vaginal delivery, my daughter probably wouldn’t be here and I might not be, either. Probably has more to do with the irritation I’m wont to feel at the crazy fuckers who think everything was better in the Olden Days or the Way Nature Does It. Go look up how many women used to die in childbirth. Go take a look at the infant mortality statistics from a hundred years ago. Look at the percentage of children who survived to their fifth birthday. Then do whatever the fuck you want, because that’s your right. But don’t you dare say one word to me about having my baby in a hospital, attended by a doctor or doctors. Don’t give me that “vaccines cause autism” crap, and don’t try to convince me to feed my kid organic apple juice. M’kay?
Tuesday, January 18, 2005
Every time I think I have her figured out…
She changes on me.
I don’t know who first told me that it’s like getting a new baby every couple of weeks during the first six months or so, but I’m finding it to be very true. Originally she was on a schedule resembling ours when it came to the longest stretch of sleep for her, which worked out well...we’d just take her to bed with us, and everybody was happy. The last few weeks she’s been refusing to go to sleep until two or three in the morning, which wasn’t working so well. This, of course, meant that she’d sleep ‘til noon, with a break or two for eating thrown in there.
So this morning she wakes up giggling and ready to go at 7:15. She’s behind me on the floor right now, happily beating the crap out of her little baby gym. No idea what this is all about, but I suspect I should take advantage and try to get her to sleep early tonight.
Babies are so cool.
Thursday, January 13, 2005
Yes, it’s another baby post…
Sometimes I feel like we’re at serious risk of overloading y’all with the baby stuff. Naturally enough, though, she’s the center of my universe right now, and I don’t have too much time or interest for things non-baby. So forgive me, but I just had to share the e-mail I sent Jay a little while ago:
I had to change a pooped-in outfit, and the new one has snaps at the back of the neck. So I put her on her belly on the bed to snap it up, then left her there for a second to see what she’d do. And of course she rolled over, just like she’d been doing it all her life, complete with funny look at crazy mommy when I clapped and told her, “Yay!”
I think she’s been playing us. She knows darned well how to roll, but she’d rather be picked up. Heh.
She’d rolled over before, but had stopped after doing it a couple of times, and I’d just figured that she wasn’t interested enough to bother re-learning to do it. Heh. Re-learning, my butt. She’s a tricksy baby, she is.
Friday, January 07, 2005
Remember, you are not a statistic.
Or even a generalization.
Everything I read before Sadie was born said that one of the side benefits of breastfeeding was that the baby weight would melt right off.
Heh. Heheheheh. Heheheheheheheheh. Bwahahahahaha! *collapses in hysterics*
Tuesday, January 04, 2005
I’m sure there was something I was going to blog about other than my baby…
But since she just discovered she can grab her feet, all thoughts other than how ridiculously adorable she is have been driven from my mind. I’m flighty that way anymore.
Monday, January 03, 2005
On the other hand, there are things I hate less every day.
So Rachel mentions that nicotine doesn’t exactly respect the calendar, and that reminds me that it’s been a while since I’ve bitched about how much I hate not smoking. I suppose that’s because after a good ten months or so of not smoking at all, and very very nearly a full year of not indulging in the habit to my full satisfaction, it is finally--finally--starting to not piss me off quite so much that I don’t smoke.
Honestly, I think most people have an easier time of quitting, though I don’t think it’s ever easy, so don’t take this as a discouraging thing if you’re stumbling across this with the thought of qutting in mind. I think between my overdeveloped capacity for being compulsive and the fact that I really didn’t want to quit, I had a harder time of it than is usual. If there’s any way you can hold out until you want to quit for youself--or even want to quit at all--I’d recommend it. I quit for my husband and more so for my daughter (since she was stuck sharing a body with me and all), and while that made it for me in a backhand sort of way, it just wasn’t the same, you know?
Anyway, I’m hoping that another couple of months will make me truly comfortable in this new skin, and I can celebrate the anniversary of that last one with honest happiness rather than with pride in my ability to tolerate discomfort. *crossing fingers*
Oh, and a belated congrats to everyone out there who’s managed to quit. It’s a hell of a thing.
Quote of the Day
Nursing does not diminish the beauty of a woman’s breasts; it enhances their charm by making them look lived in and happy. –R. A. Heinlein
Deb hates Elmo. She hates him very, very much, she does.
Trying to ensure that the other parent gets the next crappy diaper has been raised to the level of an artform in this house over the past month, aided and abetted by the lovely people who make Pampers. Anyone who doesn’t think that obnoxious advertising starts early enough, rest assured: Pampers feature Sesame Street characters (and Huggies have Mickey Mouse, but that is unimportant, since we generally make it through about one half-pack of those before she grows out of them, which leads to a rather entertaining sort of shitstorm. But I digress...).
In any case, the quest to foist the next poop on each other has resulted in a shortage of Elmo diapers around these parts. You see, almost from birth I’ve been teaching my daughter to shit on the fuzzy red son of a bitch. So the best way to make the next diaper change a smelly one is to put her in an Elmo diaper. Thus they tend to be hoarded for strategic deployment in the evenings.
Oh, and as far as those baby-changing things go, I’ve never seen anyone use one of the damned things. I sure as hell won’t. I take her back out to the car if she needs changing that badly. Ah, the luxuries of having just one child…
California is weird, example #43,877,012.
I’ve been missing the heck out of Cali lately, but I have to agree with Jen that there are more than three million good reasons not to live there. (I knew Cali was in desperate straits when Mass seemed an improvement, but that is, as they say, a whole other topic.)
In any case, Michelle Malkin has highlighted an article from the Modesto Bee on the latest round of weird legislation in the Bear Flag State. I suppose this sort of thing is only weird if you aren’t the sort of compulsive who thinks that kids ought to be raised the way that the state dictates they should be raised, so consider yourself warned. Each intrusion seems so small and sensible, but together they make up something so ugly as to make the most beautiful of states unlivable.
One of the more interesting side effects of having a baby is that it has brought my libertarian impulse into full flower. On the other hand, when the state dictates whether or not your teenager is allowed to use a tanning booth, or where your kids are allowed to sit in your car, maybe that impulse isn’t so much libertarian as it is just human.
Tuesday, November 09, 2004
A random observation
I type much more quickly now that the swelling in my hands is gone. And it’s a great feeling. :-D
Saturday, October 09, 2004
I rock.
10 days postpartum and I just got my wedding ring back on.
It felt like it was off forever.
This is much better.
Yay!
Next up: shoes.
Monday, September 27, 2004
Quote of the Day
Nursing does not diminish the beauty of a woman’s breasts; it enhances their charm by making them look lived in and happy. --R. A. Heinlein
Inching toward the moment…
Last night I had the best bout of false labor yet...contractions strong enough to stop me in my tracks, though not so strong I couldn’t talk through them, 10-12 minutes apart for several hours. Luckily, they decided to taper off right about the time I was ready to go to bed. Still having an occasional one, my back is killing me, bits I don’t really want to talk about are killing me, and I’m really pretty happy about it. Hopefully this won’t drag on too long, and I’ll have a baby to show for all of this trouble soon!
Had a minor breakdown on Saturday when I couldn’t find the instructions for the carseat. Jay just came over to where I was sitting and kissed me. His theory? My losing it is a sign that she’s coming soon. I hope so. I barely held it together yesterday when I had trouble getting a prescription I needed. Seems that anything that goes less than a thousand percent perfectly now has the ability to make me cry.
Not much else going on. My folks got their travel arrangements made. The little one is doing great with all of the testing. Jay is dazzling me with his cooking. The weather is somewhere beyond perfect--I think I’m starting to understand why folks think the weather here is ok. Leaves are starting to change. And I need to wander off and walk around...this chair is terribly uncomfortable anymore. More news when there is any…
Thursday, September 23, 2004
Don’t boil the binkies, and other things I’ve learned today.
OK, that’s the only thing I’ve learned today. But it was a good thing, yes? In my defense, the damned package said to boil them. I told Jay that if they could go to the trouble to cover their asses by including such an instruction, it was the least I could do to cover my own by following it.
Then I ruined the binkies.
Dammit.
In other news, Sadie is rapidly outpacing the ability of my body to provide a healthy environment, but you’d never know it. Fluid is just barely within guidelines now, and even my untrained eyes can see on ultrasound that the poor placenta looks “tired”...but the kid hasn’t slowed down a bit. She seems to be perfectly happy and quite comfortable in there.
Dammit.
Not that I want anything to go wrong--I just want her out. She’s got less than a week to show up voluntarily. Kid needs to get a move on. Crazy thing.
Sleeeeepy.
But up for the NST this morning. I already can’t wait to get home and take a nap.
Finally managed to sleep a little after 0300. Still getting a contraction here and there but they’re back to being occasional things.
So no real excitement yet...just a sleepy mom and a kicking babe.
Tuning up…
My body feels right now like a large orchestra getting ready to play a symphony. You know that once they’re actually playing, it will be a thing of beauty, but the tuning-up beforehand is almost painful to listen to.
For the last four hours or so, I’ve been enjoying what I can only assume is a bout of false labor. Contractions are irregular and manageable, but there’s no doubt that they’re much closer relatives of the real thing than those Braxton-Hicks jobbies that have been cropping up here and there for months now. We’re talking anywhere from 10-20 minutes apart and just strong enough to force me to pay attention. I know better than to get excited, but I can’t quite sleep between the periodic discomfort, the baby kicking me between the things, and Jay’s extra-loud snoring, courtesy of a sore foot keeping him out of a position where he breathes well. Poor thing…
In any case, I’ll most likely jump in the shower in an effort to relax a bit more. If this, by some miracle, turns out to be a direct prelude to the real thing, I’ll be wanting to have slept at least a little. Right now I feel like I could go all night, but I know that’s an illusion.
Updates will be forthcoming should anything truly exciting happen...and probably if it doesn’t. 