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May 27, 2006
Television
I will admit that I watch(ed) American Idol. I liked it, too, so there. But here is the thing… the week before the very last week, while I was watching, Marc was online. He came in and said that Elliot was kicked off. We were both stunned; we thought we were watching it live. The word "live" was right there on the screen while he was telling me. We waited and watched to the end and, sure enough, Elliot- Gone. I pondered for a good long while and realized that if it were live here, on the East Coast it would be on at midnight and they wouldn't get good ratings. So it made sense that it was a rebroadcast for us.
Sort of.
But then for the Final Episode, I got my brain all in a frenzy. For some reason I couldn't wrap my brain around the non-live factor. I watched Taylor and What's-Her-Name and got all sad because there they were pretending not to know who won, when they really must already know because it was shown on the East Coast already.
My brain was hurt by the c-section. I know that's why I had all that stupid thought process.
Now on to Baby Story. This is a happy, cheery show on TLC four times during the day. Nice people having nice babies. Nothing scary happens on this show (unlike some on Discovery). However, they are getting a patented Angry Debbie letter.
Since I've been home (and in the hospital with pneumonia), I've watched nearly all four episodes each day. So I've seen a lot. My guestimate is that of the 20 episodes a week, 2 of them mention or show breastfeeding (not even the actual booby). Of those 2, at least 1 talks about how hard breastfeeding is and then they give up and show bottle feeding.
I'm the first to admit that it isn't as easy as, say, blinking your eyes or losing enough brain cells to not understand the concept of rebroadcasting, but it's also worth every moment of trial. And not even in a breastfeeding nazi sort of way, but, I mean, really. If you are all about the ease of things, once you have breastfeeding down, it really doesn't get any easier. Baby hungry? Whip out the booby. Baby fussy? Whip out the booby. Baby doing anything annoying at all? Whip out the booby.
But Baby Story doesn't show this. They show parents with bottles and formula (about $100 per month, too, by the way) and mixing and shaking and waiting to warm up and babies crying for food. They make it look so much harder than it is.
So they are getting a letter.
On to the second child syndrome… Remember with Signa? We dressed her up and took pictures every Wednesday (the day of the week that she was born) and java-ed them into a movie. We posted every tiny thing she did and took 107 pictures of her Hungry Face. Will? We missed his 1 month birthday.
Poor kid.
Yesterday (Friday) Marc went to the movies and the kids (it's still REALLY weird to write "kids") and I stayed home. Signa and I made cupcakes and then she decorated them like mice. We played outside and went for a short walk. After dinner, I convinced Signa to go on an ice cream date with just me. She is just so cute. After looking at Will all day and all night for 4 weeks and 4 days, I glance at Signa and just see this GIANT kid. Yesterday was a nice day to remind me that she's still little and still my girl.
Posted by Debbie at 09:01 AM | Comments (1)
May 26, 2006
Large Update
I have so much to write about, but have just been jotting notes to keep track:
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Monday, May 8, 2006
Dance Class
Next Saturday is the dress rehearsal for Signa's June recital. I am to put her in her costume and put RED lipstick on her, blush and then make her have curly Shirley Temple hair.
First of all, I don't like the idea of makeup for her, but I can get over that. What I have no idea about is the hair. How do I curl her hair?!? I am thinking sponge curlers to sleep in, but I wonder how much that will cost me in bribery?
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Friday, May 12, 2006
Owie Boobies
I came down with mastitis (a breast infection) last Sunday so it's been another hard week, but I ventured out to Target with the whole family last night. Initially it was to be a mother/daughter outing, but Signa threw a tantrum and told me that she doesn't go to Target with Momma; she goes with Daddy. So I made everyone go with me. We were gone about an hour and a half and that was about all I could take. But it's going okay. If only the miscellaneous owies (like hurt boobies) would stop, I think my actual wound is doing great! I'm getting stir-crazy, though.
I normally wouldn't mind being left home alone while Marc and Signa go out and do their things, but after the three weeks with pneumonia and now these weeks with Will, I'm a little sad and missing my girl. That's why it was so hard when she wouldn't go with me alone. And it was fine all of us going together, but she did the stuff with Marc and I did the shopping with Will in the sling, so... still no Signa time. I hope to convince her soon to have a momma date because I'm getting lonely and sad and missing my family. I know I have Will and he's definitely family, but it's nice to be with ALL of them.
Will is fine. He's sleeping (ahhhhh), but up most of the night. I'm trying to get him to sleep in the cosleeper which is 6 whole inches from me, rather than on top of me. But when he sleeps, he sleeps for a good long time, so I'm not complaining (even if my boobies are- it's hard for them to figure out what to do- he's nursing every 15 minutes most of the time and then all of a sudden, it's 4 hours). I try to stretch out the 15 minutes, but letting hungry crying babies be isn't one of my strong points. Today he fell asleep before finishing nursing on Hurt Booby. I pumped and got 2 1/2 ounces, which was about 2 ounces more than I got the first time I ever pumped for Signa. I'm really happy about the pumping, since next week we'll introduce the bottle.
Will is a great boy. He is so different from Signa and really still learning to "ask" for what he wants. It's so cute to watch him already learning. He had his first bath today and did great. Didn't even cry. We had Signa help out, too, so she can partake in his caregiving (or at least think she is).
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Saturday, May 13, 2006
Sleeping
So this is weird, but I'm a bit worried about Will. He sleeps A LOT. Is this normal? His awake times are bright-eyed, but so few and so short. He was up only twice last night for feeding and I pretty much woke him for them. Then today, he slept until time for Signa's class and then fed in her class and is now sleeping again.
I just remember Signa. No more than 2 hours at a time and that was a good night. So I'm sure I'm just being paranoid, but is this normal???
I just can't believe that someone can sleep this much.
UPDATE: tons of research on the internet and yes, it's normal.
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Monday, May 15, 2006
Weekend Update
In my pumping, I managed to get plenty to feed to Will, so on Saturday I treated myself to a manicure. Marc fed him 2oz in a bottle and he did fine. Now the worry about him not taking a bottle and that being a struggle is over. I did worry, since, unlike Signa, he will not take a pacifier. But evidently if the pacifier spewed forth breast milk, he'd be okay with it.
The mastitis seems to be gone. I still have the meds to finish up, but the lumps are gone and the flu feelings are gone. Now I have to figure out why he nurses weird on that one nipple so that it hurts. Off to the lactation consultant Wednesday.
Will got circumcised today. He's fine, but still sleeping from it. He now weighs 8lbs, 4oz, so right on track. Oh, and the doctor who does the circumcisions in the pediatrician's office? His name is Dr. Wang. We could not look at one another when making the appointment for fear of laughing.
One thing about Will is that I have just got to stop comparing him to Signa. You'd think I would have learned during the oh-so-different pregnancy, but it's just so hard! Anyway, he doesn't have a schedule yet, so he just sleeps whenever. That day that I worried, he slept a ton, but the next, he was awake a lot, so it all evens out. He was up most of today (on and off), but now has been sound asleep for a couple of hours. I just love watching his personality develop. Not really develop, but come out. He's just learning how to tell me when he's upset and how to tell me what is wrong. He's just so darned cute. And he doesn't smile yet, but you can see when he would if he could. He will just be surprised by something happy and then gaze with love. It's almost as good as a smile.
As to Signa, I did her hair for the rehearsal with sponge rollers and it wasn't the right kind of curls. Her hair was curly, but not in Shirley Temple spirally curls. Unfortunately, I have to do it again next week for pictures, so I have to do it again. I'm going to try a curling iron (that I need to borrow from our wonderful neighbors who know how to do this kind of thing) and see if that works better. Oh and she was SO BADLY BEHAVED at the rehearsal, that she got ALL her toys taken away for 24 hours and we made her watch the video we took of how bad she was. Not just watch it, but we'd pause and rewind and make her tell us what she did wrong. We totally harped on every bad Signa second.
For Mother's Day, Marc and Signa brought me breakfast in bed and I got a figuring with a momma and two babies (to go with the one I got from Signa on my first Mother's Day with her). I also got a Toaststation (toaster/toaster oven combination). I've been coveting this since I saw an info-mercial for it. We had a really wonderful day.
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Friday, May 26, 2006
Outings
So now we've been to Target many times, to Walmart many times and to the grocery store many times. I've learned how to nurse Will in the sling, making these trips much easier and he is learning to sleep much better when we are out. Except in the car, which he really hates. His trip next month to Oregon is going to be horrific. Hopefully he works out this car seat aversion thing before then.
We went to Austin's baseball game (they won!) and Signa and Will had a great time. Well, Signa did. Will just slept. We've been to Signa's soccer class twice and Will was a trouper out there on the soccer field. Slept through one class and nursed through another. Now you'd think that Signa was actually playing SOCCER in her SOCCER class through all this, but really she was doing one or more of the following:
* tipping the goal over onto the other children, trapping them like little lobsters
* finding and wielding sticks
* admiring snails
Sadly, the class is in the way of Signa's nap, so it was doomed from the start.
We went to my work for a quick visit and to show off the baby and we went to the art group at the park and the farmer's market in town. We are pretty much up and around (as long as we don't need to be there before noonish) and running as a family again.
As to sleeping, Will seems to have been good every other night, but the past three nights have been good (knock wood). He is developing a schedule where he goes to sleep at 7:30pm and sleeps for 2-3 hours. Then through the night, he nurses every 2-3 hours (but with one stint at 4 hours) until about 8am. Then he's up for an hour and then takes a two-hour nap. Then he cat naps through the day until about 3pm when he sleeps for another hour or so. Then 7:30 rolls around again. I like this schedule. Of course, yesterday he slept almost all day, but I'm attributing it to a growth spurt. Sadly, so far, I'm really the only one who can soothe him, though. That will change, but for now, when he's awake, he's mostly with me.
Posted by Debbie at 10:28 AM | Comments (1)
May 08, 2006
The Kids
People always are amazed when I talk about my neighborhood. In these days where people live in the same house for decades and don't know their neighbors, it shocks people when I tell them about our neighborhood. It's just filled with people that I would trust with my life. The nicest people ever. Especially when they all took turns bringing dinners after Will and I came home. If ever you know someone who has a baby, take them dinner- even if they say no. It's the best thing in the world to get it just taken care of.
Now some things about Will. His belly button horror thing came off on 5/2. It's great as now I can change him without looking away in horror. He also sleeps better than Signa did, with sometimes four hours towards the morning. Sometimes not, though, so it's actually a bit harder, as I can't get a schedule for me down. He loves his booby milk and wants it all the dang time. I have a doctor's appointment this afternoon, since I'm over-producing right now and am developing a breast infection. Yay. NOT. It hurts a lot. A whole lot.
In the hosptial, they worried that he was not gaining weight fast enough. At his doctor appointment today (his 2-week appointment) he was supposed to be back to his birthweight of 7lbs, 2oz. He was 7lbs, 14oz, so we are doing just fine. We got a new pediatrician, recommended by the lactation consultants, who is supportive of breastfeeding, thank heavens. I really hated our old office's staff who did rounds at the hospital. It was just terrible. I'll have to write about that sometime.
Baby Will makes cute noises all the time and does cute baby tricks already. I say, "Where does the booby go?" and he puts his finger in his mouth. Really. He does. He also pees on us frequently. And has a lot more parts to clean than Signa. And he wiggles more- so basically, changing him is pretty difficult, but once you get past that, he's awful cute.
Signa is doing fine with him, but she's missing hanging out with the whole family; Marc usually takes her places during the day and Will and I stay home. Hopefully now that I'm allowed to drive and can get around a bit better, we can do more things. She's been acting up a bit with a self- proclaimed "bad attitude" and we know it's because she's missing family time. And she's 3 1/2. That helps attitudes go bad, also.
We've been jotting down the Signa-isms on our white board, so as not to forget. So here you go:
* She has a new pretend friend- Firefly the Cricket. Often, she'll announce that her pretend cricket, Firefly, is going to play with us.
* We rarely watch sit-coms on tv- it's either kid shows or Food TV. So when I had a sit-com on the other night when she came to bed, she heard the laugh track and asked, "Where are all those people who are laughing?" After I explained it to her, she announced, "But it isn't even funny." She definitely has a point there...
* Marc and Signa went to buy some seeds to plant in the backyard and all through the store, Signa sang, "We've Got Carrot Seeds" to the tune of Another One Bites the Dust.
* Our tags expired on the car and I didn't know it. I paid and sent it in, but didn't now that it needed smog, so they were expired. Marc and Signa went to take care of it and Marc explained to her that you get in trouble if your registration is expired. She summarized, "If you don't take care of your tags, you have to go to your pooh sofa." Sorta like that.
Posted by Debbie at 12:48 PM | Comments (2)