(after a week that included plenty of drinking and a day of paint ball. She was a tough little embryo!)
Sunday, December 25, 2011
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
hibernating
I've heard rumors that it's cold outside today. The internet told me it was 51 degrees at like 10:00. That's cold for me now. In a month it will feel warm I'm sure, but I'm not ready for it yet. So Tabitha and I are hibernating like a couple of bears today. She's even been eating a ton all day like she really is fattening herself up to survive the winter. I have not eaten much, mostly because my digestive system has been mad at me and hurting me and making me nauseous since last night. It would have totally been a pajama day except a) Tabby spit up on her pajamas and then peed on them while getting her diaper changed so I was a responsible parent and put clean clothes on her, and b) 
I hadn't showered in 2 days and decided a shower was a priority today. So I took a nice, hot, long (aka 20 minute) shower during her first nap this morning and it was glorious. I am, however, still wearing pajama pants. Yesterday I was all ambitious and house wifey and made dinner and a yummy peanut pie for dessert. Today I'm staring down the dust under my coffee table and trying not to pee my pants as I sit in my glider all day while Tabby naps in my arms and wakes up to frantically nurse again every 20 minutes or so.
We were due for a lazy day at home. Our social calendar has been hopping for the past week! There was Thanksgiving of course (when Tabitha managed to pee on the floor while lying on her changing table), then we spent half of the next day at at a Mexican restaurant with Ilya and Mercedes. We got a wee bit drunk on margaritas, thank you for asking. Monday we had a lunch play date with my friends Lucy, Gara, and Mercedes, and Tabby's friends Ellie, Marly, and William. Monday I also had book club (anther Mexican restaurant=more margarita drunkenness) and coffee club the next morning. Coffee club is agroup of stay at home moms who meet once a month to discuss interesting, non-kid topics. For example, yesterday we discussed women in politics and why the US has never had a female president. Lucy (of bravofam.com fame) has been introducing us to various mom/baby activities. She's my social coordinator. Thank God, because otherwise I'd be going crazy here alone every day.
Ok, back to big important things like reading funny websites and doing Christmas shopping online.
I hadn't showered in 2 days and decided a shower was a priority today. So I took a nice, hot, long (aka 20 minute) shower during her first nap this morning and it was glorious. I am, however, still wearing pajama pants. Yesterday I was all ambitious and house wifey and made dinner and a yummy peanut pie for dessert. Today I'm staring down the dust under my coffee table and trying not to pee my pants as I sit in my glider all day while Tabby naps in my arms and wakes up to frantically nurse again every 20 minutes or so.We were due for a lazy day at home. Our social calendar has been hopping for the past week! There was Thanksgiving of course (when Tabitha managed to pee on the floor while lying on her changing table), then we spent half of the next day at at a Mexican restaurant with Ilya and Mercedes. We got a wee bit drunk on margaritas, thank you for asking. Monday we had a lunch play date with my friends Lucy, Gara, and Mercedes, and Tabby's friends Ellie, Marly, and William. Monday I also had book club (anther Mexican restaurant=more margarita drunkenness) and coffee club the next morning. Coffee club is agroup of stay at home moms who meet once a month to discuss interesting, non-kid topics. For example, yesterday we discussed women in politics and why the US has never had a female president. Lucy (of bravofam.com fame) has been introducing us to various mom/baby activities. She's my social coordinator. Thank God, because otherwise I'd be going crazy here alone every day.
Ok, back to big important things like reading funny websites and doing Christmas shopping online.
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Good thing babies don't hold grudges
Just for the record, I'm not the only one around here making babies bleed. Tabitha has discovered how to get her right hand up to her mouth to suck on it. Unfortunately, she misses quite a bit, and will end up poking herself in the eye or rubbing her nose instead. And when she does get her hand to her mouth, she often ends up sucking on her wrist with her fingers in her eye/nose. So she's now started scratching herself in the face and occasionally drawing blood, hence the nail clipping attempt. Too bad I only got 2 of her nails cut yesterday. She might be channeling Michael Jackson and rocking one mitten for a few days.
In other news, happy first birthday to Louisa, Tabitha's future Cornell classmate! I can't believe she's 1 already!
Thursday, November 17, 2011
wide open spaces
Tabby has been sleeping in a co sleeper in between us in our bed since she was born. It's sort of a mini baby bed that just sits on top of our mattress. The top half has hard sides but the bottom just kind of has netting sides. Well, she decided this week that a fun way to wake me up in the morning (or middle of the night) is to kick her way out of her blanket, scoot down and out the side of the co sleeper a bit, and kick me in the back. Charming. 
So I decided I was ready to move her to her own bed. Not her own room just yet - she's in a basinette next to our bed - but holy cow, our bed is huge now! Plus the co sleeper seems to have trained Alfred to stay on his own side instead of migrating to the center of the bed at night. Suddenly I have what feels like acres and acres of room at night. It's fabulous. That combined with the fact that I can now sleep through absolutely anything, including Alfred's alarm, means that I've had a couple of really good nights of sleep. I can sleep through anything except for Tabitha, I mean. She makes the tiniest peep and I'm awake. Seriously, she wakes me up by breathing loudly. But she only wakes up once or twice a night, so I'm not complaining at all. I might have to rush to get things done during her 35 minute naps during the day, but girl can sleep at night.
On a completely unrelated note, our house seems to produce massive amounts of dust these days. I used to sweep every couple of days, swiffer once a week or so, and it was fine. Now if I don't swiffer every other day at least there are copious amounts of giant dust bunnies all over the floor. It's disgusting. I don't know if it's because Tabby and I are supremely dirty people or what, but it's kind of disturbing. I just swiffered and am currently enjoying a dust free floor for the next 12 hours or so before it needs it again.
So I decided I was ready to move her to her own bed. Not her own room just yet - she's in a basinette next to our bed - but holy cow, our bed is huge now! Plus the co sleeper seems to have trained Alfred to stay on his own side instead of migrating to the center of the bed at night. Suddenly I have what feels like acres and acres of room at night. It's fabulous. That combined with the fact that I can now sleep through absolutely anything, including Alfred's alarm, means that I've had a couple of really good nights of sleep. I can sleep through anything except for Tabitha, I mean. She makes the tiniest peep and I'm awake. Seriously, she wakes me up by breathing loudly. But she only wakes up once or twice a night, so I'm not complaining at all. I might have to rush to get things done during her 35 minute naps during the day, but girl can sleep at night.On a completely unrelated note, our house seems to produce massive amounts of dust these days. I used to sweep every couple of days, swiffer once a week or so, and it was fine. Now if I don't swiffer every other day at least there are copious amounts of giant dust bunnies all over the floor. It's disgusting. I don't know if it's because Tabby and I are supremely dirty people or what, but it's kind of disturbing. I just swiffered and am currently enjoying a dust free floor for the next 12 hours or so before it needs it again.
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
2 months
If there's one thing that I've learned about myself over the past two months, it's that having some sort of goal or project ever day helps keep me sane. I found that to be the case even during 
my (almost) 2 weeks off of work before Tabby was born. I'm not talking anything big - my goal most Fridays is simply to watch the episode of Vampire Diaries from the night before - but it definitely helps my mental state. The point of this is that I think I'm going to start posting here again, if only to give myself something to do on days when I have nothing else planned.
So! I have a two month old. She's generally pretty cute. She has a well developed gag reflex; I have managed to gag her and make her vomit twice this week. Once by trying to give her a pacifier (hopefully our next kid likes them because this one certainly doesn't, and we got like 10 of them as gifts), and once trying to give her medicine. We're talking projectile vomit here, it's like something out of The Exorcist. It's gross. She's a great sleeper at night, has always had 1 longer stretch of sleep right from 1 week old. She typically sleeps 6-7 hours in a row when she first goes to bed now, which is awesome. Her daytime naps are not so awesome, but we're going to be working on that soon.
Tabby had her 2 month check up the other day and had her first vaccinations, which were not fun.
She didn't quite get a fever, but her leg was all red and sore the rest of the day, and she was cranky the next couple of days. She seems to be pretty much back to normal today, but we'll see how she by tonight. Before her shots she was getting really smiley, but since then we haven't been getting as many smiles out of her. Baby smiles are like crack, you get one and it makes you do some pretty stupid things to get more.
I'm becoming more familiar with daytime TV. No soap operas yet, thank God. Lots of TLC and Discovery channel so far. I spend a lot of time on the internet, too. At least now I'm talking to Tabitha instead of just talking to myself all day though. I guess that about sums up my life these days. In closing, a funny baby picture. She gets enthralled with the pattern on her little activity gym sometimes and gets all cross eyed as she stares at it. Cracks me up.
my (almost) 2 weeks off of work before Tabby was born. I'm not talking anything big - my goal most Fridays is simply to watch the episode of Vampire Diaries from the night before - but it definitely helps my mental state. The point of this is that I think I'm going to start posting here again, if only to give myself something to do on days when I have nothing else planned.So! I have a two month old. She's generally pretty cute. She has a well developed gag reflex; I have managed to gag her and make her vomit twice this week. Once by trying to give her a pacifier (hopefully our next kid likes them because this one certainly doesn't, and we got like 10 of them as gifts), and once trying to give her medicine. We're talking projectile vomit here, it's like something out of The Exorcist. It's gross. She's a great sleeper at night, has always had 1 longer stretch of sleep right from 1 week old. She typically sleeps 6-7 hours in a row when she first goes to bed now, which is awesome. Her daytime naps are not so awesome, but we're going to be working on that soon.
Tabby had her 2 month check up the other day and had her first vaccinations, which were not fun.
She didn't quite get a fever, but her leg was all red and sore the rest of the day, and she was cranky the next couple of days. She seems to be pretty much back to normal today, but we'll see how she by tonight. Before her shots she was getting really smiley, but since then we haven't been getting as many smiles out of her. Baby smiles are like crack, you get one and it makes you do some pretty stupid things to get more.I'm becoming more familiar with daytime TV. No soap operas yet, thank God. Lots of TLC and Discovery channel so far. I spend a lot of time on the internet, too. At least now I'm talking to Tabitha instead of just talking to myself all day though. I guess that about sums up my life these days. In closing, a funny baby picture. She gets enthralled with the pattern on her little activity gym sometimes and gets all cross eyed as she stares at it. Cracks me up.
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
TJ2
As I mentioned in my last post, there has been an addition to T & A. First, a little back story. 
I found out I was pregnant on Christmas morning, we had the confirmation ultrasound a few weeks later, and it finally really started to sink in a couple of weeks after that. Everything went very smoothly throughout my pregnancy: no morning sickness or heartburn to speak of, just the typical aches and inconveniences as I got bigger. I felt the baby move for the first time when I was about 16 weeks along (she became quite the little acrobat as time went on), and we found out shortly after that that we were having a girl. Towards the end of my pregnancy, the doctors became concerned that the baby was measuring small, but she was growing consistently so they finally relaxed a bit about it.
I was due August 26, which came and went with no baby. August 26 was also my last day of work, so I got to enjoy some time off with no job and no baby. I was having contractions on and off most days and was trying various methods to induce labor on my own (walking, eating pineapple, etc). At my appointment on September 6 I was scheduled for an induction the morning of the 8th. Alfred and I did not want it to come to that, so we decided to take some more drastic action. So on the 6th I had an acupuncture appointment, and drank a couple of ounces of castor oil. At about 7:00 that evening contractions started. Since this was the fourth or fifth night in a row that this had happened, I wasn't too hopeful. Alfred had a meeting with someone at 8:30 and I convinced him to go, sure the contractions would taper off again. Not this time!
Alfred left the house a little after 8:00 for his meeting, and my contractions kept getting stronger and closer together. They were 5-6 minutes apart just before 8:30, when my water broke. That was probably the scariest part for me, because I was alone and suddenly didn't quite know what to do. I texted both Alfred and our doula, then texted a bunch of other people to try to distract myself.
That didn't last long though, because the contractions started getting even stronger. Alfred got home shortly afterwards (he cancelled his meeting and sped home) and started coaching me through and timing the contractions. We spent most of the time in the bathroom, since I was feeling sick from the castor oil on top of being in labor. He rubbed my back, talked me through each contraction, and kept my spirits up when I felt like I couldn't do it anymore and was getting discouraged. At one point I became convinced that it wasn't working because the baby was facing the wrong way (she was facing my front instead of my back). Alfred kept me calm and cheered me on. He also kept updating our doula, who assumed that since I was a first time mom labor would take awhile.
By about 10:45, my contractions were only 3 minutes apart, and sometimes there was no break between them. Suddenly, my body started pushing. To say it's an urge to push is quite an understatement; it was like my entire midsection was just seizing and moving completely out of my control. That was when I said we were going to the hospital. Alfred threw everything into the car as I made my way there slowly. I got in the backseat on my hands and knees and he started driving. He called our doula on the way and put her on speakerphone so she could hear me. Once she heard me grunting and groaning as I tried as hard as I could not to push, she realized it really was happening that fast.
She told Alfred she'd meet us at the hospital, and that if he needed to pull over to deliver the baby to call her and she'd meet us wherever we were. Once he heard that, he really stepped on the gas! We were going over 100 mph with our hazard lights flashing. He made the usual 25 minute drive to the hospital in 13 minutes flat.
We pulled up to the emergency room entrance and someone ran in to get a nurse for us. I somehow got out of the car and into a wheelchair, was wheeled into a room and transferred onto a gurney. They checked to make sure the baby wasn't already coming out, then whisked me up to labor and delivery. I was put in a room, moved to a bed, and checked: 10 centimeters dilated and ready to go. By this point it was just before midnight. For some reason, the answering service hadn't contacted the doctor on call when we called to say we were on our way, so he was finally called and told to come in. They made me wait to push until he got there, which was probably the hardest part of the whole ordeal. At some point our doula arrived and they put an IV port in my hand, but I was pretty preoccupied. I was clinging to the side of the bed, trying with everything I had not to push.
Finally the doctor arrived and I was allowed to start pushing. After pushing for about half a dozen contractions, maybe 10 minutes, everyone said they could see th
e head. My doula told me to reach down and feel it, which was the trippiest thing. Another push got her head half out, the next push got her head all the way out, then one more and she was born, at 12:37 am on Wednesday September 7. She was covered in meconuim (fetus poop) so they immediately rushed her over to the warming table to work on her. I didn't know it until later, but they put a tube down her throat 3 times to pump her stomach, and used a hand held respirator pump thingie to get her to start breathing. Alfred was watching them work on her (he even ended up cutting her umbilical cord!) while I was getting cleaned up and stitched up. I had a small tear from her coming out with her hand up to her face.
Finally, maybe 10 minutes later, the baby was cleaned up and breathing fine, and I got to see her and hold her for the first time. I had her on my chest and she sort of baby army crawled down so she could try to eat. With a little help, she latched right on and breast fed within an hour of being born. Those first few hours went by pretty fast, between all the medical people coming in for the two of us, her going to the nursery for some tests (accompanied by her dad), and just looking at her. Finally the adrenaline started to wear off and we all decided to take a nap.
The next morning (which was really just an hour or so later) we officially decided on the baby's name: Tabitha Jean. Alfred and I had gone in with a few possible first names (Jean was set before this kid was conceived), though Tabitha had been the front runner since about halfway through my pregnancy. We had to stay in the hospital for 2 days so they could monitor her and get some test results back since her birth was so fast. We got home around noon that Friday and have been settling in to our new life as a family of three ever since.
Tabby's a pretty good baby; she has her fussy moments (who doesn't?) but she's a good eater and (usually) a good sleeper. It's been pretty tough at times, but overall we've been doing really well. She was a little peanut, only 6 lbs 8 oz at birth, but has been chunking up nicely since: she was already 7 lbs 13 oz at her doctor's appointment yesterday! Tabitha's a pretty awesome baby, and Alfred and I are so lucky to have her!
I found out I was pregnant on Christmas morning, we had the confirmation ultrasound a few weeks later, and it finally really started to sink in a couple of weeks after that. Everything went very smoothly throughout my pregnancy: no morning sickness or heartburn to speak of, just the typical aches and inconveniences as I got bigger. I felt the baby move for the first time when I was about 16 weeks along (she became quite the little acrobat as time went on), and we found out shortly after that that we were having a girl. Towards the end of my pregnancy, the doctors became concerned that the baby was measuring small, but she was growing consistently so they finally relaxed a bit about it.I was due August 26, which came and went with no baby. August 26 was also my last day of work, so I got to enjoy some time off with no job and no baby. I was having contractions on and off most days and was trying various methods to induce labor on my own (walking, eating pineapple, etc). At my appointment on September 6 I was scheduled for an induction the morning of the 8th. Alfred and I did not want it to come to that, so we decided to take some more drastic action. So on the 6th I had an acupuncture appointment, and drank a couple of ounces of castor oil. At about 7:00 that evening contractions started. Since this was the fourth or fifth night in a row that this had happened, I wasn't too hopeful. Alfred had a meeting with someone at 8:30 and I convinced him to go, sure the contractions would taper off again. Not this time!
Alfred left the house a little after 8:00 for his meeting, and my contractions kept getting stronger and closer together. They were 5-6 minutes apart just before 8:30, when my water broke. That was probably the scariest part for me, because I was alone and suddenly didn't quite know what to do. I texted both Alfred and our doula, then texted a bunch of other people to try to distract myself.
That didn't last long though, because the contractions started getting even stronger. Alfred got home shortly afterwards (he cancelled his meeting and sped home) and started coaching me through and timing the contractions. We spent most of the time in the bathroom, since I was feeling sick from the castor oil on top of being in labor. He rubbed my back, talked me through each contraction, and kept my spirits up when I felt like I couldn't do it anymore and was getting discouraged. At one point I became convinced that it wasn't working because the baby was facing the wrong way (she was facing my front instead of my back). Alfred kept me calm and cheered me on. He also kept updating our doula, who assumed that since I was a first time mom labor would take awhile.By about 10:45, my contractions were only 3 minutes apart, and sometimes there was no break between them. Suddenly, my body started pushing. To say it's an urge to push is quite an understatement; it was like my entire midsection was just seizing and moving completely out of my control. That was when I said we were going to the hospital. Alfred threw everything into the car as I made my way there slowly. I got in the backseat on my hands and knees and he started driving. He called our doula on the way and put her on speakerphone so she could hear me. Once she heard me grunting and groaning as I tried as hard as I could not to push, she realized it really was happening that fast.
She told Alfred she'd meet us at the hospital, and that if he needed to pull over to deliver the baby to call her and she'd meet us wherever we were. Once he heard that, he really stepped on the gas! We were going over 100 mph with our hazard lights flashing. He made the usual 25 minute drive to the hospital in 13 minutes flat.We pulled up to the emergency room entrance and someone ran in to get a nurse for us. I somehow got out of the car and into a wheelchair, was wheeled into a room and transferred onto a gurney. They checked to make sure the baby wasn't already coming out, then whisked me up to labor and delivery. I was put in a room, moved to a bed, and checked: 10 centimeters dilated and ready to go. By this point it was just before midnight. For some reason, the answering service hadn't contacted the doctor on call when we called to say we were on our way, so he was finally called and told to come in. They made me wait to push until he got there, which was probably the hardest part of the whole ordeal. At some point our doula arrived and they put an IV port in my hand, but I was pretty preoccupied. I was clinging to the side of the bed, trying with everything I had not to push.
Finally the doctor arrived and I was allowed to start pushing. After pushing for about half a dozen contractions, maybe 10 minutes, everyone said they could see th
e head. My doula told me to reach down and feel it, which was the trippiest thing. Another push got her head half out, the next push got her head all the way out, then one more and she was born, at 12:37 am on Wednesday September 7. She was covered in meconuim (fetus poop) so they immediately rushed her over to the warming table to work on her. I didn't know it until later, but they put a tube down her throat 3 times to pump her stomach, and used a hand held respirator pump thingie to get her to start breathing. Alfred was watching them work on her (he even ended up cutting her umbilical cord!) while I was getting cleaned up and stitched up. I had a small tear from her coming out with her hand up to her face.Finally, maybe 10 minutes later, the baby was cleaned up and breathing fine, and I got to see her and hold her for the first time. I had her on my chest and she sort of baby army crawled down so she could try to eat. With a little help, she latched right on and breast fed within an hour of being born. Those first few hours went by pretty fast, between all the medical people coming in for the two of us, her going to the nursery for some tests (accompanied by her dad), and just looking at her. Finally the adrenaline started to wear off and we all decided to take a nap.
The next morning (which was really just an hour or so later) we officially decided on the baby's name: Tabitha Jean. Alfred and I had gone in with a few possible first names (Jean was set before this kid was conceived), though Tabitha had been the front runner since about halfway through my pregnancy. We had to stay in the hospital for 2 days so they could monitor her and get some test results back since her birth was so fast. We got home around noon that Friday and have been settling in to our new life as a family of three ever since.Tabby's a pretty good baby; she has her fussy moments (who doesn't?) but she's a good eater and (usually) a good sleeper. It's been pretty tough at times, but overall we've been doing really well. She was a little peanut, only 6 lbs 8 oz at birth, but has been chunking up nicely since: she was already 7 lbs 13 oz at her doctor's appointment yesterday! Tabitha's a pretty awesome baby, and Alfred and I are so lucky to have her!
Saturday, February 26, 2011
well...
Yeah, so that trying to blog every couple of weeks thing didn't really pan out. I guess I'm just done. I mean, I did start this almost 3 years ago (actually next week will be exactly 3 years) so I think it's just run its course. Who knows, maybe I'll be struck by inspiration again some day, but for now I wouldn't bet on it. I've got too many other things to take up my time now! Which is a good thing, I'm in a good place right now. We're in the house that we'll be starting and raising a family in, in an area close to friends and family (which means having a social life, which I'm loving!), with lots of big and exciting changes coming up this year. I think (and hope!) everyone who may read this already knows, but I've gone and gotten myself knocked up. I'm 3 1/2 months along, which means its kidneys are now working. In other words, I have something inside me that's capable of peeing. Which is pretty cool, if you're into that sort of thing. I imagine it's in there marking its territory all the time now that it has the ability to do so. It's all, "this is my uterus, bitch! Step off!"
Right now I'm heading out to do some shopping for Ella's birthday gift. She'll be 8 next week, which is just insane. I'll be enjoying the gorgeous FL spring weather as well, it's supposed to get close to 80 degrees today. All you poor northerners take note! We have 2 spare bedrooms! And with that, I bid you farewell. :)
Right now I'm heading out to do some shopping for Ella's birthday gift. She'll be 8 next week, which is just insane. I'll be enjoying the gorgeous FL spring weather as well, it's supposed to get close to 80 degrees today. All you poor northerners take note! We have 2 spare bedrooms! And with that, I bid you farewell. :)
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