Milkscreen Revisited

Curses. Curses on you, Milkscreen strip.

How dare you tell me that MY breastmilk is no good!!!

After a very nice date night last night, and one (I repeat, ONE) glass of wine I came home to feed the baby. Now, I will admit I was feeling the wine the teeniest bit, so I jokingly said we should use a Milkscreen strip. So, I do, and promptly start to feed the baby. Moments later, I hear Daddy P say, "Babe, you might want to look at this..."

Sure enough, after two hours of my glass of wine:



So I pumped and dumped, and Daddy P gave her a bottle. The next morning all was back to normal:

She's a mover and a shaker!

Kate has been sooo busy this week! She's hardly been home! She's gone to a half dozen restaurants, Grandma and Grandpa's house, the mall, and miscellaneous other places. She was so tired from it all that she slept all day today. Poor little girl. This evening she finally woke up with a few smiles for Mom and Dad... and the dog... and her stuffed horse... and the wall... She's become indiscriminately social. It's every father's nightmare of what his young daughter will be like. She also rolls around on the floor a lot and seems to have no concern about who she shows her diaper to.

Shame.

Shaaaaame.

Kate's young, hip aunt and uncle have offered to babysit for us this weekend so we can have some time together at long last. Daddy P and I have spent all day trying to figure out what in the world we will do together. It's been so long it's hard to remember. We finally settled on trying a new Italian restaurant and then seeing if we have enough energy to stay awake through a movie.

Kate's been consistently sleeping six hour blocks at night. We love it. My body is still adjusting, and as a result I have to wake up before she does (sucks) but soon I am hoping I can wait until she wakes up to get up myself. She's been waking up happy in the morning and babbling away to whatever will listen.

Today she seemed like she knew her hand was hers. She looked like she was honestly trying to grab hold of something. By the time I retrieved the camera she'd decided she was done with it and wanted to eat, but I'll try try again soon.

Merry Xmas!

We got our present this year...



Here's wishing you a happy holiday!

Happy Holidays!

Here's to giggles and grins during your Holidays! Love, Mamacita, Daddy P, Kate and the forgotten dog, Elly.

Meeting the family

Kate met her great Grandma this weekend. So, she's met Mamacita's whole side of the family now... Daddy P's family is a little too big for her to meet all of. But there is a certain uncle who is slacking... We put his picture up for her to see so that she can get used to his ugly mug.

She's filling out her bouncers and swings a little more now, and enjoying them a lot more. She spends her time trying to crane her head around to see new things. It's very cute. She's getting much better head control and spends her mornings smiling.

First Fever

Well, we had the milestone of first fever this week. Come and gone (luckily). And just in time for her to meet her Great Grandma this week! Along with the milestone of first fever (or rather, after it had come and gone) we experienced the milestone of second night of sleeping through the night! What a way to celebrate feeling better!

So, when not caring for the sick baby and disinfecting like a crazy woman, I have been preparing for company, and Christmas... they happily go together...

Although I have no good pictures to show for it yet, baby has been holiday-ized and I hope to deck her out and take some cute pictures soon. In the meantime... I just have my current favorite picture to share.



We had our second test of the Bummis Super Brite cover and it passed! It is very happily working with the gDiaper inserts so far. Not as well as the gDiaper itself, mind you, but good enough. My current problem is, the Super Brite runs about $13 a pop, and fits to 15 pounds. Do I splurge and buy a couple in the name of using up our gDiaper liners? Dilemmas, dilemmas...

gDiaper revisited

Since the gDiaper band is just too rigid on Kate's sensitive belly, I ventured to the baby store to learn about cloth diapers. Who knew they were so complicated! The sales woman spent about 15 minutes explaining all the many many options to me. There are waterproof liners with inserts (then various styles and fabrics of inserts to choose from), then there are all-in-one diapers that are both the waterproof liner and an absorbent inner filler that can be thrown in the wash, and so on and so forth for ten more minutes. I bought two different types to try out with the inner gDiaper liner. The first was an all-in-one diaper. The downside of this one is that it would need to be washed after every change and costs a whopping $25 each. The plus side is that it will fit her until she reaches 35 pounds so we could use it throughout this process. The second is just a waterproof liner. We tried that one first.



It worked surprisingly well. It contained a massive blowout bowel movement that would have challenged any diaper. I was really impressed. The gDiaper liner stayed in place for the most part, and soaked up the urine pretty well. It is a definite contender. However, because of the bowel movement it had to be laundered... So we're going to give it another go. The hope is that we would only have to wash it after bowel movements and not for just wet diapers. If that's true, we'll probably stick with it.

I was pretty impressed though, with the all-in-one diaper. If we didn't live in a drought area, I'd be more inclined to go that route and launder our own diapers. Daddy P doesn't really want to deal with the whole poop-disposal issue of cloth diapers though (which, I do understand), which is how we ended up at the gDiaper solution in the first place.

Anyway, the new diaper was MUCH more comfortable for the little one. She's continued to share smiles.

Out for a Walk

Baby Kate, out with Mamacita and Daddy P for a walk around the lake... Good times, good times... and yes, that is a pacifier in her mouth. We have officially given in. She HATES her carseat so we use it mostly in the car and on walks... so far we've held out and haven't used it for sleeping... we'll see if that continues!

A Christmas Present, love Kate

Kate gave us the best present ever last night. She slept from 11pm to 6am. Woo hoo!!! She woke up around 4:30am and talked for a bit but went back to sleep. Then, she ate at 6am, talked in bed for another half hour, and slept until 9am. Who is this baby?!?!

I don't know if it is because we got rid of the swaddle, or she's on her GERD medicine, or just because she knew how zonked we were after a week of being sick... but, thanks, Kate! We love our Christmas present!

Milkscreen -- try it for free!

Our Babies R Us sells Milkscreen. You may remember me mentioning it before... it's used to test how much alcohol is in a mom's milk. After a very yummy (but rather strong) margarita on Sunday (thanks, Charlie!), I decided to invest in a try of it. Who knew that it would be a FREE trial! That's right folks, you can try it out for FREE right now. There's a mail in rebate that lets you do so, so consider it license to drink without worry. Or, something.

I decided that I needed a baseline, you know, just in case my milk naturally has alcohol. Well, turns out it doesn't. But now we know.



I am a fan of the idea of the product, however, the instructions were written for a consumer with a 2nd grade reasoning capability. Actually, that might insult a second grader...

For instance, some examples from the instructions include:

- "persons who are color blind or visually impaired may experience difficulty in using the test..." -- okay, so blind people may have trouble, uh, seeing the strip? yeah.

- if you choose to express your breastmilk, do not do so into your beer can. Seriously. It says this. Okay, in slightly different words. But the message is clear.

Other interesting notes:

- it picks up alcohol *fumes* so it advises that you do the test outside to be sure of your results since household cleaners can give off such fumes.

- it will pick up the alcohol in cold meds, so if you are ODing on NyQuil it will tell you.

Baby Grip

Kate will now hold onto something for up to a minute. Not too shabby. She's following us with her eyes around the room now (though there is a slight delay before she finds us). Daddy P has used this as an opportunity to play hide n go seek with her. The family has been under the weather to various degrees this week. Daddy P had an all-out stomach flu. I have never ever seen him so bad off. I had a few days of queasy-ness, and baby Kate seems fine, but is a bit fussy. So far, this antibodies thing seems to me (personally) the most compelling reason to breastfeed.

Trying to roll

Well, since Mamacita and Daddy P are both sick with the stomach flu, a girl has to entertain herself. Here's Baby Kate trying to roll...

Kate's tummy update

At our last doctor's visit, we got some samples of antiacid meds to give to Kate to see if we can help with her tummy troubles. Her severe gas and stomach pain make her arch her back while eating, and cause her to wake up in the middle of a perfectly good nap simply wailing. So we will see if the meds help. In the meantime, after carefully administered trials, we have come to the conclusion that the gDiaper only exasperates her tummy troubles. The gDiaper has a very hard, thick elastic band that is not very forgiving for a tiny tummy. Now we are investigating if we can make the gDiaper liners work with a cloth cover... to be continued...

2 month update

The 2 month update:
21 inches
11 lbs, 3 oz (OMG!)

50th percentile weight, 10th percentile head, and 10th percentile length (up from 10th in weight and 3rd in head!)

Wooo wee! All that eating has paid off! She has also decided to sleep in a four hour stretch, eating at 9pm, 3am, and getting up at 6:30am. We are hoping she will soon decide to drop the 3 am feeding since she's hardly eating at that time anyway.

Everything checked out okay. Doc thinks her umbilical hernia is healing up. He says she's still jaundiced, so she goes for a full panel of blood work tomorrow to check up. But she's all shot up with vaccine's and ready to face the (increasingly un-vaccinated) world!!! Daddy P even got his whooping cough vaccine the other week to be extra sure she's protected. (Apparently it is coming back now that people are not getting their babies vaccinated!!)

2 Months Old!

Kate is the big 2-point-0 (months). She posed by her volleyball so we could compare her growth from last month.

Tomorrow she gets all her shots. What fun... Poor gal.

To mark her new maturity, she has chosen to make some political statements. We support her whole-heartedly in her outspoken-ness.

Big Bed Now

Kate spent the first night in her crib without her co-sleeper. Woo hoo! She was outgrowing it pretty fast, but we'd been using it to prop her upright so she wouldn't spit up after feedings. I decided there was no time like the present to risk a transition-night-sleep, so I took it out and threw a couple of pillows under one side of her mattress. She adjusted perfectly! Not only that, but she napped in it today without being swaddled! She must be trying to show off before her 2 month birthday tomorrow... I haven't been able to snap a pic of her in her crib yet since I'm too scared I'll wake her up. Don't want to mess up a good thing! She looks super duper tiny in it though compared to the giant she was in the co-sleeper.

First Smile!

Kate smiled for the first time this week in what Daddy P swears was an intentional manner. She's flashed a few more smiles since then that seem to indicate she is indeed practicing her charms. This week (week 8, or 5 from her due date) she is even more alert and curious about what's going on around her (which has made naps harder to come by). Today she's decided to pack on some more pounds by eating every two hours. Daddy P was up with her a lot last night to help her fight some tummy problems and help her to fall asleep.

Thanksgiving Family Fun

All the family was in town to meet Kate. She has been quite the center of attention! The baby has hardly had any time alone in a week! She's met her aunt, uncle, great aunt, and second (??) cousins... and loved the attention from them all...



Even better, Daddy P and I got to actually go downtown for a few hours to hang out with the family and have a drink to celebrate everyone being in town. Kate was very nice to Grandpa and Grandma while we were gone and gave them an easy evening.

Pre-Thanksgiving Disaster

Well, we got our oven disaster out of the way early.

Daddy P woke up with a screaming baby this morning around 6am. Gotta love gas pains. Daddy P has now X'd off my food list: caffeine, heavy milk and cream, and coffee.

But, the story... He got her fed and changed, but she just wouldn't calm down much. He decided since she was up, he was going to make the sticky buns our lovely friend Vicki sent over. He set the oven to PreHeat, and let it go. The baby finally falls asleep and is put in her crib. Moments later, the smoke alarm goes off. It does this frequently for little things like heat, rather than smoke or fire, so Daddy P's response was to bat it off the ceiling. As he was doing this (in the name of letting is wife sleep a little longer) he noticed there was indeed smoke coming out of the oven! Yet, nothing was in it. He turns the oven off and opens all the windows. After the smoke clears, he decides the coast is clear to try again. Switching the oven on to "bake" nothing happens. He is estatic: sticky buns ARE in his future! He grabs the plate of buns from the freezer and... drops it. Shatters. Everywhere.

Just as Daddy P cleans up the glass, I wake up with a start to the smell of smoke. I run downstairs in a panic, to find Daddy P bouncing a baby Kate on the couch next to the open back door (both of them in a daze). The smoke is still too thick for little lungs, so we quickly open all the windows, turn on the fan, and bundle up the baby. We then head to Dunkin Donuts to grab some coffee and try to wake up enough to plan next steps.

Now, safely at the grandparents' house, with our home airing out, we can look back and laugh. Well, I can. Daddy P is still mourning his sticky buns...

The Many Faces Of Kate

A Great Night!

Kate had a great night last night! Granted, it was after an hour of screaming at Daddy P while I snuck in a quick nap before bed, but... great! She went to bed at 10:30, woke at 2:30am to eat, and then slept after that until 6:30am! Woo hoo! Now, I know better than to think this will happen again tonight, but boy did I need those chunks of sleep!

We are trying to see if it is the result of one of two things... Last Thursday we called the doctor because her tummy problems had escalated to the point she wasn't eating full feedings because she would arch her back and twist off and cry. The nurse wanted us to try a few things before we brought her in. We were to give her Mylicon (an anti-gas medicine) four times a day (including once at bedtime), burp her more (which was impossible so we ignored this one... we already burp her for a total of a half hour each feeding), burp her more often (we tried this but it led to her spitting up more, so we stopped), and keep her propped upright for an hour after feeding.

Coincidentally, around the same time we started this regimen, we also ran out of milk in the house and have figured out how to help her to get her gas out more efficiently... so we are now left with the question of whether it was my crazy amount of milk consumption, her tummy gas pains, or the nurse's orders that has led to a noticeable decrease in spitting up and less scary screaming.

Whatever it was, it is working, and I am not going to change anything right now!



Here is a pic of Kate being fascinated with herself.

Mommy's first jog!

Wow it felt good. Okay, so it was super duper short, but it counts. Baby bundled up in a warm cozy bear cover-up from her aunt, and got to ride in the jogging stroller.

Isometrics

Kate's been swinging her head around all over when we're holding her, so we finally gave in and stuck her on her tummy to see what she could do. Boy was I surprised! She's pretty strong for a little girl of nine or so pounds!

Randomness

One of my newest pics of my cutie... thought I'd share...



We're hoping to try out one of those Kiddie picture places sometime this week. I found a local photographer that I love, but she's pricey. We're trying the cheap route and then if that fails I'm sucking it up and paying the big bucks. She's only little once, right? (I wonder for how many things I can use that excuse for...)

Soothers

In honor of my first all-nighter since college, I decided to dedicate this post to the things that we have found soothe baby Kate...

- top fav is sleeping on people
- second up is being swung in her carseat (Daddy P discovered this one) which led to this novel creation, courtesy of Daddy P...



(and yes, we do own a swing, but apparently the frequency of the oscillation is not to her specific demands... she prefers a person-length arm from the center of gravity, and manually swinging a carseat gets really exhausting so Daddy P hung the carseat in our bedroom. we've since had to adjust the chain shorter to a person-length arm, of course...)
- being walked under the bathroom fan (thanks for this one, Cat and Noble!)
- sitting in the swing while Mamacita blow-dries her hair
- car rides
- eating (of course, aren't we all really just emotional eaters?)
- bouncing (but, not in the bouncer... no, she likes to be held perfectly horizontal and bounced by hand)
- being cuddled by Daddy P

Sweet Reprieve

Last night, Daddy P took care of all the feedings/burpings/changings. It was heavenly. I got to stay in bed for a full six hours and only had to wake up enough to roll on my side to feed the baby. Daddy P's surprisingly chipper today, and seems unscathed by the experience. There's some hope he might even do it again! Although, there's a story about his first time that I will let him share that might get in the way of it...

The trade-off was that I do diaper duty all weekend. So far this is proving to be a deal that is well worth it!

Fashion Faux Paux

Well, for those keeping track, the gDiapers don't quite fit yet... as I found out the hard way through a leak all over my lap. And, Daddy P pointed out that I put them on backwards. "G" in the back, so they say...

Fashion Sidebar

Time to talk fashion for a minute.

Not that either Kate or I really have any sense of it. Daddy P seems to be better at coordinating Kate's outfits than I but regardless...

I bought Kate some baby leggings for the upcoming cooler months. Since she has mostly onesies and dresses, I thought some leg protection was in order. They look a little silly (like she should know Jane Fonda personally) but they are sooo nice since there is no fumbling with buttons or snaps to get at the diaper. I'm a big fan. Plus they come in all sorts of cool patterns. Daddy P picked out a pirate print for a present for Kate's friend Samantha.



Meanwhile, Mamacita is having more trouble in the fashion realm. I am in that painful in-between phase of clothing. Nothing really fits right. So, I have pulled out my trusty BellaBands again. Not only are they helping with the whole keeping-my-pants-up problem, but I am finding they are great for nursing with a crowd since they cover the tummy if I have to hitch up my shirt to take care of business. Too graphic? Yeah, I thought so... oh well... never been one for censorship! I'm quite happy I have two more months to try to regain some of my figure (16 lbs to go! Halfway there!) and will have a shot at fitting into work clothes. My current uniform wouldn't quite work for seeing clients I'm afraid...

Kate's going through about 5-6 outfits a day (depending on how good we are at keeping her in dry clothes) due to her spit-up problem. Doc says it isn't really a problem unless she's in pain (not at all) or she's losing weight (NOT at ALL). I believe his words were: "Wear cotton and don't get the floors cleaned for a year." Thanks, Doc...

Wandering Eyes

Just this week Kate has gotten really good at tracking faces; moving not only her eyes to follow you but controlling her head enough to turn it with her gaze. She's quite an impressive young lady!

Since today is her 1 month mark, we decided to follow little Maddie's lead and pose Kate by an object so that we can track how much she's growing. Since she's destined for the AVP (per Daddy P... she has a hope even with our genes since Misty May Turner is only 5'9"...), what better to use as a comparison than a volleyball!



Oh, and we found out today that she weighs 8.3 lbs! Up two pounds in a month!

Happy Halloween!

Kate got to dress up a little, courtesy of her great aunt! Unfortunately, neither outfit lasted much longer than the afternoon. With the current spit-up situation, we go through at least 4 outfits in 24 hours. I've started using a bib which helps some but then the poor kid is wearing a bib all day! It's much easier, though, than trying to change her out of a onesie five times. I mean, whoever invented the onesie did not have a child who spit up a lot. On the other hand, they're easy to wash and they do get washed a lot!



Today I start a sidebar to try (likely in vain) to figure out what causes Kate's terrible horrible "I'm going to die from the pain" gassy times. This is seriously the most awful thing I've experienced. And that Elly has experienced, too. The poor dog goes positively berserk when Kate pulls out her pterodactyl cry that makes her face turn purple. Little consoles Kate when she is experiencing this yucky pain, which makes it all the harder for us parents to cope with. Daddy P discovered that walking up and down the stairs calms her (fun for all!) and falling asleep on our chests is hit-and-miss. Unfortunately the trade off being she's calm but you are totally stuck in one place indefinitely. She usually decides this is the approach that will work right around the time my hunger pains start.

My attempt to swing the vote

I have new respect for how McCain feels as he watches those poll numbers roll in. I mean, come on people! You really think my baby girl looks like Daddy P?! Well, just like McCain, I am going to attempt to give you unbiased, accurate information about the situation which you can use to make a better (correct) decision.

First off, a picture of that one:



And now, a picture of a real American, someone with Main Street values who knows how to put lipstick on a bulldog:



Make the right choice people. Get out there and vote!

g Diapers are a "go"!

We started with the gDiapers today! They fit now that Kate has her new belly. So far they have caught it all... although Kate's yet to put them to any serious test.

First Bath

Kate didn't much enjoy it.



But she was calm enough this afternoon to put up with me taking some clean baby pictures.



But, I'm off to nap, seeing as I only managed a total of 5 hours of sleep last night. And since we ventured to church yesterday I wasn't much better rested then! Daddy P is off at Starbucks getting some work done, and the baby and dog are finally quiet, so I am off to rest my eyes a bit. One of these days I will have something more to report on than sleep habits and silly TV...

I heart Target

We realized yesterday that Kate has been to Target three times in her three weeks of life outside the womb. Not a bad record. Daddy P is thinking about reinstating my Target ban now as a result... would be a good move for the pocketbook for sure...

OMG!!!!

At 4 in the morning, I made a strange realization...

Kate might be the secret love child of Colbert, of the famed "Colbert Report"! How could Daddy P keep such a secret from me?!?!

See the resemblance?

Recovering

Last week sleep deprivation hit pretty hard, as I'm sure is evident by the total lack of blogging. Kate's sleeping for about 2 - 2 1/2 hour stretches. The whole eating process takes about 45 minutes to an hour. So, that leaves very small chunks of time to close my eyes. Daytime and nighttime began to blur, my computer threatened to blow up from too much bad TV (it's amazing how much bad TV there is to watch -- thanks Hulu!). I have now watched all the episodes of "Lipstick Jungle" and "Sanctuary" to date (If you've never heard of these shows, that is very telling as to the quality), and have started watching "ER" and "Grey's Anatomy" again. The fact that I am putting up with whiny Meredith just goes to show how desperate I am for entertainment at 4am.

So yeah, last week was a little rough. But, after a few minor break-downs, we're settling into a rhythm. Thanks to Daddy P, I am now getting a little more sleep at night. At first we tried out the whole daddy-bring-the-baby-to-the-breast idea. For me, this cut out the burping/diaper changing/occasional clothes changing/putting down of the baby leaving me at a mere 20-25 minutes of feeding (down from about an hour, or in the case of a gassy tummy even longer). Which meant I was getting a 3 hour block of precious sleep at least once a night. Of course, the side problem was that both baby and I tended to fall asleep during this process since we were both lying down, so Daddy P had to keep us both awake to make this process efficient.

Although this was working decently, I was still crashing. Last week, our pediatrician said he thought now would be a good time to introduce a bottle, so we jumped on that idea. Daddy P has been taking the feeding that happens around the time he gets home from work (11pm), and I wake up just enough to pump. Then I've been taking the remainder of the night so he can sleep. This works absolutely terrifically when I can get her nursed, changed, and down and myself in bed to get sleep before 11pm (a surprisingly difficult task... last week we didn't go to sleep before midnight). I've managed this two nights so far, and have loved the bigger chunk of sleep. Even though I have to wake up enough to pump, this is small potatoes in the big scheme. Unfortunately, this plan is taking it's toll on Daddy P, so we're going to have to save this trick only for the nights he works late and maybe once over the weekend.

I promise as I now feel myself becoming coherent enough to carry on a conversation I will start making good on returning phone calls and emails... Thanks for the patience!



Thanks to Daddy P's sis for coming out and babysitting last weekend so we could have our first date since the baby! We sat by the lake, enjoyed a burger, and caught up on each others' life! Lovely!

medical update

Kate has been to the doctor twice since we last posted. The poor little girl just can't be left alone by anyone with a stethoscope! On Thursday she had her two week appointment with the pediatrician. The doc was very impressed by the size of her belly. Apparently Mamacita and baby Kate make a very good breastfeeding duo. Kate has already surpassed her birth weight (all babies lose weight after birth); she's up to 6lbs 7oz after being 5 lbs 13oz the week before and 6lbs 2oz at birth. The other news from the trip is that her umbilical cord has fallen off, and the belly button is healing nicely. So far, she has a clean bill of health.

This morning we got up EARLY (after an almost sleepless night) to visit the pediatric orthopedist. Kate is at a high risk for hip dysplasia due to her being a first born girl and being in a breech position in the womb. Mamacita is no stranger to hip dysplasia, having worn a brace when she was an infant to keep her hips extended so that her joint could strengthen in the right position. The doctor ordered up a sonogram to verify that everything was constructed soundly, and we had the nearly impossible task of holding our squirmy little baby still enough to get a sharp picture. It took two people holding her down and a soothing finger to suck on, but after about 20 minutes of poking and prodding with the sonogram machine they had a picture clear enough to determine that her hips were not in too bad of shape. Her left hip is slighly out of place, but they want to give it a month to see if it settles correctly. So, no brace for now, but we'll have to repeat the sonogram in a few weeks.

That's all the medical info I have to share with you. Kate enjoyed getting to meet her aunt Carolyn this past weekend. She liked Carolyn so much that she allowed Mamacita and I to get away for a lunch out together on Sunday. Our first date since she was born! Here's a picture of the two spending some quality time together.

Sleeeepppyyyy...

It's been a rough few days. At least, for Mamacita it has. Kate and I are currently working on re-figuring out feeding and burping. After two sleepless nights, my current hypothesis is that Kate's little tummy cannot handle the motion of being burped. I'm currently trying just holding her upright for twenty minutes after she eats and that seems to be doing the trick. Since this lenghens the feeding process some, as a result I've been watching just a ton of crap on hulu.com while going through the whole process. This is by far the best time to get a hold of me. During the day I tend to be napping and too sleep deprived to manage a conversation...

Kate's now sleeping in her crib and Daddy P moved one of our chairs upstairs until the rocker comes. We've done this in the hopes that at least one of Kate's parents will be well rested and functioning reasonably well. So far it's working pretty well and Daddy P is getting better sleep. I'm struggling with this napping idea. I'm a terrible napper, and I feel as though napping all day just sucks the day away. Of course, being exhausted is somewhat persuasive, so I am slowly giving in. The result though is that I wasn't up and dressed until 5pm today, which makes the day seem rather short! Of course, when you're up all night I guess it evens out.

Kate, however, is faring very well. She's slowly changing color, and is spending more time looking around and exploring her world instead of sleeping.



We tried going to church on Sunday which was a struggle. Daddy P made it through the service, but Kate decided it was time to eat not long after the service started, so that was fun. Seeing as we got up early to make it to church I then came home and fell asleep not long into the Texans game. Luckily I had it taped so that I could see the Texans long sought after win! Saturday we had much better luck and managed to go to dinner at friends' house with no problem at all.

We're slowly figuring this whole baby thing out. She'll probably be a teenager when we finally do, but little by little we're getting there.

Bye Bye Bili!!!

Kate's bilirubin levels are going down! They were high-ish today, but lower than they've been this week. We got the official go-ahead to stop using the formula. (Daddy P probably ensured this was so by buying a huge case of it last night...) It'll be a relief to Daddy P's pinkie finger!!

Baby baby everywhere

Because my stomach was split open, we decided the trip next door to the crib might be a little much every night. Now, I am not really one for the whole co-sleeping thing. Not my bag. BUT, we bought a co-sleeper because getting out of bed has been harder than usual this past week. Kate has taken to it brilliantly and we've managed alright with it so far. On one hand I have found it so much easier to roll over and breastfeed her in the middle of the night without having to get up and move around much. On the other, I cannot wait to have the bed to ourselves again. So, it's working for now, but she better not get too used to it.



I also broke out the baby sling that Cece bought me today. It is soooo awesome. I can see how those nutty baby-wearing people get really into this. Kate being Kate she slept through the whole thing, but I'm sure she liked it.

Hospital Stay Part II

After we were out of surgery, Kate and Daddy P took care of the baby matters in the nursery, and they wheeled me off to recovery. I was joined by my family soon thereafter. (Daddy P will have to fill you in on his version of this story later.) We got to spend a little time together in the recovery room and not long thereafter they got me into our room upstairs. Kate stayed for a little bit, and we tried our hand at breastfeeding. It was a largely unsuccessful endeavor, and then they took her off to the nursery for more sticks and pokes. Unfortunately, I didn't get to see her for quite some time after that.

Kate stayed most of the evening in the nursery at that point because she was breathing too rapidly. We were told later that this is pretty normal for pre-mature babies (which is what they were considering her at 36 wks 5 days) because their lungs still have fluid in them so they work extra hard to get them dried out. Daddy P spent time in the nursery with her checking on her and making the nurse there feel really bad for me that I wasn't getting to see her. He was so effective at this, in fact, that the nurse brought her down to the room at 3am even though she wasn't "supposed" to. I got a chance to feed her before they wheeled her back upstairs and it went better than the first try. Oh, I forgot to mention that Daddy P was an *awesome* advocate for baby Kate, including making sure they didn't give her a bottle. Instead they fed her some formula via a little tube tied to the nurses' pinkie finger.

That night was pretty painful for me and I took advantage of the Percocet. I accomplished the goal of sitting up, which my brother-in-law told us was step #1.
We finally got her for good early that morning, and she spent the rest of the day with us.

Friday she met her Texas grandparents and her auntie Pam came by to see her and check on me. The lactation consultant came to visit and gave me some help (yay for lactation consultants!). Kate is very good at nursing though and pretty much taught me what I needed to know. Daddy P ran home for a shower and to take a nap but missed us so much he ended up coming right back as soon as he was clean. (He's so cute with her it just kills me.) I made my first small walk (to the bathroom, woo hooo!) and by the end of the day got all my tubes unhooked (sweet freedom). Even better, I got to take a shower!! The most amazing feeling! I saw my stitches in the mirror and got a little woozy, but other than that I was managing well.

That night we decided to have her room-in with us (which I felt was a brave move, but Daddy P strongly advocated for it and was willing to get up and bring her to me to feed her). Our doc encouraged us to take advantage of the nursery which would keep her but bring her to us to nurse, but we both felt that it was a little over-stimulating in that room for an early baby. We decided her little brain needed the dark and quiet of our little room to do some last minute development it was getting cheated out of.

For one reason or another (jaundice or her small size) she wasn't waking up to eat enough, so we were told to wake her up every three hours to eat. This I was not expecting. I thought that *I* would be the one she'd have to force awake to feed her. But nooooo. Every three hours we engaged in a crazy routine to try to wake her up. We tried turning the light on. Changing her diaper. Tickling her foot. Stroking her cheek, her back, her leg, her foot. Taking her clothes off. Putting a damp cloth across her cheek. She is a heavy heavy sleeper. It went much better than I had expected, largely due to Daddy P's wonderfulness and his ability to annoy Kate awake.

Little did I know that we would be getting less sleep that "normal" because one nurse or another would be poking in every hour. Daddy P was awesome in getting up to bring the baby to me, and managed to semi-sleep through most of the nurses' visits. I had brought ear-plugs (the one thing I would not be there without) so I was able to sleep through hall-noise and the nurses' checking on the baby.

Saturday we started supplementing my feedings with some formula. The nurse also had me pump to keep everything going, which was a fun activity to figure out. Between having a tube taped to my lady parts and then squeezing them I was feeling very much like a science experiment. Despite all these attempts, her bilirubin levels were going up and the doctor said we needed to keep monitoring her jaundice. I took a slightly longer walk down the hall (yay!) and was feeling a bit more mobile.

By Saturday night I was tired enough that with my ear plugs in I was sleeping through the nurses' visits throughout the night, including the visits when they were trying to check on me. Daddy P said that at one point the clinical assistant came over and began to pick up my arm to take my blood pressure and I didn't stir at all. Daddy P didn't think this boded well for Kate being able to wake me up. I was tapering of the heavy meds and just relying on Motrin, so things were looking good.

Sunday her bilirubin levels still went up a bit, but the doc was hopeful that they were topping out, and gave us the okay to go home. Every nurse and doc that day kept asking if we wanted to go home, to the point that I started questioning the decision. Were we ready? Did they know something we didn't?? I do want to go home. Please? Can I? So we went. :)

Kate's bilirubin is still high. She got poked again today, and we head back tomorrow. The doc has her on formula for every other feeding at this point, so Daddy P has been helping with some of the feedings graciously to let me sleep a little more. His pinkie finger is getting mighty sore I think. He said he had a new appreciation for what I go through.

Day of firsts

Daddy P was off today (yay!) and got to cart around his two favorite gals (I'm being presumptuous here, I know, but considering how many kisses Kate gets, I'm fairly certain about at least one of the counts being accurate).

First off, the doctor. Kate's first trip to see the pediatrician. He said she looked good, albeit yellow, and seemed happy with how she was doing. We asked all of our long list of questions (yep, we really came with a list), some of which we knew fell into the paranoid parent category, and others we thought were actually reasonable. I liked our doc even more for normalizing our worry, and even including himself in our paranoid parent category. Our question list included:

1) How are her hips? Mom and aunt have a history of hip dysplasia and seeing as she was breech for so long one of the docs from the weekend was worried about her. Our ped said that he thought a trip to the pediatric orthopedist would be a good idea, although he didn't see anything that looked concerning.

2) Why does she stop breathing?!?! Apparently, it is normal for babies to hold their breath. Freaks me out though.

3) Does a swaddle delay motor development? No, he said, nothing to be worried about.

4) This whole grazing thing -- eating for 20 minutes, breaking for 30 and then starting up again... Anything to do about that? Answer: Not really, she's tiny, and jaundice, so she has to be fed whenever she's hungry or even when she isn't.

5) She hiccups after EVERY feeding. Anything to do? Nope.

6) The lactation consultant at the hospital was adamant that her tongue couldn't reach as far as it needed to and she needed surgery. Neither of the two weekend on call peds thought it was a problem, and our doc didn't either, so we are going ahead without surgery. She sticks her tongue out and nurses just fine as far as we can tell. No surgery, thank you very much.

After all our questions were answered, we made our way on to our next of firsts...

The next stop was to get pricked at the lap to check on her bilirubin (jaundice). This was my first visit with her to get pricked (Daddy P had plenty of experience with this at the hospital over the weekend). Apparently, her jaundice is getting worse so we are supplementing with formula today and she has to be pricked again tomorrow to see how it worked. I have opted out of the trip tomorrow. Can't watch/listen to that whole thing again. Daddy P let her suck on his finger during the event to try to help her calm down. He said he now has a better appreciation for what breastfeeding might be like. I think his expression was: "she's quite a little sucker!"

We then had our first time of breastfeeding in the Target parking lot, and then shopping in Target. I desperately needed some new tops to accommodate all aspects of my new figure, so we made a quick stop of it.

Then she got to hang out at Texadelphia on the patio while Daddy P bought Mamacita a little snack and got me outside for some much needed fresh air.

Now that we're home, I'm beat and headed for a nap (Kate beat me to the punch on that one). Stupid surgery.

Backtracking

Let me tell our story now that I have a bit of time.

We arrived at the hospital on Thursday at 1:30pm to check in. We got lost on our way in the maze of the hospital but made it up to Labor and Delivery. We got checked in and settled. And then we waited. There was some emergency at my docs office earlier in the day so she was running late. As a result, we sat in our pre-op room (IV'd up, and ready to go) from 2pm until about 5pm. I took lots of random videos of Daddy P and he tried on his surgical outfit in the meantime. I tried hard not to think about knives and blood and focus on the fact a baby would soon be appearing from my belly!

They wheeled me in and had Daddy P wait in the waiting room until I was prepped. This was the not-fun part, and sadly what I would want to be totally different. So, in I go. And I warn the anesthesiologist that I have a slight mental block against blood, and I tend to almost faint. I say "almost faint" because everytime in my life I have gotten close I've thrown up all over. (Can you hear your English teacher saying "foreshadowing" in your ear?) Yeah, so, sure enough.

I sit and get my spinal block. They have me facing the nurse prepping the instruments for the doctor. A whole table of gauze. I close my eyes. Then they lay me down, and before I'm even down my feet are already going all pins and needles. As I am laying there a nurse is noticing a stain on her scrubs and trying to figure out if it is blood or some chemical or other. Another nurse says it looks like finger marks so it must be blood. I get dizzier. I warn the anesthesiologist of this. He tells me to breath more deeply on my oxygen mask. I wonder how this will not just make me lightheaded, but take slow deep breaths, trying to practice my labor breathing. Dizzier.

Now he realized O2 is not sufficient, and anti-nausea drugs go into my IV.

I'm trying to think happy thoughts. I'm trying to channel all my positive energy. Now I hear ringing....

Luckily, the nurse standing next to me hears me as I pull my oxygen mask down and peekly say "I think I'm (gag), I think I'm going (gag)" and grabs a container for me. Just in time. Nothing like being totally paralyzed from the tummy down and trying to throw up. More nausea drugs... Thoughts I am having:

"I am never doing this again."
"It's okay. I can do this. I'm strong."
"They are going to have to knock me out. I can't do this."
""Think positively."
"I'm going to choke and die."
"Breath through the feeling. In through the nose, out through the top of my head."
"I'm going to throw up."
"Where is Daddy P?!?!"

More drugs into the IV...

And finally, I am okay. They have me numb, shaved, and with a nice little line drawn where my cut will go... all just in time for them to let Daddy P come in. He said he was surprised that I was smiling when I saw him. He didn't realize how happy I was to see his face and what he had just missed!

The rest went pretty quickly for him. They worked hard to unwedge her from my pelvis (her poor little butt and lady parts were bruised from being wedged in there!), but then she was out! A couple more seconds and I heard crying, and Daddy P reported she was beautiful and gross looking (still covered in her white waxiness). They cleaned her up and let me hold her for a minute or two before whisking her and Daddy P away to the nursery. I then got to spend something like 40 minutes listening to the nurses and my doctor gab as they stitched me up.



More later on the hospital recovery...

Home and recovering

We are home. Baby Kate is sleeping and we are watching some football. I am definitely feeling the moving around today and am enjoying my prescription drugs as much as I would rather avoid taking them. But, a wise little mama counseled me to not let the pain get in front of me, and this was truly the best advice ever. So, I have been taking pain meds preventatively to some extent (for instance, before venturing out of the hospital today) and then avoiding them and taking ibuprofen instead when I know that I won't need them (at night sleeping). Working okay so far!

More soon with pictures, I promise... I'm spent for now...

sleep-a-bye

hi all! just a real quick note to thank you all for the many well
wishes. hopefully I will have time soon to give you a more thorough
update and respond to you individually. we are sleepy and gleeful and
truly blessed to have so many wonderful friends. thank you so much
for sharing in this amazing journey with us. it has only just begun!

...to be continued...

She's here!

Kate was born at 5:42pm, and is very healthy. Mamacita is doing well, and is already up and around. More to come soon!

update

well, the doc is running late so daddy p and I are exploring cable
tv... i'm all hooked up and ready to go though!

Kickin' butt and taking names

Disclaimer: Forgive me in advance for not notifying you in person of this news. I have been told to rest, which to me means my mouth, which means I can type but am vocally challenged. :)

Apparently, Kate doesn't like to be told she has bad music taste. In fact, she was so annoyed that she decided that she's going to come on out and kick her papa's butt a bit. Yes, that's right folks, Kate has decided to make an appearance.

Tomorrow, we meet our little girl in person!

Our OB this morning said that my amniotic fluid has mysteriously disappeared. So, here, let me back up and talk about what a dunce I am.

There has been a trend established of me making very good observations and then not following through on them. The most glaring example was when my purse was stolen. (Mental observation on the way to the ladies room: "Huh, that guy looks out of place. Huh, he's just kinda standing there. Huh, he's just looking around but seems like he's here alone." Mental observation on the way from the ladies room: "Huh, that weird guy is sitting at the table and chair directly behind me but the bar is huge and empty." Mental observation when I reach for my purse on the chair back: "MY FREAKING PURSE IS GONE!") There is also the whole breech thing. And, now, let us add: LACK OF AMNIOTIC FLUID to the list.

This weekend, comments went something like this:

"Man, Daddy P, her head really just pokes out of my stomach now."

"Wow it is REALLY UNCOMFORTABLE when she moves. I never hear about it hurting for the baby to move."

"You can totally see all of her poking through my skin."

Uh, yeah. So, retrospective "duh."

So, doc says she's fine: good heartbeat, everything normal and looking good. She just doesn't have any room to swim. (Sorry, baby, for blaming you for not turning. Looks like it was an impossible task...) But, she doesn't want to risk waiting any longer than tomorrow. Risks of staying in exceed couple weeks of prematurity.

Which brings us to: October 2. Kate's b-day!

So today we spent packing our hospital bag (finally), going to Target to get stuff to pack in the hospital bag, and just generally getting our shit together. Amazing, huh? The most planned emergency c-section ever.

And, there is the very bad news that I had to save for the end... I won't be getting to see Katee, or Josh, or (sigh) Marc dance live and in person from the FOURTH ROW at the "So You Think You Can Dance" concert. I am crushed. Universe, why doth thou thwart me?!?!

Daddy P declares: Kate has bad music taste

We spent Saturday at the ACL festival. Kate got to listen to a bunch of new music she hadn't heard before: Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, Man Man, Robert Earl Keen, and John Fogerty. To Daddy P's dismay, her favorite BY FAR was Man Man. (I loved them, but frankly thought she would have liked Sharon Jones more.)

This whole thing is based on the fact that the whole time we listened to Man Man she was moving right and left across my belly. I don't know if you'll be able to tell from the video, but hey, it's worth a shot.

We're ready!

The carseat is in the car. That means we are officially ready for baby Kate. We didn't really think about how big the carseat would be in our little Vibe, so that was a little tricky. It's tight. But secure. I will post some pictures of my ridiculously large tummy and of the baby's room this weekend.

Mark your calendars people. October 21st is baby Kate's "birthday" although I am trying to convince Daddy P we should tell her her birthday is October 25th. I mean, it seems like trickery to the universe to declare her a Libra because we are extracting her before she is really ready to come. For all intents and purposes I think she is a Scorpio, and see no reason to lead her to think otherwise.

Grossness

As though breastmilk as a concept isn't gross enough... Thank you to Jenn for sharing this tidbit... From some scary news channel in the northeast.

PETA Urges Ben & Jerry's To Use Human Milk
Group Says Move Would Help Humans, Cows

UPDATED: 9:53 am EDT September 24, 2008

WATERBURY, Vt. -- People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals sent a letter to Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, cofounders of Ben & Jerry's Homemade Inc., urging them to replace cow's milk they use in their ice cream products with human breast milk, according to a statement recently released by a PETA spokeswoman.

Congratulations!

We have a winner! Karrie was the one to correctly identify that the constellation for Scorpio is on the wall. She will be receiving a box of the greatest fudgiest cookies in the mail (check out the link to try them yourself!).

Now, this constellation business is a tricky matter, since Kate's due date is at the beginning of Scorpio, but her tentative c-section date is in Libra. Daddy P (unwittingly) solved this dilemma with the version of Scorpio that is depicted. Modern scorpio is sometimes seen without his claws, but the original Scorpio is said to be made of a grouping of stars which includes Libra. So, her depiction of the constellation is all encompassing.

From Astrology Weekly



The story goes like this...

Pseudo-Hyginus, Astronomica 2. 26 (trans. Grant) (Roman mythographer C2nd A.D.) :
"Scorpio. This sign is divided into two parts on account of the great spread of the claws. One part of it our writers have called the Balance (Libra). But the whole was put in the sky, its is said, for the following reason : Orion, since he used to hunt, and felt confident that he was most skilled of all in that pursuit, said even to Diana [Artemis] and Latona [Leto] that he was able to kill anything the earth produced. Tellus [Gaia the Earth], angered at this, sent the Scorpion which is said to have killed him. Jove [Zeus], however, admiring the courage of both, put the Scorpion among the stars, as a lesson to men not to be too self-confident. Diana [Artemis], then, because of her affection for Orion, asked Jove to show to her request the same favour he had given of his own accord to Tellus [Gaia]. And so the constellation was established in such a way that when Scorpion rises, Orion sets."

It wasn't until Julius Cesar came along (so the internet says) and decided that Libra should be made of Scorpio's claws that the constellation changed to it's current image:


From Wikipedia

So, Mamacita and Daddy P should learn from what Kate's sign has to tell us. Apparently she is a master of her own destiny ("I will turn if I want to"), very curious and inquisitive ("What's the rib up here? I think I'll poke it with my head and see if I can move it"), and is very determined and don't give up ("I will be born as I wish in my own way no matter what techniques you try! Hahahaha!").

Second needle session

Yesterday I spent a good deal of my time upside down. You would think with all the blood flow going to the brain I would have some great epiphany to report, but the blood flow does not seem to have improved my brain functioning. When I wasn't upside-down, I was burning Chinese herbs against my toes. Something the baby obviously has an opinion about because she moves like crazy.

I had my second session today, and am focusing mostly on just getting me to a place of acceptance about how I truly have no control over how Kate will enter the world. I thought that "letting go" of control was being accepting of whatever drug use or techniques or time-frame that labor itself took, but apparently it means letting go of the idea of labor altogether. It's been way more of an emotional adjustment than I anticipated. I'm a work in progress.

Meanwhile, I'm still getting the house cleaned up and working part time. Clients now look at me as a potential threat (is she going to give birth here, today?) and I assure them I have quite some time to go before the baby is going to make her appearance.

Oh! We found a pediatrician! We didn't look ridiculously hard. Basically we interviewed two, and disliked the second so much we decided not to risk going to any more bad consults. He's next door to the hospital so he'll be very accessible when Kate is born, and just "fits" us. So, one more task accomplished!

No pins, just needles

I went for my first acupuncture session today. For a girl who is rather scared of needles, I think I did pretty well. The acupuncturist was very awesome, and put me totally at ease, which was necessary considering the task at hand. She talked a little about acupuncture in general, and then about why she was going to do what she was going to do. I had about seven little teeny needles in me. Most of them felt like the teeniest prick, except for the two in my toes which she was good enough to warn me about. Those were a little painful. But once they were all in I couldn't even feel them. She then burned a Chinese herb against the needles in my toes. She left me there for some time to relax and loosen up and then repeated the burning.

Daddy P burned some more against my toes today (minus needles) and we have some "homework" to do until I see her again (or until the baby moves, whichever is first). We decided on the outdoor moxabustion routine since it is so smelly. Daddy P thinks our neighbors are going to start hitting us up for the goods now.




I will say that I am feeling rather silly about all this at this point, which I think is the mental place I need to be in to 100% accept this idea of cutting me open. I'm working on getting Daddy P ready for all he'll have to do to keep me from throwing up as they slowly cut me open while I am awake (the very grossest idea ever). I am getting to that "there's a reason why she's breech and I just don't know it yet" stage, but am obviously not at the "let's have a c-section!!" stage.

To go bag

Okay peeps, time to give me ideas on what we need to pack for our hospital bag. Gimme your fav things that you took or want to take and I'll start a list for all to see.

New Challenge!

You guys did so well on the last contest, we've upped the stakes! (or, added stakes?) The winner of this challenge will win the yummiest cookies I have ever been introduced to (Thank you, Lisa). Warn me if you don't like chocolate and I will think of another prize...

Here are the rules: you have until Friday to work this one out. Please email me (don't leave a comment or others will copy your answer!) your answer. All those right answers will go into a drawing and the drawing winner gets the yummy cookies!

Now, for the question...

What is significant about Kate's wall?