Good Christian Mouth

Last week I learned two things about Christian volleyball (this will relate to Kate, I promise... bear with me here...): 1) You cannot wear beer-related shirts to games (rather embarrassing to have to turn my shirt around. Even worse that I almost started to pull it off in the middle of the gym and then realized that chances are, the woman who reprimanded me about my shirt, probably didn't want to see me in a sports bra), and 2) You cannot cuss (I have yet to nail down the particulars on what this means).

I have a problem not cussing. The words just seem to fly out of my mouth before I realize. And while I don't usually see this as a problem, I now see some potential for a problem.

Today though, when I was nearing a lunch disaster, my fears were revealed to be unfounded.

Kate had a lovely lunch of cereal mixed with bananas, peaches and raspberries. Seriously, this baby food tastes like the smoothies I pay $4 for on the weekends. Sp-oooiiiiled. I get up to grab something crucial -- what escapes me at the present time, but I know that it was life or death that I get it at that moment. When I turn around I see my dear little Kate, bowl of cereal in her hand, slowly tilting it to her face. I imagine cereal everywhere -- face, floor, dog.

"No! Kate, no!" I yell and run, poetically and speedily, to her side.

"You are SO PROACTIVE!"

I pause.

Did I really just say that? "Proactive?" That was what I chose to say in that moment? Huh.

Good mama. There's hope for me yet.

I'm still patting myself on the back over that one.

Big Bird

Kate had some lunch outside with her daddy's parents yesterday and learned what a duck was. She was very fascinated by them. The whole scene was entertaining: food all over baby and ground, duck trying to figure out how close is safe, and mom worrying that duck is going to land on baby...

Grandparents everywhere

It is the weekend of grandparents and Kate has been entertaining constantly. She's held up well through all the outings and attention. The big test will be tomorrow when she will have to have an adjusted snack and nap schedule due to my graduation ceremony. Hopefully she won't break down too much!

In the meantime... Kate is working desperately to figure out how to crawl, but we're still waiting...!

Tricky Formula Feeding

It's taking me a while to get used to needing equipment when I'm out. I feel suddenly really helpless. If I don't pack enough, or the right stuff, my little one is hungry and there's nothing for me to do about it. It takes some getting used to!

So, after talking to some friends I went out an bought a Munchkin formula dispenser. Whew, what a mistake that was! I wanted something that would hold different amounts of formula so I could have a couple servings ready. Well this one leaked everywhere in my bag. Bleck. Powder all over everything. No good. I ended up pulling out my old pumping containers which ended up being the perfect size for a 6 to 8 oz serving of formula (pre-mixing).

Baby stuff is almost as big a racket as wedding stuff. Man oh man.

A little glam

Kate got a little more glamorous this week with the arrival of her new sunglasses. A splurge on my part, but I decided that since I can't keep a hat on the girl's head, I might see if I can protect her little eyes another way. She played with them a lot, but they stayed on longer than I expected!

One Hot Mama

Our A/C is broken. Two days ago I noticed that it was leaking water EVERYWHERE. Which is messy and mildewy and nasty. But it was running. The repairguy came Wednesday night and last night I noticed that despite the fact it was running for hours it still felt warm. Huh.

He's coming today. We're anticipating a high of 92. Yay. We're trying our morning nap at home and then may hit the road to find some A/C somewhere else.

Baby Kate has had a rough morning of it. No one slept especially well, and then she took a wicked tumble this morning and has a goose egg on her forehead to prove that she does, indeed, like to try to stand by herself.

Weaning is completed. She is officially a formula baby and seems to be adjusting fine. She is spitting up a little more than on breastmilk, but the Nestle seems to be fitting the bill. I'm just at a loss about what to do with myself now that I can eat whatever I want for the first time in 16 months.

Sushi here I come!

A Mama's Hell

We've been weaning. Kate and I. We're down to two feedings, morning and night. I am happy with the decision, life has been less stressful because of it, and she was ready. Until...

Until we needed to give her formula. We tried to give her a bottle of it -- twice -- last week, and she refused. Missed both feedings because of it. My husband tells me we should use up our store of breastmilk and then when we're out, we're out and she'll have to deal.

Why, why did I listen? I mean, the man is a rocket scientist, but has he ever spent all day with a baby? Nope. All day with a hungry baby? Double nope.

Right, so yesterday, here's the picture... We are out of breastmilk. No option there. Daddy P had just turned in his dissertation draft to his adviser after pulling an all-nighter and was strung out on caffeine and sleep-deprivation. Meanwhile, Kate nurses at 6am, as normal, and goes back to sleep. Then the 9am refusal to eat. Not happy about the formula, not happy about having to nap hungry, but so tired she eventually conks out after some complaining. She gets her normal solid food at lunch, then again refuses her after-lunch bottle of formula.

The fussiness ramps up a step. Manage to get her down for her nap (praise the gods) and when she wakes she is not normal-chipper-happy-go-lucky Kate. She is ravenous, why-are-you-holding-out-on-me Kate. I decide I have to leave. This house is too small for such hunger. Paul gets home and I pack up the family for a trip to Ikea to walk around in air conditioning (oh, did I mention our AC is broken as of Saturday?) and try not to spend money (ha!). Cried on the way up, enjoyed looking at all the pretties in the store, cried all the way home.

At this point, Daddy P is zonked, my nerves are fried, and he (deservedly) heads up for a nap. I take Kate outside to hang out and try (haha silly mom) to give her her afternoon bottle. She spends the next hour trying to claw her way into my shirt. Seriously. It almost made me cry.

Dinnertime. I finally taste the stuff we're trying to make her drink and gag. It tastes like blood. I kid you not. The Enfamil Gentle-something or other is so packed with iron you'd think that I'm raising my very own vampire. Bleck.

So, I pull out trusty formula #2, a soy-free, dairy-free, hippy-brand we bought thinking it would be good for her tummy. I taste. Iron! So nasty! What are they doing to these babies? Trying to create a race of cannibals?!

Thank heavens for all those annoying samples you get at the hospital. I pull out Nestle's big green formula can. Now this is promising, right? Nestle! They make chocolate! I love chocolate! And Kate should love it too since I ate pounds of it while she was in utero! The genetic factor is doubled since both my mother-in-law and myself have a chocolate tooth that no pliers could remove.

I mix up a batch. In between servings of finger food she sucks down a half ounce... then another... then another... finally she got two ounces in her. I rejoiced! She will not pass out from dehydration! My baby will live!

Then my brilliant doc friend, Jenn, suggests mixing some with breastmilk. Which, thankfully, I could still pull off. Reluctantly, I pulled the pump out one...more...time... (Figures that yesterday I actually put all the parts away in storage.) And after dinner she sucked that bottle down without a problem.

Lesson learned: if they can make chocolate, they can make baby food.

Poopy Dance

Separation Anxiety?

There is a debate in our household about Kate's nightwakings. Two weeks ago she began waking every few hours (about 2 hours). She cries for about a minute and then goes back to sleep. Rinse repeat. All night. Daddy P is good at sleeping through her cries but something is hardwired in me to shoot adrenaline and cortisol through my veins at the sound. I haven't slept well in a while now, needless to say, and am flabbergasted about what is happening. We thought she was teething, so we gave her Tylenol a few nights. When we did, she slept through the night without a hitch. But, we decided we couldn't do that all the time so now we're back to square one.

Daddy P thinks it is separation anxiety. She definitely is in that stage at daytime. She won't let me go around the corner anymore without bawling. If I pretend we're playing peek-a-boo that makes it okay for a bit, but not long enough to do much of anything. I have been perfecting my babywearing lately, and am very grateful for my sling right now.

Daddy P thinks that when she wakes in the night and realizes she's alone she freaks out and cries, and then grabs her horse and puts herself back to sleep. A reasonable theory, but I'm just a bit baffled by the Tylenol and why it would help. Maybe it makes her calmer and sleepier? Don't know. I'm stumped. In the meantime, I'm trying to learn to sleep through short cries. Bah humbug.

A Matter of Perspective

I thought I had foresight. The baby won't sleep without her horsey. I bought another horsey. Just in case. Don't want to get stuck without a horsey now do we. Well, the first problem was that apparently this particular horse is sold in the U.K. only. Taste in expensive horses seems to run in the family. But, everything's on eBay. I bought one off of eBay. Not too expensive. The shipping was especially cheap. Well we got it yesterday.

Let's just call it Kate's travel horse...



I ordered a full-size version to arrive later this week...

Water Babies

Kate had her second swim class today and continues to be more interested in the babies than the water. Her least favorite part is floating because this requires her to stare up, not at babies. She refuses and crunches until her head is up enough to see what's going on. She's not sure about the arms since she doesn't really like splashing herself, but she enjoys underwater jumping almost as much as above ground jumping. The whole thing has made me realize two things: a) I don't like water babies classes, and b) My daughter is much more social than I and desperately needs to start childcare. Or am I projecting. But, I ignore "a" because she loves seeing her friend Derek so much that I cannot keep them apart.



We practiced with the sippy cup tonight. Elly learned an important lesson. Her former favorite space to sit while we eat -- directly next to and below Kate -- is not safe. The sippy cup came crashing inches from her head. She remained under the table for the rest of the meal...

"Picky" eater

We tossed some of those Gerber puffs in front of her the other day to keep her occupied so I could clean up after dinner. She's actually getting to the point she can pick them up and get, oh, 60% of them in her mouth. We've given her some banana bits coated in Cheerio dust (less slippery) and some pear pieces and she's managed to get a few in and chomp away.





Today though was the first day she ate "our" food -- just zucchini we'd grilled and I tossed in the food processor for her. She ate it, although it was hard to say if she liked it.

Bump

Kate's bumper was dissembled early on to make a window treatment. More recently it was added to our living room as a hearth bumper. The jagged and uneven stones made store-bought covers impossible to use. Turned out I did this in the nick of time. The little one rolled rolled and rolled once more across the room until she smacked up against the bumper. None the worse for wear I might add!

Another month goes by...

7 months today! Got some hair in this last month!

In search of teeth

Kate sure acts like she's teething. Up crying sporadically and not consolable (only Tylenol ensures good sleep it seems). Biting EVERYTHING. Drool all over the place.

So I tried to get some pictures to see if there was anything there yet... but nothing I can see...!