Wednesday AM Report

Me: so far we are having a good day. Speck slept till around 7, so I was able to get crock pot going and take a quick shower. after eating he played for over an hour. he is starting to move around enough to play with his toys now. he is kicking/hitting things accidentally, but he does seem interested when he gets music and lights. i just fed him again, so we have a few minutes to get things together before heading to our La Leche league meeting at 10. he is now in his bouncy seat watching the bubbles and fish and talking to me a bit.

DH: I guess we need to go toy shopping. We need a tonka truck for him to push around.

Me: we made it to our meeting and back. it was kind of interesting...I will probably continue to go, but I'm not sure I have much in common with the other mothers. well, besides the obvious. there are several mothers who use the sling like we have, and they gave me a few pointers. the main meeting topic was about introducing solid food so didn't really apply to us yet. i did hear a few things that were new to me however, such as that a lot of people are allergic to cinnamon. frankly i was a little freaked out by how noisy it was, because of course there were several small kids there. they were running around all over squealing and grinding muffin crumbs into the carpet. Speck slept through most of it, but I had to take him out of the car seat and give him the hold-and-pat treatment because of the noise. he did fall asleep on the way home and is still snoozing now, so I got some lunch. I have some laundry to do and then I will be getting him up for a meal.

DH: What do you mean not much in common? You decided to be a breeder. You'll have to develop things in common with the other baby machines or be ostracized from the herd.

Me: I have tentative plans to meet J. for a run on Monday. Assuming my doctor visit goes ok on Friday and Speck continues to sleep at night like he has been, then my plan is to meet at 4:30 am and try to do 3 miles. Even factoring in that I might have to walk most of the way, that should still get me back here well before 6. I will make sure there are at least 8 oz of milk in the fridge for you just in case. If everything works out ok on Monday, then I may try to add an additional day with a similar schedule, except we may meet here and run through our neighborhood. Then in another week or so I will try to add some other workouts, maybe one of my DVDs or something. There is a weekly mom-and-baby yoga class here in town that I want to investigate also. Once Speck is 3 months then I can go to the gym during the day to round out my schedule. Maybe by that point I can start trying out the jog stroller too. I want him to have a little more head control before we use that gizmo. Plus I haven't quite figured out when I would use it...I don't want to be dragging him out of bed to bob along in the stroller at 5 am, but I'm not sure if it's too hot to keep him out for long later in the day. I may do some trolling online to see how/when other people use theirs and how they dress baby for a run.

Venturing out

Today took Speck with me to get my hair done. He fell asleep on the way and pretty much slept through the whole process so it worked out beautifully.

He was pretty content all day, very playful when awake. We spent some time standing in front of the mirror and admiring ourselves, which he seemed to enjoy quite a bit. He also likes it when I kiss his tummy and make smacking noises.

news from home

About the pic: I hate this photo of me, but I posted it anyway b/c I love the cuddly little Speck sleeping in my lap. Those moments are so fleeting! Also, there are several interesting details here that remind me of how things were: remote controls scattered around, the indispensible Boppy, the clipboard where we logged all feedings, poops, pees, naps, etc.

Now to the email traffic:

Me: Day is going fine so far. Speck woke up around 7:30 in a great mood and played for 30-40 minutes before he was ready to eat. After feeding he played a bit more and was hungry again at 9:15. So we took care of that and then went for a walk. As usual he fell asleep during the walk, which was great because he was due for a nap anyway. Then I put him in the car and drove over to run the Tucson through the car wash. He slept through all that and is still sleeping now so I was able to eat lunch. I will get him up around noon if he does not wake before that on his own. I don't have any specific plans for the rest of the day...I may give Anica a call and see if she wants company later. I would like to make an appointment to go get a haircut Saturday if possible. Let me know if/when there is a time that would work betterfor you to watch Speck. Or I guess I could try and take him with me. Maybe I can time it during a nap. Give me your input.





DH: In terms of getting house/yardwork done, there isn't a good time. I have enough stuff lined up Saturday to probably keep me busy all day long. I vote you go visit Anica...and walk around the neighborhood and talk to the nice people that gave us cards, money, and diapers.





Me: Hmmm. Maybe I will try and do it tomorrow and just hope he sleeps through it. You do need some down-time, but I figure it's not my place to try and force you to relax. However, I will do the floors if you want baby duty for a while. You haven't been able to spend much time with him this week so I'm just putting it out there. We have already taken our walk for the day and it's pretty hot right now, so I will visit neighbors another time. You need to show me who gave us the diapers, I forgot which house it was.

the speck report

Me: Hope your day is going well. I got Speck up at 7:15 (he was still sleeping, but fitfully). He did not seem hungry so I did not feed him right away but played awhile instead. He ate and went right back to playing and is currently sitting next to me in the bouncy seat. I have several errands I want to run today if I can, including exchanging those pants and voting. Also, I am feeling like a dope because I ruined my pump tubing. I finally found those sterilization bags and I followed the instructions for cleaning the tubing...but it melted in the process. The only thing I can think of is maybe our microwave is hotter than I realized. Anyway, I will have to go pick up another kit for the pump. Argh.

DH: You should really shout arrggghh when you recall how many times you've been told that they do not recommend sterilizing the equipment unless the infant is unhealthy and possibly has a weak or compromised immune system. Go ahead and figure up how much that particular failure to follow instructions just cost us. Glad to hear that he's happily awake. You should take more speck pics. IMG_0406.JPG is good too if you flip it over.

Me: i know, i know. but in my defense i did follow the instructions on the bag. I fed him again and just put him down for a nap. Mom just got here so I am going to try and nap a bit as well.

Speck Update

Me: So far we are having a great morning. You saw he was in a good mood first thing, and he stayed like that for almost 2 hours. By then he seemed to be both hungry again and sleepy, so I decided to experiment and give him another ounce from the bottle. That went well, and he nursed just fine afterward. Very encouraging. He fell asleep nursing but popped in and out as he is prone to do. However, he had that 1000-yard stare and was yawning, so I decided to try and "put" him down for a nap, which I haven't really had the guts to do before. So I went back to his room and closed the blinds and rocked him. He went to sleep after just a few minutes, although he was wide-eyed when we sat down. He has now been asleep for over 30 minutes. I hope he naps for at least an hour. Mom just got here so I will check back in later. We are going back to visit the lactation consultant around 2 but other than that should be here.

DH: Hi! My morning is going well enough. I meant to say something yesterday, and then forgot. I think the topsheet in the crib and the sheet in the bassinet should be changed soon.There have been a couple of spit-ups in the crib over the course of the last few nights, and at least one large wet-spot in the bassinet. I've been informed that Casey regretted not holding Speck after they left last night.

Me: Yes, I have been meaning to do that and keep forgetting too, because the spots are hard to see on the sheets. I will change both today. I also think we should give him a bath tonight. Casey is welcome to come back anytime to hold him, change diapers, whatever.

DH: Hey,If you get a chance, get your mom to write down the tomato gravy recipe.

Me: that's pretty funny. she doesn't have recipes for anything.
She wrote down something for you, but she got one of our cookbooks out to look up a recipe as a starting point.

Play by Play

Below is the first and only post I actually wrote during those early days:

Speck is 4 weeks old now, which hardly seems possible. Our first week flying solo is now drawing to a close. DH was home the first couple weeks, then my mom came to help out last week. Frankly it's been a bit rockier than I expected. Everyone tells you it's hard, you get no sleep, blah blah blah. I don't know whether my problem is more naivete or arrogance, but I guess I just thought that somehow things would be different for me and I would be able to take it all in stride. Plus when you listen to other people you can't help but think they must be exaggerating.

As it turns out, they aren't.


And now for more email chatter:
Me: do you have any idea what I did with the bags I bought to sterilize the pump parts in the microwave? We're doing fine, Speck played a little while and then went back down for a nap, so I was able to wash my hair and eat breakfast. If he doesn't wake soon on his own I am about to go get him up to eat again.

Me2: Speck must have been tired too. After last feeding we were playing on the floor on his aquarium mat. I went to the bathroom, and when I came back he was asleep. After some internal debate I put a blanket on him and laid down on the couch myself. I did manage a catnap of 20 minutesor so until the phone rang (mom). Now I am again having the internal debate, this time about whether to wake him or let him sleep a bit longer. He's been drowsy at every feeding so I'd like him to be nice and awake the next time so he will eat well. But it's been 2.5 hourssince he ate and he's been asleep close to 2 hours and I always worryabout him getting too hungry or napping too much so he stays awake at night. Oh well, maybe I'll flip a coin and think of it as an experiment. Sorry, you probably don't want the play-by-play. Mainly I just wanted to tell you I made his next appointment for July 5th at 10:30. He'll get his first shots that day so I think it would be good if you could come to that.


DH: Let him sleep as long as he doesn't sleep more than 3 hours. That might keep him from being so cranky this afternoon. He should be sleeping ~ 15hours out of 24. The last two days you were freaking out because he wasn't sleeping enough. Don't worry about the feeding unless he's gone longer than 4 hours.You've been feeding him plenty. He's letting us know now when he is hungry.I like the play-by-play. Why do you want me there for his shots...so he learns to associate me with pain?


Me: he did wake up on his own, and it was very close to 3 hours of nap and 4 hours since last feeding. but he didn't eat that much, and now he is asleep again. maybe now that his weight is good he is just having a day where he is relaxing. i think i try too hard to find patterns.