Amelia is talking. A lot. Amelia repeats almost everything we say, including, once, "Damn it, Suki!" as Suki escaped outside through a closing door. Amelia somehow got a southern accent, or at least a southern way of sayin' lots of words. She drops her g's. She called her (L)u(l)i and Guwu's cat Maude "Mawwwd." Could she have picked up this drawl from her mother? You be the judge.
Amelia also drops l's. Hence the (L)u(l)i and the "Amia." Or often she just calls herself "Mia." Mia was listed as a nickname for Amelia in the baby name book I used, and now I see why.
For yes, Amelia says "okay." For no, she says "no okay." All in one phrase. (Are you ready to take a rest? No okay. I am learning to tell, not ask, certain things.)
Amelia is asking a lot of questions, or rather, the same few questions over and over. What's Amia doin'? What's Daddy doin'? What's Momma doin'? What's Suki doin'? (I remember my mom telling me how many times I used to say "Ronna... What doin', huh?")
Amelia assigns dialogue. She likes me to talk for her dolls and stuffed animals. Usually they want to eat something or do whatever Amelia is doing. Then she will tell them, gravely, "Mia's turn." She also likes for me to ask to do what she is doing and then say no. This might worry me but I read in The Happiest Toddler on the Block (which I highly recommend, along with The Girlfriend's Guide to Toddlers) that it's actually good to let toddlers be the boss and deny you of things sometimes for play, because they have so little power in other things.
Amelia takes her time. I am tested many times a day on my resolve, so long ago, to be patient when Amelia became a toddler. Walking 50 feet can take half an hour. Going up or down the stairs can take half the morning. I try to remind myself that what feels like a sidetrack to me is a learning experience and a experiment in independence for Amelia, and save the times I ask her to hurry for when it really matters.
Amelia wants to do it "self." In other words, "Mia do it." Putting on her shoes, buckling into her carseat, putting on her pants: these are all thing Amelia really wants to do by herself and can't quite, yet. But she tries, sometimes calmly and sometimes with great frustrations. If only patience came in a bottle. For both of us. These have been moments when I have had to literally chant aloud to myself "Patience, patience!" (It helps.)
Amelia likes to collect. One of the things she is repeating is "A-nuh-nuh ____?" For example, she has these little plastic animal toys she calls hippos that have holes on one side and a point on the other end so they can snap into each other. They are all pulled apart and scattered everywhere because she likes to put them on her fingers. If we happen to see one she says, "A-nuh-nuh hippo?" (That's "another.") Basically, anything she finds or likes, she asks for another. A-nuh-nuh haircip? A-nuh-nuh bracet? A-nuh-nuh bear? And etc. Etc. All day long.
Amelia has been sleeping beautifully. 10-12 hours a night, 2 or so hours for naps. Did this coincide with weaning? Yes. Well, the night sleep did anyway. Could be a coincidence, but just for the record. The naps got easier when I started being consistent about a nap routine: home from morning outing around 11, lunch, playtime, stories, in the crib between 12 and 12:30 for 3 songs, the end. She usually cries for a few minutes before she falls asleep, but sometimes she just talks to her animals. Again for the record, her current bedtime is between 7 and 8, depending on how tired she is.
And finally, Amelia is wonderful. She is fun, funny, and fascinating. She changes so quickly and is becoming her own little self with alarming speed. Although I am sometimes tired and impatient, I am truly and deeply thankful that I get to spend so much time with her.
Showing posts with label Suki. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Suki. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
How We Are
Eight days post-hospital, we are doing very well.
I am sure this is not what is on the forefront of everyone's minds, but I have had terrific writing week. Amelia has been sleeping for almost 2 hours every day so I have been able to do almost everything I wanted to do. I finished a poem that I think-- and hope!--will be the title poem of my manuscript. It's hard to say. I was totally enthralled when I wrote it, and I still like it a lot, but sometimes that first love fades as you realize the poem, in fact, is terrible. It's one I only started last week, so it could be too good to be true.
I am also working on rearranging my manuscript.
Lovely.
In other writing-related news, just before Amelia was in the hospital, I got an email from the editor of a journal who wants to publish one of my poems! This is from the round I sent out in October, and other than this good news, and one journal who told me that my poems have moved to a "second round of readings," it has been rejection city. I got one rejection email in three days. So it was encouraging to get an acceptance. And, I am in a poetry reading tomorrow! Read about it here. If you want to make a last minute trip to Denver... it'll be totally worth it.
Now, on to what you really what to know, which is how Amelia is doing. She is doing really well. She eats like a horse. Well, a small horse. Seriously, she has been starting her day with Cheerios, two scrambled eggs, some fruit and maybe some soy sausage or bacon, and going on from there. A snack like an hour later, then another snack, then lunch. After her nap a substantial snack and an early and large dinner. She has also been eating a wide variety of things, as long as they are first stabbed with a fork. It's a relief, since she basically didn't eat for the 3 weeks before and during her hospital stay.
Amelia is moving around well too, almost totally back to normal. For awhile you could tell it hurt her when she squatted and then stood back up but that seems to have gone away. She is very happy at home, but when we go out she is still wary of other people. She cried when we went to the library today. I think she thought it was too much like a hospital. But then when she saw we were just at Book Babies (we were at a library we had never been to before) she relaxed and sang and clapped and danced. She wasn't quite as mobile as she used to be, but it has been about 2 months since we have even been to Book Babies, and honestly, it was nice not to have to chase after her the whole time.
She has been spending a fair amount of time playing by herself since the sad departure of both of her grandmothers. The other day I was loading the dishwasher and realized it was quiet... too quiet...
Suki's water bowl has been moved farther down the stairs.
Back to normal... toddler-style.
I am sure this is not what is on the forefront of everyone's minds, but I have had terrific writing week. Amelia has been sleeping for almost 2 hours every day so I have been able to do almost everything I wanted to do. I finished a poem that I think-- and hope!--will be the title poem of my manuscript. It's hard to say. I was totally enthralled when I wrote it, and I still like it a lot, but sometimes that first love fades as you realize the poem, in fact, is terrible. It's one I only started last week, so it could be too good to be true.
I am also working on rearranging my manuscript.
Lovely.
In other writing-related news, just before Amelia was in the hospital, I got an email from the editor of a journal who wants to publish one of my poems! This is from the round I sent out in October, and other than this good news, and one journal who told me that my poems have moved to a "second round of readings," it has been rejection city. I got one rejection email in three days. So it was encouraging to get an acceptance. And, I am in a poetry reading tomorrow! Read about it here. If you want to make a last minute trip to Denver... it'll be totally worth it.
Now, on to what you really what to know, which is how Amelia is doing. She is doing really well. She eats like a horse. Well, a small horse. Seriously, she has been starting her day with Cheerios, two scrambled eggs, some fruit and maybe some soy sausage or bacon, and going on from there. A snack like an hour later, then another snack, then lunch. After her nap a substantial snack and an early and large dinner. She has also been eating a wide variety of things, as long as they are first stabbed with a fork. It's a relief, since she basically didn't eat for the 3 weeks before and during her hospital stay.
Amelia is moving around well too, almost totally back to normal. For awhile you could tell it hurt her when she squatted and then stood back up but that seems to have gone away. She is very happy at home, but when we go out she is still wary of other people. She cried when we went to the library today. I think she thought it was too much like a hospital. But then when she saw we were just at Book Babies (we were at a library we had never been to before) she relaxed and sang and clapped and danced. She wasn't quite as mobile as she used to be, but it has been about 2 months since we have even been to Book Babies, and honestly, it was nice not to have to chase after her the whole time.
She has been spending a fair amount of time playing by herself since the sad departure of both of her grandmothers. The other day I was loading the dishwasher and realized it was quiet... too quiet...
Suki's water bowl has been moved farther down the stairs.
Back to normal... toddler-style.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Lexicon, 12 and a half months
Ball: a ball; a ball-shaped item such as a pumpkin or a light fixture; a dog; if you are at the zoo, an elephant!
Bye: good-bye; while poking your finger in someone's eye, an eye
Gee (pronounced with a hard g as in ago): Suki; another small animal not established as a ball
Hi: Hello!
Bye: good-bye; while poking your finger in someone's eye, an eye
Gee (pronounced with a hard g as in ago): Suki; another small animal not established as a ball
Hi: Hello!
Friday, March 5, 2010
Five Months
Amelia is five months old today! Happy March 5th, Little A.
I know I haven’t been writing much. Amelia-at-four-months has come and gone without much documentation. But she is a Q.T. Pie. She smiles all the time and is beginning to laugh a lot. She pulled herself up from a reclining position into a sitting position the other day—so exciting!!!—and she is working hard on learning to roll over. She makes a variety of noises, including squeals, squeaks, shrieks, cackles, grunts, and a Marge Simpson-esque grummbly hum. She gets visibly excited about new toys and new events: her eyes light up and she kicks her feet and waves her arms with joy. And she has started to notice Suki; this morning she was whooping and clutching for Suki’s fur while I brushed her.
Dean and I have made some strides in integrating having a baby into our lives, too. For the past two Fridays, I’ve taken Amelia to the grocery store. This gives me and A something to do and gets what used to be a weekend chore over with before the weekend. I think A actually really likes the grocery store, and if I put her in the Ergo I can get what I need with two hands. And we’ve taken some longer outings with Amelia on the weekends. I think we will do that more and more as spring arrives. (I can’t wait. I am so sick of cold and wind.)
I wish I did a better job of documenting A’s babyhood. One of the main inspirations for this blog is Liz of AD and BC, a wonderful friend and my go-to person for all things baby. She has done a great job of documenting her son Oliver's progress on her blog. It's very reassuring to me to be able to go to her blog and look up what Ollie was doing at Amelia's age. It makes me feel like I am on the right track.
I was looking at AD a lot last week to see what Liz did as far as starting Oliver on solids, and then I read about his sleep at 4-5 months. I was glad to see that his sleep habits weren’t so different from Amelia’s. Sleep is a huge topic in our home these days. We are tired.
So tired.
So tired that a moment ago I just typed that Liz was a "onederful" friend.
Amelia, who was a champion sleeper between 9 and 15 weeks, started waking up 2-4 times a night again at around 15 weeks. If you google "4 month sleep regression" you get a zillion hits, so apparently this kind of sleep pattern in common in babies her age. It is still a terrible blow to my sanity. I am a sleeper. Generally I am a pretty happy, patient, and generous person, if I do say so myself, but I discovered in college that I become depressed and grouchy without consistent sleep. And that's putting it mildly.
Due to the sleep issue, it's been hard for me to really enjoy Amelia some days. It's just very hard to get up 2 or 3 or more times a night--it's not even that A stays awake--she eats and goes back to sleep right away 99% of the time--but it's that more often than not it takes ME a long time to go back to sleep. I start thinking and worrying and tossing and turning. (And sometimes I think Suki and Amelia are plotting against me. If Amelia goes back to sleep at 4:30, Suki will come in at 5:00 and scratch my desk or meow for breakfast.)
Naps have been another issue. Amelia’s naps have never been terrible regular but about two weeks ago she went on a nap strike. It was almost impossible for me to get her down. Even though she was very sleepy, rubbing her eyes, yawning and generally being a grouchpuss, she would not go to sleep. I had to nurse her, rock her, and nurse her some more. Once she fell asleep I had to carefully stand up and kind of dance around shushing and nursing even more. Then there was the s-l-o-w easing of her sleepy self into the crib—and as soon as I let go of her, more crying. I tried the pacifier, which sometimes worked, as well as trying to sort of lean over the crib and rock her while she was in it. More often than not these episodes ended not with Amelia napping but with BOTH of us in tears.
And—here’s the icing on the cake—when she did go to sleep, she woke up in 30-45 minutes. Which is NOT a long enough nap for her. So she was still fussy.
All of this is written in past tense because as of yesterday afternoon, we are in nap training. I have decided I can no longer handle these scenes. So when I think she is getting sleepy, we have a wind down time in a quiet room, then we go into Amelia’s room and read 2 or 3 stories, and then I hug her, tell her I love her, put her in her crib and leave the room.
She then cries.
So I wait.
And wait, as long as I can, or until I think she is getting too upset. Then I go in, hold her for a minute, tell her I love her, tell her she needs to sleep to be a happy baby, a baby that other people can stand to be around, and put her back down.
She cries again.
Yesterday afternoon, our practice ended in Amelia not taking a nap. She got herself into a second wind and I gave up. This morning, we had a bit more success: after the fifth or so time I went in, she fell asleep as I was comforting her and didn’t wake up when I put her down. She then slept for AN HOUR AND A HALF!!! (She also fell asleep both on the way to and coming home from the grocery store, more evidence that she is overtired.) And this afternoon, she got so upset that I decided to nurse her, she fell asleep, and again, didn’t wake up when I put her down. She is sleeping now.
So maybe that doesn’t sound all that different than before, because she still isn’t falling asleep in the crib on her own. But my mindset is different. As opposed to just desperately trying to get her to sleep in any way I can, I now have a plan that I think is a good one. She does need to learn to fall asleep on her own, and I think this nap practice might eventually facilitate that.
Letting her cry is hard. The other night, I was putting clean sheets on our bed, and I used these sheets that came from my grandmother’s house. Somehow they still smell like her house, a clean, Clorox and floral-laced scent, even after all this time. And I was thinking about how my grandmother and mother always made me feel so safe, and always took care of me, how they would never have just let me cry alone in my bed. And I thought, that’s why I can’t let her cry it out.
Still, yesterday I was talking to Meg (while Amelia cried, as a matter of fact), and I was telling her about the sheets, and she pointed out that my mother and grandmother also had to let me learn things on my own. Also that I don’t remember being five months old and that I probably did sometimes cry in my crib. So for now, we are not not crying, but we’re not exactly “crying it out.” I am not even sticking to any particular rules, such as a time limit on the crying or saying I will never nurse her to help her sleep. I am just trying to follow my intuition, striking a balance between helping her learn a skill that will make her a happier baby in the long run and not letting her become too hysterical at any given moment while she learns it.
And besides—or perhaps MOST importantly—if she doesn’t eventually sleep more, I will lose my mind. A sane mommy is a happy mommy.
I know I haven’t been writing much. Amelia-at-four-months has come and gone without much documentation. But she is a Q.T. Pie. She smiles all the time and is beginning to laugh a lot. She pulled herself up from a reclining position into a sitting position the other day—so exciting!!!—and she is working hard on learning to roll over. She makes a variety of noises, including squeals, squeaks, shrieks, cackles, grunts, and a Marge Simpson-esque grummbly hum. She gets visibly excited about new toys and new events: her eyes light up and she kicks her feet and waves her arms with joy. And she has started to notice Suki; this morning she was whooping and clutching for Suki’s fur while I brushed her.
Dean and I have made some strides in integrating having a baby into our lives, too. For the past two Fridays, I’ve taken Amelia to the grocery store. This gives me and A something to do and gets what used to be a weekend chore over with before the weekend. I think A actually really likes the grocery store, and if I put her in the Ergo I can get what I need with two hands. And we’ve taken some longer outings with Amelia on the weekends. I think we will do that more and more as spring arrives. (I can’t wait. I am so sick of cold and wind.)
I wish I did a better job of documenting A’s babyhood. One of the main inspirations for this blog is Liz of AD and BC, a wonderful friend and my go-to person for all things baby. She has done a great job of documenting her son Oliver's progress on her blog. It's very reassuring to me to be able to go to her blog and look up what Ollie was doing at Amelia's age. It makes me feel like I am on the right track.
I was looking at AD a lot last week to see what Liz did as far as starting Oliver on solids, and then I read about his sleep at 4-5 months. I was glad to see that his sleep habits weren’t so different from Amelia’s. Sleep is a huge topic in our home these days. We are tired.
So tired.
So tired that a moment ago I just typed that Liz was a "onederful" friend.
Amelia, who was a champion sleeper between 9 and 15 weeks, started waking up 2-4 times a night again at around 15 weeks. If you google "4 month sleep regression" you get a zillion hits, so apparently this kind of sleep pattern in common in babies her age. It is still a terrible blow to my sanity. I am a sleeper. Generally I am a pretty happy, patient, and generous person, if I do say so myself, but I discovered in college that I become depressed and grouchy without consistent sleep. And that's putting it mildly.
Due to the sleep issue, it's been hard for me to really enjoy Amelia some days. It's just very hard to get up 2 or 3 or more times a night--it's not even that A stays awake--she eats and goes back to sleep right away 99% of the time--but it's that more often than not it takes ME a long time to go back to sleep. I start thinking and worrying and tossing and turning. (And sometimes I think Suki and Amelia are plotting against me. If Amelia goes back to sleep at 4:30, Suki will come in at 5:00 and scratch my desk or meow for breakfast.)
Naps have been another issue. Amelia’s naps have never been terrible regular but about two weeks ago she went on a nap strike. It was almost impossible for me to get her down. Even though she was very sleepy, rubbing her eyes, yawning and generally being a grouchpuss, she would not go to sleep. I had to nurse her, rock her, and nurse her some more. Once she fell asleep I had to carefully stand up and kind of dance around shushing and nursing even more. Then there was the s-l-o-w easing of her sleepy self into the crib—and as soon as I let go of her, more crying. I tried the pacifier, which sometimes worked, as well as trying to sort of lean over the crib and rock her while she was in it. More often than not these episodes ended not with Amelia napping but with BOTH of us in tears.
And—here’s the icing on the cake—when she did go to sleep, she woke up in 30-45 minutes. Which is NOT a long enough nap for her. So she was still fussy.
All of this is written in past tense because as of yesterday afternoon, we are in nap training. I have decided I can no longer handle these scenes. So when I think she is getting sleepy, we have a wind down time in a quiet room, then we go into Amelia’s room and read 2 or 3 stories, and then I hug her, tell her I love her, put her in her crib and leave the room.
She then cries.
So I wait.
And wait, as long as I can, or until I think she is getting too upset. Then I go in, hold her for a minute, tell her I love her, tell her she needs to sleep to be a happy baby, a baby that other people can stand to be around, and put her back down.
She cries again.
Yesterday afternoon, our practice ended in Amelia not taking a nap. She got herself into a second wind and I gave up. This morning, we had a bit more success: after the fifth or so time I went in, she fell asleep as I was comforting her and didn’t wake up when I put her down. She then slept for AN HOUR AND A HALF!!! (She also fell asleep both on the way to and coming home from the grocery store, more evidence that she is overtired.) And this afternoon, she got so upset that I decided to nurse her, she fell asleep, and again, didn’t wake up when I put her down. She is sleeping now.
So maybe that doesn’t sound all that different than before, because she still isn’t falling asleep in the crib on her own. But my mindset is different. As opposed to just desperately trying to get her to sleep in any way I can, I now have a plan that I think is a good one. She does need to learn to fall asleep on her own, and I think this nap practice might eventually facilitate that.
Letting her cry is hard. The other night, I was putting clean sheets on our bed, and I used these sheets that came from my grandmother’s house. Somehow they still smell like her house, a clean, Clorox and floral-laced scent, even after all this time. And I was thinking about how my grandmother and mother always made me feel so safe, and always took care of me, how they would never have just let me cry alone in my bed. And I thought, that’s why I can’t let her cry it out.
Still, yesterday I was talking to Meg (while Amelia cried, as a matter of fact), and I was telling her about the sheets, and she pointed out that my mother and grandmother also had to let me learn things on my own. Also that I don’t remember being five months old and that I probably did sometimes cry in my crib. So for now, we are not not crying, but we’re not exactly “crying it out.” I am not even sticking to any particular rules, such as a time limit on the crying or saying I will never nurse her to help her sleep. I am just trying to follow my intuition, striking a balance between helping her learn a skill that will make her a happier baby in the long run and not letting her become too hysterical at any given moment while she learns it.
And besides—or perhaps MOST importantly—if she doesn’t eventually sleep more, I will lose my mind. A sane mommy is a happy mommy.
Friday, November 13, 2009
Cat, Mouse, Milk
I am writing this blog entry at my upstairs desk, at which I haven't sat for months and months. This special occasion is due to the fact that Suki finally caught the mouse that has been lurking under our sink. I opened the cabinet doors when I noticed her crouching there, and a few minutes later, I heard a crash, and looked up to see Suki run by with the mouse in her mouth. But she can't just kill it. No. She is carrying it all around, dropping it, letting it run away a little bit, and re-catching it. It's injured, so it can't get far. It's a horrifying scene. Plus now I feel the downstairs is going to have to be mopped with Clorox.
Suki's catching of the mouse interrupted Amelia's nap in her Pack and Play, which provided free and quiet time I was using to actually write poems. !!! This is big news. I haven't sat down to write since a couple of weeks before Amelia was born. It was great. I revisited some stuff I was working on through the spring and summer to find that some of it has potential! And I started something brand new, which is very energizing.
In the meantime I thought I would write here since it's been awhile since I've said anything of substance on the blog. Two words: time and tired. Not only is it hard to find the time to sit down and write, when I do have a few minutes during naptime or when Dean is home and caring for Amelia, I feel so brain dead I can't put together a coherent sentence.
So, here's going on with us. Amelia is much less fussy during the day than she was for a week or so. We are waiting excitedly for her to really, truly smile at us. Dean's thinks she smiled for real yesterday morning but it's hard to know for sure. I am trying to play with her during the day, but she seems to be sleeping more for the last couple of days. She is still sleeping pretty well at night, going for 3 or 4 or stretches most of the time. Tuesday night, she slept for about 6 hours, but that stretch was tragically wasted due to me waking up once with a horrible stomach ache and then later with a milk overflow situation. I don't feel I am using the word "tragically" hyperbolically, either.
Anyway, speaking of breastmilk, I have been trying to pump some milk since I am going back to teach on Tuesday, believe it or not, and I will leave milk so Dean can feed Amelia while I am gone. It's a bit difficult to know when and how much to pump. Last might I did it right before Amelia woke up hungry after a nap. I fed her a little, but we had to wait for Dean to come home to give her the bottle I just pumped. (I read I am not supposed to give her a bottle since she already associates me with an alternate method of obtaining her food.) Amelia seems to take the bottle fine, so I am not worried about her eating while I am gone, but I am a little worried about myself, not being able to feed her or to pump for almost 5 hours while I travel to school, teach and come home. There are only 15 minutes between my classes, which is probably enough time to pump, but there is no where to go to do it. My office is in another building, plus I share it with three other people. I guess I can lock myself in a bathroom stall during the break, but that is going to be noticeable to the many other women who use the bathroom at that time. Maybe there is a quieter, less-used restroom on the upper floor of the building. We'll see.
I've also had a couple of adventures in breastfeeding in public. Once was right before Dean went back to work. We took some sandwiches to the park to eat. There were some young boys, maybe 7-9 years old, playing there, running all around with plastic guns. After Dean and I finished eating, Amelia was hungry, so I fed her. Everything was covered by both a scarf and my windbreaker, but I suddenly noticed the boys had become very interested in the park bench next to ours. I looked directly over at them to show them I was on to their spy tactics. It was strange to have an audience.
The second time I tried to feed Amelia in public was in my doctor's office's very crowded waiting area. I was holding the scarf all wrong and got flustered by the silence in the room, a silence that was being broken only by Amelia's cries and grunts as she tried to latch on. I am pretty sure my breasts were on display for everyone there. Finally Marla, Dr. Footer's wife/receptionist/nurse, said I could go back to this big soft chair in one of the exam rooms "where I might be more comfortable." So I did.
It's funny; breastfeeding is totally natural and I had imagined myself being cool and composed when Amelia needed to eat while we were out, but I got pretty flustered on both of these occasions. The third time I fed her in public, though, I did a better job. This was last weekend at Dean's office mate's wedding. It helped to have another mother breastfeeding at the next table. Also, I got the hang of the scarf.
Parenthetically, Amelia's first wedding happened to be a same-sex wedding. DC will recognize gay marriages from other states, so Dean's office mate and her partner went to Connecticut to be officially married, then had their ceremony here a few days later. It was very beautiful. Everyone was so happy for the couple, and their families gave extremely touching toasts that showed how supportive they were.
And, it was really fun for Dean and I to be out in public. We enjoyed talking to Dean's co-workers and the other guests and showing off the baby. Dean's office mate had knitted Amelia a little bear outfit, which she was wearing, so Amelia was a great conversation piece. And of course everyone thought she was beautiful.
In the meantime, I just took a break to change and feed the awake Amelia. We tried to go downstairs, but found that the mouse is still alive. I am typing with one hand while A finishes lunch. When she finishes, we might have to brave the wind and rain to escape the carnage.
Suki's catching of the mouse interrupted Amelia's nap in her Pack and Play, which provided free and quiet time I was using to actually write poems. !!! This is big news. I haven't sat down to write since a couple of weeks before Amelia was born. It was great. I revisited some stuff I was working on through the spring and summer to find that some of it has potential! And I started something brand new, which is very energizing.
In the meantime I thought I would write here since it's been awhile since I've said anything of substance on the blog. Two words: time and tired. Not only is it hard to find the time to sit down and write, when I do have a few minutes during naptime or when Dean is home and caring for Amelia, I feel so brain dead I can't put together a coherent sentence.
So, here's going on with us. Amelia is much less fussy during the day than she was for a week or so. We are waiting excitedly for her to really, truly smile at us. Dean's thinks she smiled for real yesterday morning but it's hard to know for sure. I am trying to play with her during the day, but she seems to be sleeping more for the last couple of days. She is still sleeping pretty well at night, going for 3 or 4 or stretches most of the time. Tuesday night, she slept for about 6 hours, but that stretch was tragically wasted due to me waking up once with a horrible stomach ache and then later with a milk overflow situation. I don't feel I am using the word "tragically" hyperbolically, either.
Anyway, speaking of breastmilk, I have been trying to pump some milk since I am going back to teach on Tuesday, believe it or not, and I will leave milk so Dean can feed Amelia while I am gone. It's a bit difficult to know when and how much to pump. Last might I did it right before Amelia woke up hungry after a nap. I fed her a little, but we had to wait for Dean to come home to give her the bottle I just pumped. (I read I am not supposed to give her a bottle since she already associates me with an alternate method of obtaining her food.) Amelia seems to take the bottle fine, so I am not worried about her eating while I am gone, but I am a little worried about myself, not being able to feed her or to pump for almost 5 hours while I travel to school, teach and come home. There are only 15 minutes between my classes, which is probably enough time to pump, but there is no where to go to do it. My office is in another building, plus I share it with three other people. I guess I can lock myself in a bathroom stall during the break, but that is going to be noticeable to the many other women who use the bathroom at that time. Maybe there is a quieter, less-used restroom on the upper floor of the building. We'll see.
I've also had a couple of adventures in breastfeeding in public. Once was right before Dean went back to work. We took some sandwiches to the park to eat. There were some young boys, maybe 7-9 years old, playing there, running all around with plastic guns. After Dean and I finished eating, Amelia was hungry, so I fed her. Everything was covered by both a scarf and my windbreaker, but I suddenly noticed the boys had become very interested in the park bench next to ours. I looked directly over at them to show them I was on to their spy tactics. It was strange to have an audience.
The second time I tried to feed Amelia in public was in my doctor's office's very crowded waiting area. I was holding the scarf all wrong and got flustered by the silence in the room, a silence that was being broken only by Amelia's cries and grunts as she tried to latch on. I am pretty sure my breasts were on display for everyone there. Finally Marla, Dr. Footer's wife/receptionist/nurse, said I could go back to this big soft chair in one of the exam rooms "where I might be more comfortable." So I did.
It's funny; breastfeeding is totally natural and I had imagined myself being cool and composed when Amelia needed to eat while we were out, but I got pretty flustered on both of these occasions. The third time I fed her in public, though, I did a better job. This was last weekend at Dean's office mate's wedding. It helped to have another mother breastfeeding at the next table. Also, I got the hang of the scarf.
Parenthetically, Amelia's first wedding happened to be a same-sex wedding. DC will recognize gay marriages from other states, so Dean's office mate and her partner went to Connecticut to be officially married, then had their ceremony here a few days later. It was very beautiful. Everyone was so happy for the couple, and their families gave extremely touching toasts that showed how supportive they were.
And, it was really fun for Dean and I to be out in public. We enjoyed talking to Dean's co-workers and the other guests and showing off the baby. Dean's office mate had knitted Amelia a little bear outfit, which she was wearing, so Amelia was a great conversation piece. And of course everyone thought she was beautiful.
In the meantime, I just took a break to change and feed the awake Amelia. We tried to go downstairs, but found that the mouse is still alive. I am typing with one hand while A finishes lunch. When she finishes, we might have to brave the wind and rain to escape the carnage.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Snuggle Cat
Several people have wondered how Suki will get along with the baby. As you can see by this picture, Suki likes her a lot already.
Suki's been sitting on my lap as I write. She is snuggling her head up to the baby and purring. The baby is kicking gently in reply. I think they will be close friends.
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