rotten mood rant

Rotten mood!  I can't explain it except that Ted wanted to party at midnight last night and it took me an hour and a half to get him to go to sleep.  Then I couldn't fall asleep until I took half an Ambien, then I was groggy for the five o'clock feeding so Ed did it.  Then he decided to super-groom himself at 7 in the morning including, but not limited to- buzz head, shave face and neck, shower, etc. in the master bathroom.  Never mind that the fan was on high and the door was closed, I could hear everything and didn't go back to sleep until 8:30.  For an additional hour, which on top of my four and a half, isn't sufficient for me to be in a good mood!

My parents and sister are coming today and I'm excited about it and hope I can shake this rotten mood!  Rant over.

glimpse into an evening with a newborn (long run on paragraph)

Ok, so baby has been crying since 4 unless you hold him and hold the pacifier in his mouth since he can't seem to do it on his own.  Husband comes home at 6:30 and you eat dinner in shifts so one of you can feed the baby and one of you can eat and then you switch.  You think that eating will calm the baby but he obviously has different ideas and continues to cry so you burp him but he continues to cry so you change him but he continues to cry so you put him in the swing at medium-high speed and he quiets, calms, falls asleep!  For twelve minutes.  Then he starts to cry again.  So you burp him again, thinking maybe there's still one in there and he lets out a belch that would make a grown man with a beer belly swigging Bud from a can blush and then he starts to cry (if he ever really stopped).  So you lay him down and try holding the pacifier in his mouth like earlier, but he cries around the pacifier and doesn't ever close his mouth.  By this time it's 8 and time for husband's fantasy football draft and you know you can't count on him for at least an hour maybe two, so you keep trying everything you can think of.  Burp, change, pacifier, play time, swing, vibrating bouncy seat, pleading with baby to sleep.  By this time you think, he's been awake too long.  He's over tired and fighting it.  But what can you do about that?  So you hang on until draft is over even though you want to throw husband's laptop across the room because you know he enjoys this (the draft, not his wife pleading with the baby to sleep).  Also you know that the second the draft is over you will hand him the baby and go take a bath.  And when it finally ends this is exactly what you do.  You even, feeling very magnanimous, make a bottle and warm it for husband to give to baby before you hotfoot it into the tub, the sounds of baby cries getting fainter with each door you close.  You can't even hear it at all over the sound of the water!  Twenty minutes (maybe forty) later, you emerge feeling refreshed and able to hold a fussy baby, but what's this?  Husband backs quietly out of baby's room, a smug smile on his face, and silently shuts the baby's door.  He's asleep.  What the what?  You don't even care.  He's finally asleep.

happy birthday ed!

In honor of Ed's birthday today I wanted to dedicate a post to him.  My husband is the kind of person that gets teased a lot and generally takes it with a smile.  The teasing is always good-natured and I will admit that I partake in teasing him from time to time.  The thing is, Ed has a lot of quirks that make it easy to tease him.  Also the fact that he takes it in stride and doesn't get upset about it makes it fun for all.  But this post isn't meant to tease him.  I'm going to talk about his amazing qualities and not his quirks and foibles.

While I was pregnant Ed was very supportive and good about humoring me or helping me or whatever was called for.  The times I went to the ER and got admitted into the hospital for dehydration and vomiting were tough on both of us and I acknowledge that.  But since having Ted I've seen his true good nature shine.  He is great with the baby and helps out with everything from diapers to feeding to burping to comforting a crying baby.  He is a true partner in this uncertain adventure we've embarked on - parenthood.

Ed is almost always positive.  The rare times he gets down (and we're all entitled to them), throw me sometimes and I try to be supportive to him as he is to me when I'm down.  The truth is, I think he's more empathetic/sympathetic than I am.  He's great about trying to get me to talk to him if I seem blue for whatever reason.  It's getting easier for me to tell him.  (My usual M.O. is to keep everything inside until I start randomly crying hysterically for a seemingly small reason, but really it's about much more that I just can't articulate).  Ed is a good Christian with a strong moral fiber and sense of right and wrong.

In truth I couldn't have married a better person nor picked a better person to be the father of my children.  This is not to say that everything in our lives is perfect, but it's the sum of all the good and bad, funny and not so funny, trying and easy, that make our life together interesting.

the don'ts and don'ts of curing baby hiccups

Baby hiccups are a plague to both babies and parents.  They are adult sized hiccups that wrack their tiny little bodies for minutes at a time.  They keep babies and parents awake with their noisy squeaks.  Here are some don'ts to consider when trying to cure your baby's hiccups.

1.)  Don't leave your baby in a hallway and then jump out of a random door trying to scare your baby.  It's not a good idea.

2.)  Don't make your baby drink from bottle or breast upside down.  This will likely cause any and everything your baby ingests to come out his or her nose.

3.)  Don't put a packet of sugar under your baby's tongue.  Even if it does work to cure the hiccups, your baby would probably be awake for days after ingesting all that sugar.  It's not worth it.

4.)  Don't try to make your baby hold his or her breath.  This would likely confuse the baby and make them think you're trying to kill them.  You'll lose all the trust you've built up with your baby over the previous weeks or months.

5.)  Don't make your baby breathe into a paper bag.  This would also likely confuse the baby.

The best thing to do when your baby has the hiccups is to hold them, rub their back and wait them out.  They'll stop soon.

week 1.5

1.) sleep smiles are the best

This is the first day that Ed has gone back to work.  He wasn't looking forward to it and neither was I.  I was very nervous about staying home with Ted alone.  We're lucky he's so good right now.  He's hardly ever fussy and sleeps a ton.  I know this can't last forever, but I'm going to enjoy it while it does!

2.) look at those feet!

I'm scared to take him out by myself.  Ed and I took him to Target last week and he got a little fussy in the store, but we'd come prepared with a bottle and were able to quiet him.  He mostly just slept in his car seat and showed off his monkey toes.  (see pic 2, right)

We've been sharing the night duties pretty well, but now that Ed has gone back to work, I feel like I need to do more (or all of them), at least some nights so he can sleep.  So far I feel pretty well rested since we've been sharing.  Obviously not as well as if I was getting eight straight uninterrupted hours, but I've been able to piece together between five and seven hours a night (and part of the morning. Possibly also the afternoon).  We're incredibly lucky he's not a cat napper and most often sleeps for large chunks of time.

3.) neither one looks all that happy about this

 Bailey is still adjusting.  She vacillates between being completely indifferent to the baby, to being super interested.  She'll walk by the rock n' play and peek in to see if he's in there and sometimes lies with her head on the rocker portion of it.  Sunny just lies down wherever Sunny wants, never mind where Ted is.  I can't even talk about Poppy bird.  With all the stress of our new addition, her squawking is driving me crazy.  I can feel it in my teeth.  She spends most of her time outside or in the spare room, which I do feel bad about.


All in all the first week and a half has gone pretty well.  I'm not as stressed and freaked out as I thought I would be, plus I'm getting more sleep than I thought I would (which was none.  I thought I'd get none).

4.) rare awake time in the rock n' play

He's here!

A few days late, but Teddy arrived at 6:02pm on Wednesday, August 6th.  He was 21 inches long and 8 lbs 3 oz.  He was sort of a big boy!  He's perfect!  After 33 hours of labor, I only ended up pushing for about 20 minutes.  Once he decided it was time, he barreled out of there like he was on fire!  I also have to say that the epidural was the most amazing thing I've ever experienced.  After sixteen hours of contractions, it was a very welcomed procedure.

Ted had some glucose issues at first and almost had to go to the NICU.  I cried when they told me that.  It got down to 31 at one point which is really low.  We tried some high calorie formula which worked to keep his sugar out of the danger zone.  Then after that he had some bilirubin issues and subsequent jaundice.  We had appointments with the pediatrician on both Saturday and Sunday.  Sunday it started to go down, so we were in the clear and didn't have to have the lights.  A home nurse came and weighed him today and he is already back up to his birth weight!

Since we've been home he basically sleeps all the time, unless he's eating or during the dreaded diaper change. He does a lot of sleep smiling and likes sleeping on one of our chests.

Ed seems completely smitten, as am I.  The animals seem to be adjusting pretty well.  Both seemed completely confused about the whole situation at first.  (Bird not so much).  Sunny refuses to be ignored and will curl up on our lap or Ed's chest beside Teddy at any given opportunity.  Bailey seems resigned to her status as second favorite.  We're trying to give them plenty of attention so they don't feel resentful.

ok I'm 40 weeks... where is he?

This is how the past month or so has gone for me:

Week 36: Doc says, "If he comes now, that'll be fine!" I think, Yeah, but 37 weeks is term and mom's at the beach.  Better to wait.

Week 37: Ok, he can totally come now.  I'm fine with that!  Besides I'm having all these contractions, they should be doing something.

Week 38:  Hmm.  Ok, another week to cook, that's fine.  But seriously, any time now would be good!

  

Week 39:  This week for sure.  Doc says she thinks I should go before the due date anyway.  He'll be here soon!  

Week 40:  Overdue!  I'm going to start charging rent.  Get out, get out, get out! 

At least I know it'll be this week for sure...