Today it finally happened. After hearing about it all the time but never experiencing it, someone paid for my Starbucks order in the drive through! It's like winning the random acts of kindness lottery. You feel special and chosen, and it instantly cheered me up. And boy did I need cheering up. It was the whole reason I was in that drive through line. And in case you're wondering, yes I did pay it forward (backward?) and paid for the person behind me. You better believe I was passing on that insta-good mood karma.
How Do You Eat Breakfast?
I belong to a mom group on facebook. It’s a bunch of girls that I’ve never met, and it’s completely random how I found them, but in the past two years, they’ve become my go to for mom advice, venting and random kid stuff. They’ve been talking a lot about pictures lately. About making our husband take pictures more often, because most of the time we’re the one’s taking the pictures and then we’re never in them. And then we talk about not deleting those pictures even though we don’t like how we look in them. Because our kids won’t care, and all they’ll want is pictures of their mom.
The "Maow"
May 18, 2008. The first time we met. She was small, and scared, and her siblings picked on her, so she was hiding behind a piece of furniture. Rebecca looked at me like I was crazy as I tried to move the dresser to get to her. Was I sure I didn’t want to play with one of the kittens running around the room, basically throwing themselves at me? I was sure.
She came home May 22, along with her brother Aiden, just days before my birthday. She was just as timid, just as scared of me then. I had to tip the carrier to get her to come out, since she wasn’t accepting my food bribes. I had to earn her trust and her love, which I did slowly over the coming days, months, years.
The Worst Part of Being Mama to Two
I’ve been dreading it since G was born. I knew there would be a time when they needed me at the same time, and I couldn’t be there for both of them. I’ve been lucky so far, just skirting by, getting one calmed minutes before the next one started crying.
My luck ran out this week. The night started off great, though. There weren’t any tears on the drive home from daycare, G slept in his car seat while I fed E his dinner. It was almost too easy. But then G got hungry earlier than I was expecting. A few days earlier when I had sat down to feed the baby, E was free to run around the house while I was trapped, and it ended with him happily eating food out of the trash. So I decided to try and avoid that this time, and hearded E upstairs. We have a baby gate across the hall that blocks off both of the kid’s bedrooms, which allows him freedom to run around but stay safe and not get into too much trouble.
Remember the Giggles
Did you know that on January 15th, 1986 it was -25 degrees in Newport Center? I do, because it’s in my baby book. You may think that’s an odd thing to record in a baby book, but as a new mom I soon realized that sometimes there’s not much going on to write in the baby book! And weather becomes a big deal. Too hot, too cold, too rainy, too anything.. all become great reasons to not go anywhere and spend the day on the couch with the baby.
So if you look in E or G’s baby books, you’ll find random comments on the weather. Especially last week (because you run out of ways to say, we stayed home and did nothing). G’s baby book entries look like this:
One Month
As of 1/23/2019
Nick Names: Goober, Snortle-pig, Salamander, Lovey
Height: 22 inches (77th percentile)
Weight: 11 lbs, 5 oz (83rd percentile)
Head: 15 inches (83rd percentile)
Special Outings: First Movie (Vice), Hiking at Breakheart, Random Shopping Trips
Visitors: Grandma & Grandpa, Raina & Zaida, Aunt Joanie & Brookie, Nicole & Alice
Loves: Sleeping, pacifiers, big brother, staring into the light
Hates: The cold, burping, diaper changes
Snow, Ice, and Cold
It’s officially winter here. This past weekend we pretty much hibernated at home while we got some snow, then some ice, and then some rain, and then everything froze and it’s currently below zero here. Ugh. Once upon a time, I did say that I wanted a winter baby. And for a lot of reasons, I’m happy that worked out. It’s actually dark out when I go to bed, which makes a 6pm bedtime way easier. On the flip side, it’s also dark in the mornings and pretty hard to stay awake and get moving. I no longer feel guilty about not leaving the house on days I just want to cuddle on the couch all day, but on the days I do want to go somewhere, I’m left trying to bundle up a tiny baby who hates being cold, and I’m also freezing as I try to deal with car seats and loading junk into the car.
Today is Friday
I’ve officially fallen into the maternity leave vortex. All day yesterday I was SURE it was Wednesday. Because the day before it was definitely Tuesday. Except it wasn’t, and yesterday was Thursday. I almost showed up to the police department to get the car seats checked, but luckily I was too tired yesterday because they only check car seats on Wednesdays.
TWO Kids
I have this weird thing now, where I’ll want to post a cute picture of either E or G, and then I think, wait… is it weird to post a picture of only one of them? Do I need to post two pictures? Do I need to have a running tally where I make sure I’m talking about each kid the same amount?
Same thing with blog posts.. I had things I wanted to say about E and how he’s doing lately, but then I think I should do the same thing about G! I can tell I’m going to be struggling with this for a while…
I absolutely do not have the solution yet, so instead I’m going to do a double update!
E & G
Birth Story Part III - Complications
Right before G was born, I looked at the nurse and said, “Remember, I’m a bleeder!” I was laughing, but we’d talked about it seriously before, and she started getting the necessary medicine ready, but I bled faster. Just like last time, the moment I delivered, I started to hemorrhage. One bad thing about being more alert than last time, is that I was also much more aware of how much I was bleeding and how concerned everyone was. Even with all the medication they gave me, it still took a while to get everything under control, and I ended up losing about twice as much blood as a C section, double what I lost when I delivered E.
The (hopeful) End of an Era
Of course I know I could be jinxing myself by writing this, but I’m really, really hoping we’ve finally put an end to the false fire alarms in our house! They’ve been going off randomly pretty much since we moved in. Sometimes a humidifier will set them off, sometimes we don’t know why. Almost always in the middle of the night though. And while E used to sleep through them, he’s reached an age where he’ll wake up screaming.
I’m pretty sure they’ve given him a bit of PTSD too. Every night before bed he points at them and goes “Beep!” and waves bye-bye. Every morning he wakes up and points at them. And a few nights ago he woke up screaming and pointing at the one in his room. UGH.
Birth Story Part II - Active Labor
After I got my first dose of medicine, Tom and I settled in to wait. We ordered dinner, and watched Game night and Jumanji in our room. Around 4:30 I mentioned to Tom that my head was a little itchy, and that was weird. A little while later, it was REALLY itchy and I couldn’t stop itching. I must have been freaking him out a bit, because he said he was going to go find our nurse. By the time they returned, not only was I going crazy with an itchy scalp, but my hands had turned bright red and my palms were also super itchy.
Knowing that I was already allergic to one type of antibiotic, the nurse got worried and immediately stopped the vancomycin and called the doctor. Within a few minutes, my itchiness had gone away, and my hands were no longer red. After some brainstorming between the doctor and pharmacist, it was decided that I was having a transfusion reaction, and not a reaction to the actual antibiotic. Because my itching stopped so quickly, and the antibiotic was still in my system, it was decided I could safely finish my dose, just at a slower pace. Luckily after the dose was slowed, no more itching! And in better news, as long as I delivered by 5am the next morning, I wouldn’t need another dose of antibiotics.
He's Here!
Merry Christmas!
Final Days as an Only
Tom and I have always been certain that we didn’t want an only child, but unless you start with multiples, you always start a family with an only. It hasn’t been long, but for the past year and a half, E has been our only. And while we know that with his personality he’ll love having a built in playmate, there are a lot of changes coming from him.
So when it got to the point where we were pretty sure we were facing E’s last weekend as an only child, we felt like we should do something?
Holiday Cards
By now they’ve all been sent out, and if you’re on our list, you’ve probably received ours. (And if not, let me know!) Yes, they were early - although that’s not unusual for me. As with everything this year, though, it either needs to be early or not at all. Just be glad I waited until after Thanksgiving to mail them out, because trust me they were ready before that!
Where We Are
My mind is all over the place lately with lists of things to do, thoughts about the upcoming holiday and baby coming, things to do with E… I’m as frazzled as you’d think haha. So here is a random brain dump of what’s going on with us lately.
E had his 18 month check up the other day. Everything looked great, the doctor was super happy, and this little munchkin gained TWO inches in the past three months!! He gained a pound, which is right on track, but the doctor was super excited for his growth spurt! No wonder he can touch the ground on his little car now. I’ve updated this post with percentiles, etc.