D: "Do you still fart when you're dead?"
W: "Ask your dad; he's the one that went to medical school."
How does she come up with these questions?
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Life, improving
It really is getting better. There are still moments, but they are fewer and further between. Yesterday was our first day all alone and it went beautifully. We went to gymnastics, came home & had a quick lunch, then back out again for a pediatrician's appt. We made to everything more or less on time. We got home absolutely exhausted, but we made it! I even got to doze on the couch a little while Dillon played in the living room. She'd wake me up occasionally to ask questions, but mostly she let me rest.
The good news from the pedi appt- no more thrush! Yeah!!! I felt like it was the case, but wanted another set of eyes to confirm this. I'm so relieved. She now weighs 8 lbs 15 oz, which is an almost 30% increase in her birth weight. She's turning into such a wonderful little chub! Of course we'd all gain weight like this if we drank the equivilent of several ounces of cream every 2 hours or so around the clock! :) She is starting to smile a little, too, which we all love, but particularly Dillon.
I feel like I can breathe out a little. It's going to be OK.
Friday, February 23, 2007
Love is...
I'm finally making a post for Love Thursday which I've read about and intended to participate for a while, but never managed to follow through. Of course, newly having 2 children does not make it likely that I'll be all that consistent about follow through in the future, but never mind that.
So here's mine- keeping in mind I still have all those postpartum hormones surging around :)
So here's mine- keeping in mind I still have all those postpartum hormones surging around :)
Love is reading to your baby sister after initially wishing your parents had left her at the hospital.
Love is also all the people that brought us the wonderful meals that have carried us through these first few weeks with a new baby. It's the people that gave us gifts, both of the previously loved variety (that you again for the diapers Karen!) and the new variety- and for those that remembered to include Dillon in the gift-giving. It's also those that have checked on us, and especially one of Dave's anesthesia classmates who called after working for 12 hours to make sure I was doing OK because Dave was on-call and she thought I was home alone with both kids. It's for the understanding of other mothers with whom I've been able to share the heartache of Dillon's adjustment, and especially for our own mothers who came to stay with us and took fantastic care of us.
So, happy Love Thursday! It made me smile to post this and I'll do my best to keep it up.
A belated Happy Birthday post
Dillon turned 4 on February 15th. I've done a birthday post each year since I started the blog so I can remember what she was like at each point. It's fun to look back at how much she's changed each year.
I'm sure it's a product of having a newborn in the house, but she is so BIG to me now. She can do so many things on her own -not that she always wants to do them, especially during this time of adjustment. It never ceases to amaze me the things that she will all of the sudden just do when it never occured to me to even see if she could.
So what's she like? She talks incessantly! She's incredibly smart and can understand more things than I give her credit for sometimes- which will sometimes get me in trouble! She's very social and has started saying hi to random people in public. If they respond to her, she goes on to tell them some random factoid about our life (like that I broke my tailbone the last time we went sledding at the Dartmouth Outing Club). She doesn't always have the filter to know what's appropriate to tell people, so I worry about this sometimes. I never know when she's going to share a little much of her knowledge about how babies are born! Fine motor skills have taken off recently- she can button and unbotton even the tiniest of buttons and can tie a string in a knot. She seems to have passed the recent stage of using her own neck as a convenient place to practice this skill. She's squirmy, squirmy, squirmy. I sometimes just watch her move and marvel at how a human being can move that much. The answer to the question "Can you please be still for just a minute?!" is unequivically "No." And she really can't. I can't imagine this child in school, having to sit for long periods of time. She's very loving, in spite of the recent transition troubles. She loves to give hugs and kisses, and not just to Corryn. We hear "I love you, I like you" several times a day. And she smiles a lot :)
So what she like and not like?
Likes- Still loves her dinosaurs, is still fascinated with blood (and loved that she got to see Corryn before she had her first bath!), asking questions, Corryn, Peaches (most of the time anyway), eating snow- both plain and in snow ice cream form, her friends, reading books, horses, trains, construction machinery, dragons, crawling on Dave, having Nana visit, having Mimi visit, chocolate
Dislikes- getting into the bathtub- she loves the bath once she's there, it's just the getting into part for whatever reason, me going anywhere without her, having to be still for anything, having her hair brushed, having to wait to ask a question ("You shouldn't do that," she says "it makes me forget my questions.")
Could take it or leave it- eating- I think she'd be happy to take a pill to fill her up and not have to think about eating. The rest of life is just so much more interesting to her. Drawing, coloring, painting, though she will occasionally ask to do so.
It still doesn't seem to fully describe her, but I'm not sure that's possible anyway. I can't belive she's 4. I've enjoyed watching her grow and develop so much. It'll be interesting to see where she is next year as being a sibling takes on a role in her life.
I'm sure it's a product of having a newborn in the house, but she is so BIG to me now. She can do so many things on her own -not that she always wants to do them, especially during this time of adjustment. It never ceases to amaze me the things that she will all of the sudden just do when it never occured to me to even see if she could.
So what's she like? She talks incessantly! She's incredibly smart and can understand more things than I give her credit for sometimes- which will sometimes get me in trouble! She's very social and has started saying hi to random people in public. If they respond to her, she goes on to tell them some random factoid about our life (like that I broke my tailbone the last time we went sledding at the Dartmouth Outing Club). She doesn't always have the filter to know what's appropriate to tell people, so I worry about this sometimes. I never know when she's going to share a little much of her knowledge about how babies are born! Fine motor skills have taken off recently- she can button and unbotton even the tiniest of buttons and can tie a string in a knot. She seems to have passed the recent stage of using her own neck as a convenient place to practice this skill. She's squirmy, squirmy, squirmy. I sometimes just watch her move and marvel at how a human being can move that much. The answer to the question "Can you please be still for just a minute?!" is unequivically "No." And she really can't. I can't imagine this child in school, having to sit for long periods of time. She's very loving, in spite of the recent transition troubles. She loves to give hugs and kisses, and not just to Corryn. We hear "I love you, I like you" several times a day. And she smiles a lot :)
So what she like and not like?
Likes- Still loves her dinosaurs, is still fascinated with blood (and loved that she got to see Corryn before she had her first bath!), asking questions, Corryn, Peaches (most of the time anyway), eating snow- both plain and in snow ice cream form, her friends, reading books, horses, trains, construction machinery, dragons, crawling on Dave, having Nana visit, having Mimi visit, chocolate
Dislikes- getting into the bathtub- she loves the bath once she's there, it's just the getting into part for whatever reason, me going anywhere without her, having to be still for anything, having her hair brushed, having to wait to ask a question ("You shouldn't do that," she says "it makes me forget my questions.")
Could take it or leave it- eating- I think she'd be happy to take a pill to fill her up and not have to think about eating. The rest of life is just so much more interesting to her. Drawing, coloring, painting, though she will occasionally ask to do so.
It still doesn't seem to fully describe her, but I'm not sure that's possible anyway. I can't belive she's 4. I've enjoyed watching her grow and develop so much. It'll be interesting to see where she is next year as being a sibling takes on a role in her life.
Monday, February 19, 2007
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
For my mother-in-law
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN GRAY HAS ISSUED A BLIZZARD WARNING...WHICH IS IN EFFECT UNTIL 5 AM EST THURSDAY. THE WINTER STORM WARNING HAS BEEN CANCELLED.
SNOWFALL TOTALS WILL RANGE FROM 8 TO 12 INCHES ALONG THE COAST AND 16 TO 24 INCHES IN THE MOUNTAINS AND FOOTHILLS TODAY THROUGH LATE TONIGHT. SLEET AND FREEZING RAIN MAY MIX WITH THE SNOW AT TIMES NEAR THE COAST. A THUNDERSTORM IS ALSO POSSIBLE.
She's supposed to be flying in from Houston today.
Welcome to your first visit to New England!
SNOWFALL TOTALS WILL RANGE FROM 8 TO 12 INCHES ALONG THE COAST AND 16 TO 24 INCHES IN THE MOUNTAINS AND FOOTHILLS TODAY THROUGH LATE TONIGHT. SLEET AND FREEZING RAIN MAY MIX WITH THE SNOW AT TIMES NEAR THE COAST. A THUNDERSTORM IS ALSO POSSIBLE.
She's supposed to be flying in from Houston today.
Welcome to your first visit to New England!
Sunday, February 11, 2007
Life, unsettled
For those people who's children adjusted to a new sibling within a week, consider yourselves incredibly lucky. For those that told me it took their own child a solid couple of month, I thank you. It would've made this much harder to expect it to be all better in a week, then still be facing the wrath of a jealous older child.
She labeled it as jealous last night. Actually, I did, but she agreed wholeheartedly because she recognized it from a movie she's been watching in which one of the characters is jealous of a newcomer.
Most of the time, she's OK. Then there are moments that are undeniably not. It's hard to know how to handle them- she wants me to move over 3 inches on the couch just as soon as I get nested in to nurse Corryn (still no easy task I might add), then spends the next 15 minutes or so in a sobbing mess because I won't move. Sometimes suggesting to read a book- or even pre-emptively asking if she needs food, to pee, something out of reach, the stars re-aligned in the universe, etc. helps, but not always. Sometimes it's just simply not acceptable to her that I'm occupied.
Breathe is, breathe out is what I tell myself in these moments when it seems to her that we've ruined her life by having another child. I know we haven't and a large number of us survive having siblings- and even come to like it. It's really hard in the moment though when you are fighting feelings of frustration toward them for behaviors you've never seen from them and feeling guilty at the same time for being the cause of their angst.
Breathe in, breathe out and take care of this very moment. As exhausted as they are making me right now, I love these children more than anything in the world. That's what I keep running through my head. At risk of wishing life away, I also dream a little of the day when things really are easier as I know they will be.
She labeled it as jealous last night. Actually, I did, but she agreed wholeheartedly because she recognized it from a movie she's been watching in which one of the characters is jealous of a newcomer.
Most of the time, she's OK. Then there are moments that are undeniably not. It's hard to know how to handle them- she wants me to move over 3 inches on the couch just as soon as I get nested in to nurse Corryn (still no easy task I might add), then spends the next 15 minutes or so in a sobbing mess because I won't move. Sometimes suggesting to read a book- or even pre-emptively asking if she needs food, to pee, something out of reach, the stars re-aligned in the universe, etc. helps, but not always. Sometimes it's just simply not acceptable to her that I'm occupied.
Breathe is, breathe out is what I tell myself in these moments when it seems to her that we've ruined her life by having another child. I know we haven't and a large number of us survive having siblings- and even come to like it. It's really hard in the moment though when you are fighting feelings of frustration toward them for behaviors you've never seen from them and feeling guilty at the same time for being the cause of their angst.
Breathe in, breathe out and take care of this very moment. As exhausted as they are making me right now, I love these children more than anything in the world. That's what I keep running through my head. At risk of wishing life away, I also dream a little of the day when things really are easier as I know they will be.
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
Yeast
Am I to be plagued by this awful stuff forever? What is it about me that yeast likes so much? It's not like I sit home and eat sugar all day to feed it!
So, yes, Corryn has thrush. We both have to be treated lest we simply pass it back and forth continually like Dillon & I did because we chose the most idiotic group of peditricians when she was born in Michigan. Not that I'm still bitter about that or anything.
I'm trying to be hopeful that this won't turn into the painful, sterilize everthing, 10 weeks of Diflucan ordeal it was the first time around. It seems to be better with only a few treatments, so that makes it easier to be hopeful.
We're planning on going to the Montshire today. Dillon is absolutely stir crazy but won't go anywhere in which I'm not present, so we're all going together. We won't even talk about the drama that ensued with me going to my 2 week postpartum visit with the midwife on Monday. She has this huge fear of me leaving her that I'm not sure how to address, especially when there is something I really need- or even just want- to do without her. Probably Karen's mantra of "This too shall pass" fits well, it's just a matter of making it in the meantime.
So, yes, Corryn has thrush. We both have to be treated lest we simply pass it back and forth continually like Dillon & I did because we chose the most idiotic group of peditricians when she was born in Michigan. Not that I'm still bitter about that or anything.
I'm trying to be hopeful that this won't turn into the painful, sterilize everthing, 10 weeks of Diflucan ordeal it was the first time around. It seems to be better with only a few treatments, so that makes it easier to be hopeful.
We're planning on going to the Montshire today. Dillon is absolutely stir crazy but won't go anywhere in which I'm not present, so we're all going together. We won't even talk about the drama that ensued with me going to my 2 week postpartum visit with the midwife on Monday. She has this huge fear of me leaving her that I'm not sure how to address, especially when there is something I really need- or even just want- to do without her. Probably Karen's mantra of "This too shall pass" fits well, it's just a matter of making it in the meantime.
Monday, February 05, 2007
16 days
Typing one handed, so it'll probably be short. Trying to remeber how to do things one-handed again :)
We're adjusting slowly. I've taken all the advice about taking things slowly & I think it is making a difference. I feel better physically. Mentally is still a challenge at times, but I think it's just normal "baby blues" kind of stuff. I'm trying to at least get some rest time in each day if not a real nap. I am so thankful for having had my mom here for 2 weeks and now Dave home for 2 weeks. We've had a couple of people bring food by which has been really great, too, along with some others who have told us they'd like to.
Dillon is doing pretty well overall. She's been mostly happy with some really not-fun moments for the first week and a half, then she developed a horrendous cold making those not- fun moments into fully awful moments. Yesterday was day 5 of the cold and she seems to have turned the corner so to speak and was feeling a little better. Now it's just praying that Corryn doesn't catch it. Given the number of times Dillon coughed directly on her, I'll be truly surprised if she doesn't. She's pretty enthralled with Corryn and just wants to be touching her.
We're going to the pediatrician's this morning since we're pretty sure that Corryn has thrush. Given the horrible, horrible yeast problem Dillon & I battled for the first 3 1/2 months of her life, I'm feeling worried about this. Probably inordinately so, given my lack of sleep and general mental state right now, but I'm not taking any chances. I also see the midwife for a 2 week visit today & am planning on touching base with the Lactation Consultant as well. I just can't have a repeat of my yeast experince with Dillon.
We have 2 1/2 hours until the pedi appt. I better start getting ready now or else we'll never make it in time!
We're adjusting slowly. I've taken all the advice about taking things slowly & I think it is making a difference. I feel better physically. Mentally is still a challenge at times, but I think it's just normal "baby blues" kind of stuff. I'm trying to at least get some rest time in each day if not a real nap. I am so thankful for having had my mom here for 2 weeks and now Dave home for 2 weeks. We've had a couple of people bring food by which has been really great, too, along with some others who have told us they'd like to.
Dillon is doing pretty well overall. She's been mostly happy with some really not-fun moments for the first week and a half, then she developed a horrendous cold making those not- fun moments into fully awful moments. Yesterday was day 5 of the cold and she seems to have turned the corner so to speak and was feeling a little better. Now it's just praying that Corryn doesn't catch it. Given the number of times Dillon coughed directly on her, I'll be truly surprised if she doesn't. She's pretty enthralled with Corryn and just wants to be touching her.
We're going to the pediatrician's this morning since we're pretty sure that Corryn has thrush. Given the horrible, horrible yeast problem Dillon & I battled for the first 3 1/2 months of her life, I'm feeling worried about this. Probably inordinately so, given my lack of sleep and general mental state right now, but I'm not taking any chances. I also see the midwife for a 2 week visit today & am planning on touching base with the Lactation Consultant as well. I just can't have a repeat of my yeast experince with Dillon.
We have 2 1/2 hours until the pedi appt. I better start getting ready now or else we'll never make it in time!
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