Memorial Day Weekend May 30, 2007

Wow! What a weekend! Greg took Wed, Thurs and Friday off before the three day weekend so we could spend some time together and he could get a much needed vacation from work. Wed. we spent the day packing and preparing and Thursday we headed up to the cabin for Fiona’s first trip there outside of my belly. The vacation started out amazingly well when Fiona rode ALL THE WAY to the cabin awake and NOT CRYING in her car seat…..it was as if she knew the bliss that lied ahead! We got to the cabin Thursday afternoon and leisurely unpacked our things and settled in.

Greg went out for a bike ride to unwind and this was when it hit me…..you know the thing that your mom always used to say and you always ignored…..mothering is a full-time job. (period) It is…there is no way around it. We were on vacation…yes…true….but here I found myself alone, bouncing on a ball with a crying 3.5 month old…hmmmmm…this feels vaguely familiar….my surroundings had changed but what I was tasked with hadn’t. When did I get to go unwind? When could I just decide that I’d like to jump on my bike and leave? I have to admit I was beginning to feel a little irritated…..a little resentful…..and yes…a little sorry for myself. I can’t just sleep in, take it easy, relax. I know….this to shall pass…I’ll be able to do those things again some day….but this was not the way I had planned to start our vacation.

Friday Ellie, Chris and Jackson came up and visited for the day. We went for a lovely walk down the trail and watched baby t.v. for hours. Jackson and Fiona held hands for the first time (and bumped heads….etc. etc.) We decided to go kick the soccer ball around so we took the kids up in their car seats and sat them off to the side. I didn’t have very high hopes that this would last long but amazingly Fiona hung out batting at her toys with both hands for a good hour….not a peep! Here she learned another new trick….if she pushes down on her heels and arches her back she can make a little bridge…AND start to scooch out of her car seat. Ummmmm you are only 3.5 months old little girl! Isn’t it too soon to learn how to escape? And what would you do if you did escape? Roll over on your tummy and scream? Afterwards Chris and Ellie prepared a very delicious salmon dinner before they headed for home. This was the first time we had all hung out together and it went great. Ellie and I wanted Chris and Greg to meet and we were hoping they’d hit it off….but you never want to force those things and it can always be a little weird but everyone had a great time! I’m sure we will be spending plenty of time together in the future as our little darlings grow and learn and enjoy playing with one another more and more.

Saturday was Greg’s Dad’s 71st Birthday so his parents came up to the cabin along with the cousins from up North and the cousins from down South. It was a Par-T! We had a great time enjoying the sunshine and good company. More good food (the theme of the weekend!) and lot’s of folks to hold and stare at our little princess.

Susan, Goren, Olivia and Natalie (the cousins from P-town) stayed sat. night through monday for a little R&R themselves. It was great spending time with them and giving Fiona a chance to hang with her cousins. Natalie (5yrs.old) is in absolute LOVE with Fi and could barely keep her hands off of her. Here we got a taste of what a whole family could be like and I just can’t imagine doing it! Just about the time I would finally get Fiona to start to close her eyes the girls would start to fight or play or a parent would raise their voice. I never thought Fiona would go to sleep! Sunday was cold and rainy so Greg built a fire and we relaxed in the cabin in our p.j.’s for hours! It was really nice…and with the extra baby holders I got a chance to relax myself (though honestly….i can’t relax….i’m always poised and ready to jump into action once the crying starts…even when she’s with someone like Susan who is great with babies and really doesn’t mind the crying…i just can’t relax!…i know, bad mom, bad mom!). Monday we packed and cleaned but still got some sun time on the deck.

Fiona did really well all weekend for being in a foreign place. Naps were hard and she didn’t sleep much throughout the day but we still got solid sleep at night. (she is still sleeping with us….but she sleeps ALL night long with us…I mean she might “wake” a bit to eat a couple of times a night but she doesn’t even fully wake up and not a peep from her….I barely wake up and we both sleep for hours!!! why move a good thing?) Susan was impressed and surprised by this….and a bit relieved after seeing just exactly how hard and loud fiona can cry during the day! We plan on spending a lot of time at the cabin this summer so soon it will be a familiar place for F.

The weekend was really good…it gave us a chance to practice our going out skills and trying our routine somewhere else and with a lot of distractions. I think we did pretty well and Fiona was a trooper. G & I got a chance to talk about subjects from the 2nd paragraph and both left feeling pretty good about our situation and with a plan to give mom and little more freedom.

There were more tries at the bottle still with no success….we thought that the magic of the cabin might do it for her but she isn’t so easily swayed.

Our Girls May 30, 2007

Just cleaning out the closet the other day and ran into these….you can see that Zoe who is 2 now is willing to do anything to finally get some attention over that dang baby…Fiona isn’t down with it…..

Girls Gotta Roll May 30, 2007

Fiona has been spending the last week practicing her new skill…rolling onto her tummy. She’s a very hard worker and determined to perfect her skills to a T, so much so that she woke up several times throughout the night to make sure that she didn’t lose it….practice practice practice! It’s a love/hate relationship. She LOVES to roll over…in fact some days the instance you put her down she flips…but once she gets there she let’s out a scream of satisfaction mixed with frustration because she is now completely stuck. I will then roll her back to her back and she immediately flips back over and let’s out another scream. It’s good mother/daughter bonding =) It has been so much fun watching her develop this skill back from the time that rolling over was completely accidental to seeing the look on her face when she realized that she could control this event and make it happen herself. (this isn’t obviously a picture of her rolling over….I do have that on video but haven’t downloaded it yet…but isn’t this the cutest outfit? =)

Breastalyzer May 16, 2007

Hey look at this….. http://www.milkscreen.com/index.php …. I added it to my links too =) With this products I can check the alcohol level of my breast milk. INGENIOUS I tell you!!! Now someone out there was thinking =)

Kiddie Porn May 16, 2007

Auntie Theresa brought Fiona a nice little gift to Mother’s Day brunch….a little activity center that either goes on her crib or she can lay flat and play with….Fisher Price I believe is the brand. Like most toys these days it has several “noise” settings. It can be louder or quieter, play music continuously or just play music when Fiona moves certain pieces. But this one also has a setting where instead of music you get a woman’s voice talking to your child. The voice itself is fine, just fine, but what the voice says is a little disturbing.

She starts of giggling followed by a “hi baby” and then a “ooooooooh”….it goes on from there….she sounds exactly like she’s trying to seduce someone in a cheap porno flick not play with a child. My family…well really my brother =)….played it over and over again and I don’t think I’ve seen everyone laugh that hard in years.

Now I make my living sitting in teams of creatives, brainstorming with copy writers and concepting out every minute detail of the smallest product. I know there are no accidents when it comes to these things. Somewhere in Fisher Price head quarters is a team of overly caffinated people who are totally bored with what they do thinking they’ve pulled a fast one. And on some street corner is a well payed hooker whose voice will forever be a part of my daughter’s early education.

I’ll take a bottle…..of beer May 16, 2007

Happy Mother’s Day everyone! I had a wonderful day. Greg and Fiona took me out on Saturday and bought me a new outfit….one that doesn’t say maternity on it anywhere. Then we had dinner at his mom and dad’s house with Kevin…it was a really nice evening. Sunday morning Fiona woke up at 5 a.m. with a stuffy nose but once I sprayed breast milk in her nose…yes you read right….it cleared right up and she went back to sleep UNTIL 9:30!!!! that was her little gift to me! Then off we went to Enumclaw where my brother and sister-in-law throw a fantastic brunch every year for our family and val’s family. Valerie prepares tons of absolutely delicious food…and now that i’m no longer a vegetarian i finally get to partake in the wonderful breakfast dishes that I’ve been eyeing all those years!

I have to say it was a bit strange being one of the “mother’s”. I still don’t really identify myself as a mom yet…that seems like a title for someone older then me=)

We’ve finally realized that Fiona WILL take a bottle….it just has to be a bottle of beer. As we were sitting around the living room chatting at the end of the day Fiona reached over to Auntie Val and grabbed her beer bottle and right into her mouth it went. Proof once again that she is our child. How funny is that? We’ve been trying for months to get F to take a bottle….we just had the wrong drink in it all this time. So now I’m looking for a nipple that will fit a tall frosty one. There has to be a market for that …. right? ***oh hey…i finally figured out what size to make the photos so you can click on them to make them bigger….you can click on this one to see it better******

3 months with a light sprinkling of fairy dust May 11, 2007

Happy 3 month birthday Fiona!

Fiona is 13.15 lbs. and 24″-ish. Today F spent several hours at g3’s (grandpa & grandma golding) while mom had her hair cut and did some major grocery shopping. F didn’t totally take the bottle…but she played with it in her mouth for a while without crying and drank maybe a sip or two. She was in a fantastic mood and entertained her grandparents and their neighbor with all of her stories (she tells a real zinger) and amazed them with her ability to fit not just one but two fists in her mouth!

I’m not going to tell you that we saw fairy dust falling from the sky….but there has been a light sprinkling. Maybe 12 weeks was off…maybe it’s actually 3 months…you know depending on whose calendar you go by and where the moon is and the earth on its axis….anyway….things are changing….I picked F up from her grandparents and they told me she only cried a couple of times (not bad since she’s bottleless) I put her in her car seat….drove home….walked around looking at things….fed her…..bounced her off into a nap……cooked dinner…..dad watched basketball with her….changed her into her p.j.’s…..i fed her again and bounced her back off to nighty nighty…..ALL WITH NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO CRYING!!!!!!! I’m telling you there was like 3 whole hours of NO CRYING!!!!!!

I actually checked her temperature to make sure that she wasn’t sick. really i did….sad i know….but really i did.

Now I hear you nay sayers out there….you poo-poooers…..”it was a fluke” “it will be the last time for years” “she’s just saving her energy for later”…..but if i’ve learned anything in my short time in motherhood it’s that you measure success in hours, minutes, even seconds. That one-in-a-row counts and that close is not just for horseshoes and hand grenades.

I’ve been trying for days to get her cute little giggles and her chats on film but I think I’d have better luck catching a garden nome dancing…so you will have to due with still photos for now…I couldn’t pick her best pix so you get two….one with her signature gangsta-lean and one show casing her favorite thing…her fist.

Body Fluid Blues May 11, 2007

Today (well now it’s yesterday….time flies with a 3 month old!) with in a course of just three hours I was peed on, pood on, puked on, drooled on and pink medicine mouthed. (pink medicine mouth is caused by her antibiotics….they go in her mouth and pool there….I get her to swallow most of it but some comes out in the form of pink drool) I went through three shirts, two undershirts, one pair of pants and one pair of socks….fi went through 2 onesies, 2 pairs of pants, 1 blanket, and one shirt.

As I’m sure all parents find….i’m spending a lot of time in other people’s body fluids these days. I guess “other people’s” makes it sound a little creepy….mostly just Fi’s…but i mean we do have 3 cats and a dog….

Colds All Around May 6, 2007

Well…just to let you know when I woke up on Saturday (week 12) there was NO fairy dust drifting from the heavens. Hmmmm. In fact, the last few days poor little F has been quite the crank-pot.

It’s so hard to determine why she might be cranky…..I thought that by now I might have a clue….but no. no clue. I have such a huge list of things…is it just her personality? is it just a phase? does her zantac need to be upped? maybe she doesn’t need her zantac at all? does her antibiotics hurt her tummy? do the probiotics (thanks folks…got some of those and we’re trying it…more on that later) bug her? are there evil spirits that pinch her from beyond?

turns out the whole fam-damnly has a cold and I’m assuming that’s what it was bugging the little one. we’re all sneezing and sniffling and feel like poo. so we’re holding out….maybe little fi’s fuss-button did switch off but then the cold turned it back on? I do know one thing….having a cold with a fussy baby who has a cold is NOT fun….just another joy of motherhood =)

Bottles anyone? May 4, 2007

All right so I’m always talking about bottles….I thought you might like to see my crazy collection. NO … in all of these Fiona still won’t take one. We’re working towards the dreaded day where we will leave her for 10 or 11 hours and see if that does the trick. My pediatrician actually had me talk to a bottle specialist. Yes…there is a lady who specializes in getting babies to take the bottle….she told me that unfortunately there are some that just never ever will. sigh.

The thing that we are doing pretty well is sleep. I hope i’m not going to jinx it by blogging it…but sleep is good! Fiona has always been pretty good at night since the first couple weeks…she figured out her night and day pretty fast….she sleeps with us for now….but she really sleeps pretty much all night….i mean she wakes up to eat and i just side nurse her…so really neither of “wake up”…and that’s been going pretty good. My bigger concern was day time sleep….up until recently the only way she slept during the day was in the sling or if we held her….which meant we pretty much never put her down all day long….but just recently we’ve been putting her in her bassinet….and low and behold…she sleeps! She took a 30 minute nap in the morning in there….a 45 minute in the afternoon….and that at night we’ve been putting her in there before we go to bed and though she wakes up a few times she slept for about 2 WHOLE hours the other night. IT IS THE BEST THING!!!
The other day I even heard her in there talking to herself….she has woken up and instead of crying she layed in the bassinet and talked to herself and looked around for a half hour before she cried for me to come and get her.

see….there are good things too!!!