Tuesday, November 29, 2005

What's this "we" crap?

Last night was rough. Elle wanted to nurse all day long yesterday and it continued on into the night. At one point I actually nursed her for 2 hours. I'm not joking of exaggerating. I feel like I got no sleep at all but I'm actually probably sitting at around 2 and a half hours. At one point when she wanted to eat I put the covers over my head and said "I can't feed her anymore! I just can't!" Jesse responded with "Yes we can, we have to." My answer? "What's with this "we" stuff? I think I'm the one who's feeding her. Once you have liquid coming out of your nipples too then we'll start using "we"."

I can't blame him though, he was tired too. Joseph kept getting up and coming into our room. At one point I was nursing Elle (of course) and Joseph came in crying that he needed us. I woke Jesse up and asked him to take Joseph back to bed. Jesse sat up, hugged Joseph, said "Come here Elle, I'll put you over my shoulder" and started trying to burb him. It's funny now but at the time I was annoyed. Never wake Jesse up and ask him to do anything. It's hopeless.

One night Joseph came into our room crying for a glass of water and I couldn't help him because I was ...... take a wild guess what I was doing! Anyway, I woke Jesse up (that in itself took a good two minutes) and asked him to get Joseph some water. Jesse opened up a bottle of water that he had sitting by the bed, took a big drink and then laid back down. Oy vey. Meanwhile Joseph is standing by the bed crying so I had to wake Jesse back up (yes, he fell asleep that fast) to tell him that I didn't wake him up in the middle of the night so that he could have a drink of water. He didn't remember any of it. Sigh.

Monday, November 28, 2005

I never knew that

You know that song "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus"? Well, until this morning I thought it was about a little kid seeing his mom actually kissing the real Santa Claus. Then, this morning, I hear on the radio that it's really about a kid seeing his mom kissing his dad who's only dressed as Santa. Well what do you know? All these years I thought it was an odd little song about a boy watching his mom be unfaithful to his dad and it turns out that it's actually a peppy little tune about a kid watching his parent's do a little role playing.

Sunday, November 27, 2005

Nursing news

On Friday night we went out with Becky, Amanda, Mathew and a few of his friends. Mom and Dad watched the kids. It was so nice to get out of the house and not have to worry about the kids for a few hours. It's been nearly a year since I had anything at all to drink and I may have had a bit too much "fun". (Not as much "fun" as a certain male cousin of mine who I won't name though.......) Since I didn't want to get Elle drunk I gave her milk that I had pumped ealier for the rest of the night. Much to my suprise, the next morning I was actually missing nursing her. I was ready to have that special time with her again. She must have missed it too because when I tried to start nursing her she just kept giving me this huge smile.

Overall nursing continues to go better and better every day. One night she even slept for 4 hours without needing to eat. It was a happy day. She's not having any problems latching on now and I've noticed that most of the time she eats faster. She still has the occasional 1 hour feeding but most of the time now she's down to about 15 minutes.

She's in her swing right now. I swear, she's a total swing junkie. She likes to sit in her swing and watch Joseph run around. It's actually pretty cute. He flies around the room at 90 miles an minute and she sits in her swing and smiles and coos at him until she falls asleep. Joseph, on the other hand, does not fall asleep or stop going 90 miles a minute. Admittedly it's not as cute.

Wednesday, November 23, 2005

Good point .... or is it?

Gwen pointed out that Charmin wet wipes are a good thing because they help you get clean. As she put it "If you got poop on your hand you wouldn't wipe it with a dry tissue would you?" Good point. Or is it? The problem with that is that I don't do things like prepare food with my butt. I mean, not unless it's a special occasion.

Amazing

You have got to see this:
http://www.i-am-bored.com/bored_link.cfm?link_id=14019

Tuesday, November 22, 2005

Who?

Who the hell is Freshy Freshington? Why does everyone seem to know but me?

You know what commercial I hate? The Charmin ones with the bears in the woods. They are not cute, they are gross. The one I hate the most is for the Charmin wet wipes. The announcer says "Tried everything to get clean? Try new Charmin Wipes!"

"Everything"? If you're trying "everything" to get clean after you use the bathroom and it's still not working then there is something wrong. You need to see a doctor.

Saturday, November 19, 2005

See Jenny. See Jenny's family

Elle is very fussy right now. She's only happy if she's in her swing. She needs to swing for the next few hours. Swing Elle, swing!

Joseph is very grumpy right now. He ate too much popcorn when I took him to see Chicken Little and he just threw up. He also has a headache. He needs to go to bed. Sleep Joseph, sleep!

Jesse is very crabby right now. His stomach is bothering him. He thinks it might be from leftover chinese food gone bad. He needs to stop passing gas around me. Stop Jesse, stop!

Friday, November 18, 2005

Big and little gains

Joseph has learned a new skill. Today he was using the computer and Elle was in her swing and all was right with the world so I thought I would run upstairs and go to the bathroom. No sooner do I sit down than the phone rings. I figured I would let the answering machine get it but I heard Joseph pick up the phone and say hello. He then informed the caller that I couldn't come to the phone because I was "going potty". The good news is that it was Jesse's aunt Pam and not someone who would think it was weird that I would let my 5 year old answer the phone and talk about my bathroom business. The better news is that Joseph has learned how to answer the phone. He's so smart.

Elle is continuing to gain weight like a champ. Today she weighed in at 11 pounds, 9 ounces. I can't believe how big she's getting! The good news is she's growing like a weed and the better news is that nursing has been going really well lately. Most of the time she latches right on without any problem. Sometimes she'll nurse for half an hour of more but most of the time it's just 15 minutes or so. It seems like she's getting on a schedule of nursing every 3 hours or so. She's so smart too.

Monday, November 14, 2005

It's a swing thing

Thank goodness for the baby swing. Elle's snoozing in it right now and it's the first real nap she's taken all day. If I turn the swing off or make too mucn noise or walk by her or breath wrong she wakes up and screams at me. This is not one of her better days. She was in a good mood this morning (see my last post) but all afternoon and evening she's been crabby. Poor kid. It's hard work being a baby.

On another, totally unrelated to anything note, aren't the Weavers on The Amazing Race horrid people? How can you throw trash at someone who moments earlier tried to comfort you and then cry over how hard it is to be you because you're the only people in the race who are really good people? They all suck. Then they have the nerve to mock someone for being a garbage man. Uh, your dad worked at a race car track. Not exactly high society stuff there. Boy, they really rub me the wrong way.

The kids

On Saturday we went to the mall and Joseph got something that every 5 year old boy dreams about - a scented candle. I had told him that when he was a baby I would take him into Yankee Candle Company and he liked to sniff the candles. He thought that was so funny that he decided to re-enact it when we went into YCC on Saturday. He found a candle that smelled like cookies and he just had to have it. After it was paid for the cashier gave him his own little bag and he carried the candle around the mall, taking it out and sniffing it every few minutes. He's made me promise not to burn it because it's his candle and his alone. He asked me if he could burn it in his room if he promised not to burn the house down. I think I might have to pass on that one.

This morning I was nursing Elle and she was wide awake and looking at me the whole time. I guess she was in a good mood or something because she kept letting go of me to give me these big crazy grins. Then she would realize she wasn't eating anymore and would start to fuss. After I got her latched on again she would look at me and then break away to smile again. She kept doing it over and over again and it was making me laugh so hard. Funny baby.

Thursday, November 10, 2005

My little piggy

A few hours ago I was ready to throw in the towel on nursing. It's often frustrating for me (and sometimes Elle too). Today was rough because Elle has been refusing to latch on for more than a few sucks at a time. She's been doing that since about midnight last night and then all day today. She acts hungry but she just won't nurse and I was getting more and more frustrated. Not with her of course, just with the whole thing. I was worrying that she wasn't getting enough to eat.

So this afternoon I went to see a nurse practitioner/lactation consultant and had her give me some advice. She said this is something that babies do sometimes. She suggested that I try feeding her in the bathtub of all places. How weird is that? She said overall Elle looks very good and is clearly getting enough to eat since she now weighs in at 10 pounds 14 ounces. Heh. I guess she is getting enough to eat after all.

So I'll stick with nursing. I really don't want to stop, I just want it to go easier. I think a lot of my problems with it come from second guessing myself. Maybe I just need to give it more time so that it all seems more natural. We must be doing something right though since she's gained so much weight. What a little piggy.

Tuesday, November 08, 2005

Joseph is weird

Joseph and I went to Monday Night Class last week. When we were leaving he said that he liked all of the kids in the class and that they were all his friends. Then he said "The most one I like is Isabella ...... I think I just fell in love!". Later he was talking about her more and he said "I think I have a girlfriend now!". He is a strange little boy.

Monday, November 07, 2005

I love my kids

Today I was sitting on the couch with Elle on my lap and Joseph siting next to me. Joseph and I were talking to Elle and she was so cute! One of us would talk and she would swing her head around to look at us and get this HUGE grin on her face. Then the other one would talk and she would swing her head back the other way and grin again. She kept making this little giggling sounds and happy little grunts. It was so cute! Joseph really got a kick out of it too. He kept laughing and saying "Look at her look at me! She loves having a big brother!" It was all very sweet and the 3 of us just sat there and laughed together for about half an hour. I love stuff like that.

Friday, November 04, 2005

Wahhhhh!

Anyone want 2 kids? They're free to a good home! The little one is going through a pattern of nursing for an hour and then crying for the next two. Then she falls asleep for 5 minutes and wakes up to start the whole thing over again. The big one won't stop singing the Scooby Doo song at the top of his lungs and currently has every toy he owns spread across the house. It's good times at our house.

Wednesday, November 02, 2005

Baby's first bath

Elle had her first real bath last night. Even though her cord came off a while ago I've still been doing sponge baths. Last night I decided to go for the real thing so I filled the tub up and got in with her. It's how I used to bathe Joseph so it's what I'm the most comfortable with. Elle loved it! I gently supported her head and shoulders and kind of let her float around for a while. She had this happy, awed look on her face the whole time. She never fussed at all, even when I washed her hair. It was so much fun, I could have kept her in there for hours but the water started to get cold and her little legs started shaking so we had to be done. I handed her off to Jesse and turned on the shower so that I could wash my hair quick. Of course that was Elle's cue to start screaming to be fed. She pretty much kept that up all night and I was up at least once an hour to nurse her. She's such a monster.

Joseph is doing good. His cold seems to be getting better. The other day he was eating lunch and out of the blue he said that he made up a joke that he wanted to tell me. Here it is: What is a witch's favorite drink? Apple spider (instead of apple cider). Isn't that clever? He's such a smart little boy.