Dear Cricket,
You are growing and growing! You are almost 3 months old and you are getting so big! At 2 months old you were 23 inches, or 1'11" tall.
You aren't sleeping through the night yet, but you do have some regular patterns that are showing. You have been going to sleep around 10pm and waking up around 1:30am. I make sure to "double diaper" you when you eat around 9:30 so that you've got an extra cloth diaper layer. When you wake up around 1:30am, I feed you and unless you poop, don't do a diaper change at this time. You sleep again until about 4am and I feed you again. I again won't change your diaper unless you poop. You then sleep some more and get up again around 6:30am. There is more eating and you usually do get a diaper change about 7am. There usually is one diaper change that happens between 10pm and 7am because you haven't yet stopped pooping in the night.
Our middle of the night times are getting shorter. Your first month you were getting up every 1.5 to 2 hours and be up for 30 to 60 minutes at a time. These days you eat for 8-15 minutes and if there isn't a diaper change, that is all. You frequently sleep-feed and don't fully wake up at these feeding times.
When you get up at 7am you are usually wide awake and full of smiles. You seem so excited to be awake and alive and ready to greet the new day. You giggle, you kick your legs in the air and swing your arms…all while laying on your back in your crib. After eating and a diaper change, you are ready to play! We have a floor gym for you, it is a mat with two crossed arches that have toys that dangle down. You love batting at the elephant that jingles and at the giraffe that rattles. You've started grabbing, though most attempts aren't successful. You're still figuring out the timing of opening and closing your fist and you move your hand toward the object you want to touch. We also do some "tummy time" and put you on your belly on the mat. You practice lifting your head and scooting around by pushing with your legs. You usually tolerate tummy time for about 5 minutes before you get very frustrated. Tummy time gets you hungry and there's frequently a little snack after playtime.
Oftentimes you'll hang out in your crib watching your mobile and listening to the classical music it plays while Mommy eats some breakfast and has her coffee. You will then come hang out in the bouncy chair in the bathroom while I take a shower and you usually fall asleep. I keep the fan off so that the room gets nice and steamy and helps you with your stuffy noses. You frequently take a little nap around 9am and sleep intermittently for an hour or two before you're ready to eat again. During the daytime every feeding is followed by a diaper change. There's sometimes a little late-morning playing if you get wide awake and seem a little bored with the activity center that attaches to the side of the crib. We have another feeding around noon.
If we didn't take a walk in the late morning, we'll go in the afternoon. We walk around the neighborhood and get the mail from the post office and also from the mailbox at the entrance to the neighborhood. We will sometimes also go into the market and poke around and pick up some treat to bring home to Daddy. There is usually another nap in the afternoon and another feeding around 3 and again about 6pm. If I'm cooking dinner, I get started around 3 or 4 since there will be many pauses to check on how you are doing, especially if you're awake and hanging out in your crib.
You tend to be pretty mellow as the evening progresses and spend more time in the crib than on the play gym. You'll eat again around 8 or 8:30 and snack again around 9 or 9:30 before starting the whole process over again.
We have one more week together where I'm home and not at work. I go back to work and then Daddy will be watching you in the daytime. I'm still uncertain of how I'll arrange my work schedule, and I'm not sure if you'll come with me occasionally for a few hours. Since you're still taking naps in the morning, it seems like a fine time to have you at the office for a little while, but we'll see. It is hard for me to concentrate on much of anything else when you're around. I love to look at you when you're asleep and to play and sing when you're awake. The last 3 months with you have been such a wonderful time, and I feel very lucky to have gotten to be home with you for so long before having to go back to work. I hope that when you are older you will understand why Mommy needed to go to work and be gone for so much of the day.
I think there are many more adventures for us ahead and I am so happy that there are evenings and weekends and perhaps some more time for us again soon.
You are sleeping now, so I may take a nap, too.
Love,
Your Mommy
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Monday, May 17, 2010
Introducing Cricket
Oh my. Blogging. After all this time. Funny to look at the last post and see it was a summary of the year. So much has happened. Not long after that post I started feeling funny, strange, different. I eventually figured out that I was pregnant. And now, I'm a mom.
Cricket was born on March 4. She's amazing and perfect and wonderful and beautiful and smart and talented and the most incredible gift.
Part 1:
--
Dear Cricket,
I never knew how much I could love, how big my heart could hold. I loved you while you grew inside me. I loved being pregnant with you--loved knowing I was feeding you and taking care of you and keeping you safe. I loved to feel you bouncing around, headbutting and punching my abdomen and sticking your butt out just below my sternum. You were head-down for most of the pregnancy, I think. I identified your butt below my sternum and loved feeling your roundness and your limbs and imagined what you might be like when you were on the outside.
I was certain that you'd arrive well after your March 14 due date. I was more than certain, I was *planning* on it.
March 3 was a day like any other. I went to work. I had a meeting with my Chair and my maternity replacement-in-training from 4 to 5 that went a few minutes long. My Chair's husband came by toward the end of the meeting and asked how I was doing and I said (honestly) that I was feeling really good and that your arrival was clearly not coming soon. I left work and went to my prenatal yoga class. In class each week the instructor asked us how many weeks we were. I had started the class when I was 30 weeks and I signed up for the second 5-week session at 35 weeks. The other women who were as far as I was had not signed up for the 2nd session. On March 3 when I said "38 weeks" the others in the class all cheered. At the end of class, the teacher said she thought that maybe you had dropped. I didn't think so...I didn't feel different. But on the drive home, I felt a little...off. A little crampy or sore. Maybe I pushed too hard in class? Maybe?
I came home and Aaron had made dinner, an experiment in Matter Paneer. His first time making cheese. His first cheese for me and for us. During dinner I was feeling crampy, but in waves or pulses. I let Aaron know and decided to pack up the hospital bag just in case, but was pretty sure it was just too early.The cramps were continuing during the evening, but were so mild and inconsistent. Somewhere around 10pm I had the beginning of "bloody show" and was then convinced that I was in labor. Starting around 11pm when I tried to go to bed, the contractions were no longer vague, but distinct and 15-20 minutes apart. They didn't hurt, but were uncomfortable enough that I wasn't able to sleep through them so I got little mini naps between contractions for a few hours. They got closer together and around 4 or 4:30am I started trying to track them. Around 6am I was certain that they had been 5 minutes apart for at least an hour and so I called my doctor. He advised that since I was trying to have as natural a birth as possible to stay home until the contractions were 2 minutes apart. Aaron woke up around 7am and I let him know what was going on. Around 8 or 8:30am we called the doctor's office to find out if we should go to the office or to the Birth Place at the hospital. They told us to come to the office and I was checked by one of the nurse midwives in the office and was 2-3cm dilated. From there we walked to the other side of the hospital and went to triage at the Birth Place.
We were in triage for a while, but when I was checked, I was 3-4cm dilated and contractions were steady at 2 minutes apart. I got checked into a room and spent the next many hours on my feet, hips swaying or laying in the jacuzzi tub in the room. I was avoiding sitting or laying in the bed as much as possible. I had invited a few of my friends to come and be with me: Fern, Dolly & Adam, John, Jess. In the evening your Aunt Alexis, Uncle Vincent, and cousins Toni & Mia arrived. Alexis stayed in the room and Vince stayed with the girls in the waiting room. Late in the afternoon/evening I was getting tired...I hadn't eaten much, I hadn't slept much, and my contractions were slowing down. After being offered/encouraged a few times to consider having the doctor come to break my water I finally decided to say yes since I knew there would be hours ahead. I also agreed to have IV fluids. The doctor came at about 6:30pm and after my water broke, I spent the next several hours in bed--standing at the squat bar pushing. Looking back at the records from the hospital, I only spent about an hour at the end laying down while pushing. Labor was uncomfortable, there was a lot of pressure in my body and that surprised me. I "vocalized" but I didn't scream--there wasn't crazy pain to scream about. Aaron was amazing...any time I started to feel lost, like I couldn't keep going, like I was too tired, I was able to look in his eyes and focus and keep pushing. I wanted to see you, Cricket. I wanted you and Aaron and I to be together at last after all the months. And finally, at 10:58pm, more than 24 hours after labor started, you were born. 7 pounds, 2 ounces and 20" long. You were tiny. And I loved you so much.
My pregnancy with you was so much easier than I could have ever hoped. My labor and delivery was what I wanted for me and for you--a beautiful, positive experience. It was the kind of hard work that for most of it, doesn't feel like work. The exhaustion and pain I felt during the first few weeks of recovery let me know how much work I did to birth you. You were worth the effort.
--
Cricket was born on March 4. She's amazing and perfect and wonderful and beautiful and smart and talented and the most incredible gift.
Part 1:
--
Dear Cricket,
I never knew how much I could love, how big my heart could hold. I loved you while you grew inside me. I loved being pregnant with you--loved knowing I was feeding you and taking care of you and keeping you safe. I loved to feel you bouncing around, headbutting and punching my abdomen and sticking your butt out just below my sternum. You were head-down for most of the pregnancy, I think. I identified your butt below my sternum and loved feeling your roundness and your limbs and imagined what you might be like when you were on the outside.
I was certain that you'd arrive well after your March 14 due date. I was more than certain, I was *planning* on it.
March 3 was a day like any other. I went to work. I had a meeting with my Chair and my maternity replacement-in-training from 4 to 5 that went a few minutes long. My Chair's husband came by toward the end of the meeting and asked how I was doing and I said (honestly) that I was feeling really good and that your arrival was clearly not coming soon. I left work and went to my prenatal yoga class. In class each week the instructor asked us how many weeks we were. I had started the class when I was 30 weeks and I signed up for the second 5-week session at 35 weeks. The other women who were as far as I was had not signed up for the 2nd session. On March 3 when I said "38 weeks" the others in the class all cheered. At the end of class, the teacher said she thought that maybe you had dropped. I didn't think so...I didn't feel different. But on the drive home, I felt a little...off. A little crampy or sore. Maybe I pushed too hard in class? Maybe?
I came home and Aaron had made dinner, an experiment in Matter Paneer. His first time making cheese. His first cheese for me and for us. During dinner I was feeling crampy, but in waves or pulses. I let Aaron know and decided to pack up the hospital bag just in case, but was pretty sure it was just too early.The cramps were continuing during the evening, but were so mild and inconsistent. Somewhere around 10pm I had the beginning of "bloody show" and was then convinced that I was in labor. Starting around 11pm when I tried to go to bed, the contractions were no longer vague, but distinct and 15-20 minutes apart. They didn't hurt, but were uncomfortable enough that I wasn't able to sleep through them so I got little mini naps between contractions for a few hours. They got closer together and around 4 or 4:30am I started trying to track them. Around 6am I was certain that they had been 5 minutes apart for at least an hour and so I called my doctor. He advised that since I was trying to have as natural a birth as possible to stay home until the contractions were 2 minutes apart. Aaron woke up around 7am and I let him know what was going on. Around 8 or 8:30am we called the doctor's office to find out if we should go to the office or to the Birth Place at the hospital. They told us to come to the office and I was checked by one of the nurse midwives in the office and was 2-3cm dilated. From there we walked to the other side of the hospital and went to triage at the Birth Place.
We were in triage for a while, but when I was checked, I was 3-4cm dilated and contractions were steady at 2 minutes apart. I got checked into a room and spent the next many hours on my feet, hips swaying or laying in the jacuzzi tub in the room. I was avoiding sitting or laying in the bed as much as possible. I had invited a few of my friends to come and be with me: Fern, Dolly & Adam, John, Jess. In the evening your Aunt Alexis, Uncle Vincent, and cousins Toni & Mia arrived. Alexis stayed in the room and Vince stayed with the girls in the waiting room. Late in the afternoon/evening I was getting tired...I hadn't eaten much, I hadn't slept much, and my contractions were slowing down. After being offered/encouraged a few times to consider having the doctor come to break my water I finally decided to say yes since I knew there would be hours ahead. I also agreed to have IV fluids. The doctor came at about 6:30pm and after my water broke, I spent the next several hours in bed--standing at the squat bar pushing. Looking back at the records from the hospital, I only spent about an hour at the end laying down while pushing. Labor was uncomfortable, there was a lot of pressure in my body and that surprised me. I "vocalized" but I didn't scream--there wasn't crazy pain to scream about. Aaron was amazing...any time I started to feel lost, like I couldn't keep going, like I was too tired, I was able to look in his eyes and focus and keep pushing. I wanted to see you, Cricket. I wanted you and Aaron and I to be together at last after all the months. And finally, at 10:58pm, more than 24 hours after labor started, you were born. 7 pounds, 2 ounces and 20" long. You were tiny. And I loved you so much.
My pregnancy with you was so much easier than I could have ever hoped. My labor and delivery was what I wanted for me and for you--a beautiful, positive experience. It was the kind of hard work that for most of it, doesn't feel like work. The exhaustion and pain I felt during the first few weeks of recovery let me know how much work I did to birth you. You were worth the effort.
--
Saturday, July 18, 2009
reset-o-rama
It is my birthday. Or, well, it was two days ago. I'm so out of practice writing that I kept thinking about it all the birthday day and wanted the birthday blog post to be just so perfect that I got all stuck and blockified and couldn't write.
And yesterday was the giant sugar hangover. Too much birthday sugar and other rich food resulted in a next-day sugar crash. A big, big crash. A sugar crash that felt like some kind of post-apocalyptic daze. But I somehow eventually crawled out of bed, put coffee in mouth, and got myself to the place where work is done and worked and worked and worked.
I'm tempted to write all about all the amazing things that happened on the birthday day. I'm tempted to write about the birthday fun that was had at the birthday party last night. I'm tempted to write about the year in review. I'm also considering writing about the plans for the year ahead. Since there are so many things, I'll do some highlights, perhaps.
A year in review:
In July of '08 I was a month into living alone for the first time ever. This was big and hard for a while. And then it slowly got easier as the months went by. It was a summer, and fall, and early winter of not dating, not being in romantic relationship, not seeking out that kind of human connection. It was a great big chunk of time where I was focusing on me. Figuring out what I wanted. So that when I was ready, I could try to find relationship that I wouldn't run from or blow up. In February I decided it was time, that I was ready. So I signed up for match-dot-com. And went on some first dates. I met a man that makes my heart say "whee!" and my head say "don't screw this one up". And we just moved in together :)
This last year was a time of trying new things and doing more of the things I like to do. There was a lot of making cheese. I took two pottery classes. I took a martial arts class in the spring. I knit some fuzzy leg warmers and kept knitting on the scarf I've been making for my sister. And the last year things at work were getting more interesting, too. I was taking on new projects at work: working with the President and senior VPs tracking the roll out of the strategic plan. I developed some computer training for my coworkers. I created a mailmerge for course scheduling that most departments are now using. I was an election judge in the November 2008 election. I got even more involved in my volunteer commitment and co-chaired a major fundraising event that involved a 2 day speaker/workshop, silent auction, cocktail reception, and book sale that met our attendance goal of 250 attendees. And In May, became President of the Board.
This last year I haven't traveled quite as much as I originally planned, I haven't written as much as I thought I would, I haven't hiked or cheesed, or knit, or many things as much as I thought, but I certainly did a lot.
The Birthday 2009 in review:
Birthday 2009 started with Aaron making me an insano sugar breakfast of a toast sandwich with creamcheese and cherries cooked in sugar syrup for the filling. And covered in powdered sugar. I opened gifts from my family and cards from family and friends. I went to a 4-hour meeting for the school and they had 4 kinds of sweet, fruity, breakfast crepes. And then I went on the Celestial Seasonings Tea tour with Aaron. And then dinner with Aaron. Dinner at Sunflower: Halibut in brown butter lemon caper sauce, coconut rice, grilled asparagus, Mixed Wild Mushrooms, and a spinach salad with sour cherries and hot brie croutons. Oh and the "breads and spreads" with 4 kinds of spreads and 3 kinds of breads. It was a food-coma inducing birthday, indeed.
Birthday 2009 part2 was a dinner/happy hour with 11 of my favorite people followed by going to see the new Harry Potter movie with 8 of these people. A multi-hour birthday fun fest of food and flix. :)
The Year Ahead:
For the year ahead, my goals are to write more, travel more, more hiking, more cheese, more learning new things, more cherishing the things I already do and love. There will perhaps be some more detailed thoughts, but I'm running out of steam and need some breakfast.
So the plan...keep living and doing and loving :)
And yesterday was the giant sugar hangover. Too much birthday sugar and other rich food resulted in a next-day sugar crash. A big, big crash. A sugar crash that felt like some kind of post-apocalyptic daze. But I somehow eventually crawled out of bed, put coffee in mouth, and got myself to the place where work is done and worked and worked and worked.
I'm tempted to write all about all the amazing things that happened on the birthday day. I'm tempted to write about the birthday fun that was had at the birthday party last night. I'm tempted to write about the year in review. I'm also considering writing about the plans for the year ahead. Since there are so many things, I'll do some highlights, perhaps.
A year in review:
In July of '08 I was a month into living alone for the first time ever. This was big and hard for a while. And then it slowly got easier as the months went by. It was a summer, and fall, and early winter of not dating, not being in romantic relationship, not seeking out that kind of human connection. It was a great big chunk of time where I was focusing on me. Figuring out what I wanted. So that when I was ready, I could try to find relationship that I wouldn't run from or blow up. In February I decided it was time, that I was ready. So I signed up for match-dot-com. And went on some first dates. I met a man that makes my heart say "whee!" and my head say "don't screw this one up". And we just moved in together :)
This last year was a time of trying new things and doing more of the things I like to do. There was a lot of making cheese. I took two pottery classes. I took a martial arts class in the spring. I knit some fuzzy leg warmers and kept knitting on the scarf I've been making for my sister. And the last year things at work were getting more interesting, too. I was taking on new projects at work: working with the President and senior VPs tracking the roll out of the strategic plan. I developed some computer training for my coworkers. I created a mailmerge for course scheduling that most departments are now using. I was an election judge in the November 2008 election. I got even more involved in my volunteer commitment and co-chaired a major fundraising event that involved a 2 day speaker/workshop, silent auction, cocktail reception, and book sale that met our attendance goal of 250 attendees. And In May, became President of the Board.
This last year I haven't traveled quite as much as I originally planned, I haven't written as much as I thought I would, I haven't hiked or cheesed, or knit, or many things as much as I thought, but I certainly did a lot.
The Birthday 2009 in review:
Birthday 2009 started with Aaron making me an insano sugar breakfast of a toast sandwich with creamcheese and cherries cooked in sugar syrup for the filling. And covered in powdered sugar. I opened gifts from my family and cards from family and friends. I went to a 4-hour meeting for the school and they had 4 kinds of sweet, fruity, breakfast crepes. And then I went on the Celestial Seasonings Tea tour with Aaron. And then dinner with Aaron. Dinner at Sunflower: Halibut in brown butter lemon caper sauce, coconut rice, grilled asparagus, Mixed Wild Mushrooms, and a spinach salad with sour cherries and hot brie croutons. Oh and the "breads and spreads" with 4 kinds of spreads and 3 kinds of breads. It was a food-coma inducing birthday, indeed.
Birthday 2009 part2 was a dinner/happy hour with 11 of my favorite people followed by going to see the new Harry Potter movie with 8 of these people. A multi-hour birthday fun fest of food and flix. :)
The Year Ahead:
For the year ahead, my goals are to write more, travel more, more hiking, more cheese, more learning new things, more cherishing the things I already do and love. There will perhaps be some more detailed thoughts, but I'm running out of steam and need some breakfast.
So the plan...keep living and doing and loving :)
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