Thursday, November 30, 2006
Sometimes the world just sucks.
N at wishing and waiting just found out she lost her second pregnancy at almost 11 weeks - after 6 IVFs. If you have any words of support to offer, I think they'd be appreciated.
Thursday, November 23, 2006
Ant - twelve weeks!!!
I really cannot belive that it's been twelve weeks already. They have flown by! My first day back at work was yesterday - it wasn't too bad. M was off for the day, so stayed home with the kiddo. I think it wasn't so hard for me because it wasn't the first time I've left Ant, as I have left him a number of times to play hockey. We'll see how I feel next week when he's home with my FIL...
Growth check: We weighed him at my mom’s house last week, and he’s now around 13 lb 5 oz or thereabouts. Yikes! Definitely helping to tone my arm muscles. He’s rapidly growing out of the 0-3 month clothes (although there are some that are *still* too big for him. I don’t know what kind of 0-3 month babies these people have!!!)
Tummy-time: I’ve been so bad about this. Ant is really starting to express his displeasure when he’s on his tummy so I haven’t been doing it much. He also just basically lies there most of the time, not trying to lift his head at all. Although I just discovered yesterday that he doesn’t mind tummy time on the changing table nearly as much, where he has his mobile to look at. He’s totally lifting his chest up! He’s also got enough head control to sit in the bumbo (his head doesn’t fall backwards anymore, but he tends to list to the right a bit), and we used the Baby Bjorn forward facing just a couple of days ago.
Other movement: Ant is starting to roll over onto his right side – he picks both legs up and basically throws himself over to the side. Funny to watch! I don’t think he’s that close to actually rolling over though, because his arms are totally in the way. We do have to be much more careful when he’s on the changing table, I can totally imagine him throwing himself off now.
Focus: Wow, there’s been a big change here! Ant is definitely looking *at* things now. I went out and bought him the Tiny Love mobile on the recommendation of a few friends with similar aged babies, and he *loves* it. It doesn’t even have to be turned on. We put him under it and he smiles and laughs, and you can see him focusing on different pieces of it. I could watch him watching it for hours! He also looks at the toys on the gymini now.
Smiles: He’s smiling all the time now. But there was a new first today – he smiled at me when I went to pick him up after his nap. *heart melting*. I would swear that he’s laughing too, when he’s playing with the mobile, but that might be my imagination.
Hands: Just last Friday was the first time I think that Ant actually swiped at a toy on the gymini intentionally. M had him a couple mornings ago while I was playing hockey, and said that he grabbed at the lion on the gymini, and also used his hands to “hold on” to the bottle. Seems like he’s really getting the hang of these things! All the books etc. say that he will find his hands fascinating, and just watch them – he’s not doing that yet. Any idea if he will? My sister said she doesn’t think her daughter really did.
Feeding: We seem to have regressed a bit here. For a while he was going quite a long stretch between his last evening and first morning feed, but these days he’s back to only giving us around 5 hours. I’ve started using a site called trixietracker to see if I can make any sense of his patterns… not yet! I wish I knew what it was that would make him sleep for such a long time some nights and not others. I also feel like my milk supply is down. I pumped yesterday while at work, and got slightly less than he ended up eating. I also feel so empty in the evenings these days, totally floppy. He’s spending a lot longer on the breast, especially in the evenings, and he’s not just playing either, really sucking. I know I haven’t been as good about staying hydrated as I was in the beginning, and I’ve also been playing ice hockey every other day or so, and wonder if that has anything to do with it.
Eyes: No noticeable change here, perhaps a little lighter?
Complexion: He’s got a little rash around his mouth, I think irritation from spitup? Also still a rough patch between his eyes. He has two patches of stork bites, one between his eyes and one on his nose, and those do seem to be fading a little.
Sleeping: We seem to have the daytime nap thing figured out. Around 1.5 to 2 hours after he wakes (in general), I take him up to his room, put him in his sleepsack, give him his bink, sing “Are you sleepy Antony” (my words to “Are you sleeping”), and jiggle him a little bit. His eyes are usually closed within 5 minutes, at which point I can put him in his crib with a minimum of fussing. I think he sleeps better, and whomever is looking after him can do something else besides holding him. Yay! Night-time sleep is really not bad – it depends on what time he goes to bed. Some nights he’s down at around 8pm, and then wakes at 3 and 6, other nights he’s not down until 11-12, and wakes at around 6. I’m trying to figure out where the difference in bedtimes is coming from. I wonder if it’s based on the time that he gets up in the morning. So this am, although he fell asleep while I was nursing him at 7, I basically woke him up afterwards rather than letting him sleep ‘til 9ish which is what he would have done had I left him. I think. We’ll see if that helps!
Me: Not much to report here. No more weight loss, but somehow my belly is still getting smaller. Not complaining! I have started doing exercises to reduce my abdominal separation, and it’s gone from 3-4 fingers wide to 2-3. Hopefully a few more weeks of exercises will take care of that. My belly button has a little bit in the middle that sticks out now and never used to before, I wonder if that will disappear when my diastasis is corrected? Speaking of bellybuttons, a friend with twins a few weeks older than Ant told me that the dark brown smutz in my bellybutton would come off with some scrubbing in the shower. So of course I had to try it, and sure enough it did. Icky!
Growth check: We weighed him at my mom’s house last week, and he’s now around 13 lb 5 oz or thereabouts. Yikes! Definitely helping to tone my arm muscles. He’s rapidly growing out of the 0-3 month clothes (although there are some that are *still* too big for him. I don’t know what kind of 0-3 month babies these people have!!!)
Tummy-time: I’ve been so bad about this. Ant is really starting to express his displeasure when he’s on his tummy so I haven’t been doing it much. He also just basically lies there most of the time, not trying to lift his head at all. Although I just discovered yesterday that he doesn’t mind tummy time on the changing table nearly as much, where he has his mobile to look at. He’s totally lifting his chest up! He’s also got enough head control to sit in the bumbo (his head doesn’t fall backwards anymore, but he tends to list to the right a bit), and we used the Baby Bjorn forward facing just a couple of days ago.
Other movement: Ant is starting to roll over onto his right side – he picks both legs up and basically throws himself over to the side. Funny to watch! I don’t think he’s that close to actually rolling over though, because his arms are totally in the way. We do have to be much more careful when he’s on the changing table, I can totally imagine him throwing himself off now.
Focus: Wow, there’s been a big change here! Ant is definitely looking *at* things now. I went out and bought him the Tiny Love mobile on the recommendation of a few friends with similar aged babies, and he *loves* it. It doesn’t even have to be turned on. We put him under it and he smiles and laughs, and you can see him focusing on different pieces of it. I could watch him watching it for hours! He also looks at the toys on the gymini now.
Smiles: He’s smiling all the time now. But there was a new first today – he smiled at me when I went to pick him up after his nap. *heart melting*. I would swear that he’s laughing too, when he’s playing with the mobile, but that might be my imagination.
Hands: Just last Friday was the first time I think that Ant actually swiped at a toy on the gymini intentionally. M had him a couple mornings ago while I was playing hockey, and said that he grabbed at the lion on the gymini, and also used his hands to “hold on” to the bottle. Seems like he’s really getting the hang of these things! All the books etc. say that he will find his hands fascinating, and just watch them – he’s not doing that yet. Any idea if he will? My sister said she doesn’t think her daughter really did.
Feeding: We seem to have regressed a bit here. For a while he was going quite a long stretch between his last evening and first morning feed, but these days he’s back to only giving us around 5 hours. I’ve started using a site called trixietracker to see if I can make any sense of his patterns… not yet! I wish I knew what it was that would make him sleep for such a long time some nights and not others. I also feel like my milk supply is down. I pumped yesterday while at work, and got slightly less than he ended up eating. I also feel so empty in the evenings these days, totally floppy. He’s spending a lot longer on the breast, especially in the evenings, and he’s not just playing either, really sucking. I know I haven’t been as good about staying hydrated as I was in the beginning, and I’ve also been playing ice hockey every other day or so, and wonder if that has anything to do with it.
Eyes: No noticeable change here, perhaps a little lighter?
Complexion: He’s got a little rash around his mouth, I think irritation from spitup? Also still a rough patch between his eyes. He has two patches of stork bites, one between his eyes and one on his nose, and those do seem to be fading a little.
Sleeping: We seem to have the daytime nap thing figured out. Around 1.5 to 2 hours after he wakes (in general), I take him up to his room, put him in his sleepsack, give him his bink, sing “Are you sleepy Antony” (my words to “Are you sleeping”), and jiggle him a little bit. His eyes are usually closed within 5 minutes, at which point I can put him in his crib with a minimum of fussing. I think he sleeps better, and whomever is looking after him can do something else besides holding him. Yay! Night-time sleep is really not bad – it depends on what time he goes to bed. Some nights he’s down at around 8pm, and then wakes at 3 and 6, other nights he’s not down until 11-12, and wakes at around 6. I’m trying to figure out where the difference in bedtimes is coming from. I wonder if it’s based on the time that he gets up in the morning. So this am, although he fell asleep while I was nursing him at 7, I basically woke him up afterwards rather than letting him sleep ‘til 9ish which is what he would have done had I left him. I think. We’ll see if that helps!
Me: Not much to report here. No more weight loss, but somehow my belly is still getting smaller. Not complaining! I have started doing exercises to reduce my abdominal separation, and it’s gone from 3-4 fingers wide to 2-3. Hopefully a few more weeks of exercises will take care of that. My belly button has a little bit in the middle that sticks out now and never used to before, I wonder if that will disappear when my diastasis is corrected? Speaking of bellybuttons, a friend with twins a few weeks older than Ant told me that the dark brown smutz in my bellybutton would come off with some scrubbing in the shower. So of course I had to try it, and sure enough it did. Icky!
Friday, November 17, 2006
Rough morning (LOL)
So I put Ant in his vibrating chair while I took a shower and got dressed. When I picked him up out of it when I was done, I felt wet on my arm. I was wondering how he could already have peed through the diaper, but when I looked at his bum, it was poop! No idea what happened, but he managed to poop out of one side. So we got totally messy trying to get out of the clothes (with pants and a long-sleeved onesie, it was basically impossible not to get poop everywhere). So I decided to give him a bath. He was *not* pleased with me, so I didn't do a very good job. After we were done, I had him on his towel on the floor. Just as I was getting ready to put vaseline on his bum so I could put his diaper on, he peed on his leg, his towel, and my pants. And then to top it all off, he had a nice chunky spitup on his face, shoulder and neck. Probably the most unsuccessful bath ever!
Friday, November 10, 2006
Breakthrough!
Okay, maybe I shouldn't call it that just yet, but today Ant has taken two naps IN HIS CRIB, with nary a peep!
I decided yesterday that what I was doing wrong was letting him fall asleep on me, then trying to put him down after that. So today when he was in his tired phase after being up for 1.5 hours, I took him into his bedroom, shushed him for about three minutes until his eyes were closing, then put him down in his crib and shushed him for a few more minutes. Worked like a charm! He seemed to sleep much better, and I got to make my mom's bday cake for tomorrow. And it worked twice!
Who knew?
I decided yesterday that what I was doing wrong was letting him fall asleep on me, then trying to put him down after that. So today when he was in his tired phase after being up for 1.5 hours, I took him into his bedroom, shushed him for about three minutes until his eyes were closing, then put him down in his crib and shushed him for a few more minutes. Worked like a charm! He seemed to sleep much better, and I got to make my mom's bday cake for tomorrow. And it worked twice!
Who knew?
Sunday, November 05, 2006
Sunday randomness
I played in my first ice hockey game today. SOOOooooo much fun! We won, 7 to 1. I felt like I played reasonably well, and our team played really well together. We managed to put into practice all the things we've worked on over the last few years. Yay hockey!!!
************************
My sis and I went to the mall last Sunday with our respective babies. As we were leaving, I went through the door first, then held it open for her. This other female person waltzed through after her, and didn't even bother to say thank you. My mouth opened before my brain could do anything, and I said in a really sarcastic tone of voice "No problem, let *me* just hold the door for you." She gave me a nasty look, but you know what? I felt pretty dame smug about it. I am always so nice and polite, and let people get away with being rude, but this time my mouth won out.
************************
M and I went to a friend's wedding last night, and I had my first alcoholic drink in almost 11 months. Two toasted almonds. Yummy! We had such a great time at the wedding (my mom was babysitting), and although we had to leave early because A only ate 2.5 oz at his 8pm feeding so I wasn't sure if he'd be down for the night, or wake up at around 11 for more, we did get to stay for some dancing, and the cake! I tried on all my formal dresses the night before, fortunately one of them fit me. It had criss-crossing ties in the back - which used to meet up in a bow in the middle of my back, but with my little baby belly there was no meeting at all. But no-one else knew that ;-)
*************************
The past week has been really cool with Antony. So many things have changed! He's leaving his hands open now, they're not in fists nearly as much anymore. He's blowing spit bubbles, and sticking his tongue in and out. Definitely looking AT the toys on his gymini now, and he was apparently following Winnie the Pooh with his eyes when my mom was babysitting the other day, although I haven't seen that myself yet. Also lots more talking and smiling. We stayed at my mom's house last night after the wedding, and had a really fun exchange with Ant when we got up this morning.
Me: Antony, I hear you were reading some poetry with your granny last night?
Ant: Smile
Granny: I started reciting the poetry and he went to sleep almost right away.
Ant: Smile
Grampa: We should tell him some limericks!
Ant: Smile
Grampa: There once was a man from Nantucket...
Ant: Huge smile and almost a chuckle.
We all roared with laughter. The timing of his smiles was just *so* perfect, and the grin we got after "Nantucket" was priceless!
************************
My sis and I went to the mall last Sunday with our respective babies. As we were leaving, I went through the door first, then held it open for her. This other female person waltzed through after her, and didn't even bother to say thank you. My mouth opened before my brain could do anything, and I said in a really sarcastic tone of voice "No problem, let *me* just hold the door for you." She gave me a nasty look, but you know what? I felt pretty dame smug about it. I am always so nice and polite, and let people get away with being rude, but this time my mouth won out.
************************
M and I went to a friend's wedding last night, and I had my first alcoholic drink in almost 11 months. Two toasted almonds. Yummy! We had such a great time at the wedding (my mom was babysitting), and although we had to leave early because A only ate 2.5 oz at his 8pm feeding so I wasn't sure if he'd be down for the night, or wake up at around 11 for more, we did get to stay for some dancing, and the cake! I tried on all my formal dresses the night before, fortunately one of them fit me. It had criss-crossing ties in the back - which used to meet up in a bow in the middle of my back, but with my little baby belly there was no meeting at all. But no-one else knew that ;-)
*************************
The past week has been really cool with Antony. So many things have changed! He's leaving his hands open now, they're not in fists nearly as much anymore. He's blowing spit bubbles, and sticking his tongue in and out. Definitely looking AT the toys on his gymini now, and he was apparently following Winnie the Pooh with his eyes when my mom was babysitting the other day, although I haven't seen that myself yet. Also lots more talking and smiling. We stayed at my mom's house last night after the wedding, and had a really fun exchange with Ant when we got up this morning.
Me: Antony, I hear you were reading some poetry with your granny last night?
Ant: Smile
Granny: I started reciting the poetry and he went to sleep almost right away.
Ant: Smile
Grampa: We should tell him some limericks!
Ant: Smile
Grampa: There once was a man from Nantucket...
Ant: Huge smile and almost a chuckle.
We all roared with laughter. The timing of his smiles was just *so* perfect, and the grin we got after "Nantucket" was priceless!
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