Motion: yesterday was a gorgeous day, and we spent a lot of time in the yard. DangerGirl wanted to ride her bike for about 30 seconds, but abandoned that to push DangerBaby around on the little push-car we’d gotten out of storage and hosed off. They went all around the block–but the alignment on the thing is off, so I had to stop them every six feet so they didn’t go off the curb. DBaby doesn’t seem to grasp yet that she can push with her own feet; she just sits there with her feet in the air, twirling them like she does when she’s excited. (We call her Twirlytoes.)
So now, she loves the push-car. Every time we head out to the garage for the stroller or a ride in the car, she lunges toward it and cries if I don’t give her a ride. If I do give her a ride, she cries when I take her off. Oh well, at least we’re outside. It was too hot to play outside much until a couple of days ago.
Hey, anyone interested in the implications of advertising and licensing for children should take a look at this book I’m reading now-- Consuming kids, by Susan Linn. Fascinating and worrying stuff. I’m on chapter 5 or 6 now.
I think our shower used to have clear doors. The previous owner of our house was a swinging bachelor (we found oil packets and champagne corks around the hot tub and in various nooks in the house for months after moving in!) and apparently did no work on the house at all. His decor consisted of framed sports-themed posters and a large TV next to the wood stove. Every wall was white, and one of the rooms has 70s orange shag carpet.
I’m embarrased to say that the past 4 years while hubby and I were both working (or I was in grad school), we never really noticed how bad things were. Now that I’m home, I tend to think things like, “I really hate that hideous cloudy shower door.” I actually got down on my hands and knees last week and scrubbed the kitchen floor with scouring powder. To my shock, I discovered that the floor tiles were actually terra cotta colored, not brick colored. :eek: It seems that the regular mopping I was doing never scoured up the grime that the former owner let build up.
I’m on my way out the door to Home Depot to check out shower rods to change out that shower door with the built-up grime. I have become home-repair woman! I think I may need a life.
The other odd thing the baby’s doing is that her latest word is “no.” But I do not think that word means what she thinks it means! She says it in a happy little voice to mean “yes!”
–“Do you want me to draw you a duck?”
“No!” --while handing me the paper and crayon with a grin.
Recent cute developments @ chez fessie: My physical son has started pulling up (on me, mostly) and enjoys bouncing on my lap, legs, head, whatever. He must be over 20 lbs, that bouncing is giving me some arm strength! And he giggles wildly when I rotate him upside down.
My daughter has taken to conducting. She waves her arms in the air as her musical toy plays, then slaps her belly with one hand while she sings along. She also amuses herself by playing peek-a-boo with her blanket when she’s supposed to be napping. I’m lucky they both respond really well to simple goofy faces, as that’s fairly effortless.
The other day I finally cooked, mashed & froze a couple of sweet potatoes for them. Feel like Julia Child, woo-woo!
Oh, and I broke down & bought a new shower curtain the other day (it’s only been 16 years for the old one!). Something about staring at these walls all day does prompt action.
Re: sleep, winnie those books & articles made me crazy, I just decided forget it. Every week has been different from every other week, with trends and patterns gradually emerging & maybe a smidgen of direction on my part. I would prefer to really control things, but I don’t think it’s a realistic option and I have serious doubts about authors who suggest it is.
Thanks to norinew , LilyOfTheValley , and Fessie. That’s what I needed to hear – first that he will outgrow the catnaps, and that it’s okay if he’s not following this well-intended plan for napping 8 weeks old. The thing about being a new mom is that if my baby’s not sick, I find something else to worry about such as sleeping, eating, development, etc. Pregnancy prepares you for that, if you don’t feel miserable and ill, then something must be horribly wrong and you must worry about a million other possible things that could be going on with your baby.
Ah, yes, I know this well! Early in my first pregnancy, before I even knew I was pregnant (and keep in mind we were actively trying to not get pregnant), I went to a party where I drank Southern Comfort, as well as sharing a joint with two other people. A week later I found out I was pregnant, and agonized over that party! “OMG, I smoked pot and drank whiskey and my baby will probably be born with 16 fingers or something!”. My second pregnancy went pretty smoothly. Then, with my third one, I had no typical pregnancy symptoms (except for not having my period). With the first two, I had some low-grade nausea in the first few months; my doctor didn’t want to see me until I was 14 weeks along, and I read in a parenting magazine that nausea is a sign of a healthy uterus. So, you know, of course, what happened; I started worrying that my uterus was unhealthy! To complicate matters, when I finally did see the doctor, he said there was no way he’d be able to pick up a fetal heartbeat because of all the scar tissue from previous C-sections! Fortunately, he wanted to send me to have a sonogram so he could “date” the pregnancy. I went to the Imaging Center, and it didn’t take them any time to find a good, strong heartbeat! What a relief!
All right, I just want the record to show that I FINALLY DID IT. I did the Earth Mother thang, bought veggies & cooked 'em myself & mooshed 'em up for the babies. Put them in the ice cube tray and froze them, just like the La Leche people said to. And you know what? They won’t eat 'em!! Well, that’s not entirely true - my son will accept a few spoonfuls, making his tragic smile/trying not to cry face. Daughter just keeps her lips locked and shakes her head. Then she crys “meh-meh-meh-meh” (which I think is her version of “Mama!”). If she’d just keep her mouth open a little longer on the “-eh” part I think I could shove a spoonful in .
So it’s back to the jars.
My son started crawling today! More like creeping, since his belly’s touching the floor, but he covers a lot of territory! Now we’ve got to redouble our babyproofing.
Next week I’m buying Halloween costumes. Not sure what to do.
Ah yes, I was like that myself. I was at around 10 weeks before I realizd I was pregnant (stressful time of my life, and I was sick on top of it. I didn’t pay attention to my period that much and was used to it skipping, until I counted and realized it had been awhile) I’d been to several parties, smoked pot and tried e along with getting extremely falling down drunk one night. It all stopped when I realized I was pregnant of course (I still only have the odd beer once a month, having left all the druggie pals behind me) but I was extremely scared something was wrong. Especially when I started fainting/getting woogy regularly.
Gee, that must have been scary! I remember when I fell down (full body, face down, ow) in the 8th week of DangerGirl’s gestation, and spent a long time terrified I’d done something to her. I was very paranoid about the whole thing.
Did you find out what the fainting was about? Did it go away? I had trouble with that with baby #2, and eating cheese on my toast every morning stopped it. What did you do?
Nothing amazing to report here, except that DangerBaby is toddling around all the time now, it’s so cute. It’s hot again, and I planned a week’s worth of cool-weather meals–I have no idea what we’re going to eat tonight.
I was going to try to come up with something wise and reassuring on unnecessary worrying for you, Winnie, but I’m far too anxious to be the one to do it. My daughter can’t be bothered to crawl, doesn’t even want to roll over, and my son pulls his hair! However, I will repeat what was said to me — it DOES get easier! At 7.5 months it’s a way different experience and a LOT more fun. I remember when a friend said, very matter-of-factly, “Oh, I hate the first six months”. And she’s TTC #3, so it doesn’t stop her. But now that mine are older I can understand what she meant. I thought those first 11 weeks were particularly hairy.
Well, a good portion of it went away when I started getting regular food.* It never did go away completely until after I gave birth. I think some of it had to do with my anemia (which iron pills don’t help) and just between all the stress emotionally and physically. I only fainted twice, and was damn lucky I didn’t crack my head on shelving (missed by an inch the first time) the rest of the time I had to carry juice and cookies or food of some kind with me, like a diabetic. I didn’t have gestational diabetes though. Other than the fainting/dizzy spells and not gaining weight everything was normal (right down to low level nausea and extreme horniness)
*Long story, basically hardly any food, and none of it very good. What was good was eaten, and not by me with the rest being nothing I could stand to choke down, even now a year later. I weighed my lowest I’ve been in my adult life during my second trimester and didn’t start gaining until my third. Most people didn’t believe I was pregnant. So I know how easy it can be to hide a pregnancy, even though I wasn’t trying.
Winnie, I don’t really have advice for the worrying thing. I suggest just try and relax and enjoy things as they are now (of course I always tell my Mom that and she still worries so who knows…) I can’t really help as I’m not as much of a worrywart. I had my step-mom tell me she was amazed at how casual I was with my son (not freaking out at everything)… don’t ask me how I do it. I think it’s cuz I’m too tired after doing all I need to do, and looking after him, that I don’t have the energy to worry about anything other than what’s happening now and how happy/healthy Caterpie is.
Well, I’m no Earth Mama (disposable diapers and such), but ValleyGirl really likes her homemade food. This summer when it was in season, local zucchini was quite popular. One of the favorite combinations so far has been steamed mashed apples (a bit chunky), fresh mashed banana, and rice cereal. Today we tried a bit of sweet potato – cheap and easy – mixed with pureed chicken. My little girl is no longer a vegetarian!
Wow. ValleyGirl is moving backwards, but not with much speed. I picked up a nice baby gate today at a yard sale in anticipation of babyproofing, but I just can’t wrap my brain around how I’ll possibly ever make my home safe enough. My husband says, “Why don’t you forget about all that babyproofing stuff and just watch her the whole time?” :rolleyes:
Okay, here’s the good news: you don’t have to baby proof your home! Well, at least not all of it! Close off all of it you can so that the baby can’t get around the home unsupervised. Baby proof the baby’s room, and the living room (I had to baby proof the living room and dining room, since they open into each other). Everything else can stay as is. Lowe’s has a great section of baby proofing products, btw.
We bought our gates at a garage sale and the thrift store up the street. Those things are so expensive at Target!! Thanks for the tip re: Lowes, norinew, wish I’d gone there first! I’m not worrying about our whole place, either, at least not for now, although I have moved hazardous stuff out from under the sink & that kind of thing. I am worried about the cords, perhaps duct taping them to the carpet would work?
Lily, my daughter hasn’t budged an inch, so your ValleyGirl is ahead of her by quite a bit! Those fresh mashed bananas are the bomb, my kids love 'em. Actually I did manage to get her to eat some sweet potatoes that I’d cooked - seems they were too dry first time around. She just hates lumpy food, won’t deal with textures at all. How sweet that your girl had her first complete meal! Congratulations!
Daughter and I went to Target today, it was so much fun! She’s finally sitting well enough to ride in a cart (with seatbelt), and she had a blast! Just jabbered the whole time. I bought her a winter hat while I was at it.
Oh, Flutterby, what you said about hiding a pregnancy reminded me — You know how you read about these women who don’t realize they’re pregnant? Well, I actually knew one of those!! A co-worker, many years ago. The women in the office who’d had babies all thought she HAD to be pregnant; those of us who didn’t know better just thought she was gaining weight. Sad thing is, she continued to party all through her pregnancy - even bartenders would ask her if she really should be drinking, and apparently she’d get all offended.
And you also mentioned something about extreme horniness - now what is the story there? You mean I wasn’t the only horny pregnant woman?
Absolutely not! Lots of pregnant women get horny (myself included), for a variety of reasons. For one thing, there’s no worry about birth control. There’s no worry about trying to get pregnant.
IOW, it’s sex without an agenda! Also, hormone fluctuations mean certain key body areas are more sensitive. Husbands are often turned on by their wives’ changing shapes, pay more attention to said wives, resulting in us going “Ooooh, he’s paying attention to me; better jump his bones before he goes back to watching Tech TV”
BTW, fessie, your babies are soooo cute! You realize, don’t you, that God makes babies cute so we’ll let them live!
Another Monday check-in from me.
My girl turned 2 on Friday. We had a great day—went to the Children’s Discovery Museum in the morning, and then she went to visit my ILs in the afternoon while I ran some errands. Of all really cool things, they had a mylar ‘Happy Birthday’ balloon for her that just made her day.
In other news, for 2 days now, I have thought that labor might be starting. I feel kind of like an idiot, having been through labor before and still going, “Ya know, I’m not sure if this is it.”
Either way, I don’t think I’m going to make it to my due date next Monday. (Pretty much guaranteed that I’m going to be late just by saying that, huh?)
Wish me easy and speedy, OK? But not so speedy that we don’t make it to the hospital!
This is what we’ve done. The living room is babyproofed when he started getting around more, and his room (but that was done when we set it up). I’ve blocked the living room off with a babygate, and I am going to pick up one that screws into the wall for upstairs soon.
It took me a little to notice, but I always wonder how you can’t notice at all unless you really don’t pay attention to your body. Of course it does happen, so who knows. But I never wore maternity clothing. I wore some loose jeans and my bigger shirts (which I prefered to wear anyway). To get a seat on the bus I had to be turning green from motion sickness and still have to ask someone to move…
Oh man, I was really horny. What was worst though is I was single from May onwards (No longer single, but it’s still tough to have sex when one of us has to travel 1901 miles…) I had the most amazing dreams though. Thank goodness for those dreams, I almost always woke up satisfied…
Monday update: Caterpie is 9 months old as of Friday, and celebrated by getting ill all over me last night. He was fine this morning though, but poor guy didn’t look so good the other night. He was so pale he was whiter than me (and that’s saying something) After I leave here I’m going to hit the gym, as I really should be doing so. I want to try and get rid of some of this jelly belly…
.