my starry-eyed baby

Sometimes my baby is so cute I want to eat her.

I think she can tell.

Heh.

For the last two nights, I've spent the four am hour in my kitchen. The routine goes like this: baby pukes up milk on me, feels better (for whatever reason, the gas doesn't bubble out unless she's upright), nurses, and then pleasantly dozes as I wait for her to enter "deep sleep." After an hour or so, we return to bed, where she wakes up. I then wake up K., who takes her and continues to walk her... then we all sleep! for a whole hour! until I am awakened by the child pooping, so much so that it runs down her back, through her onesie, and stains the sheets!


And yet, she's still cute.

p.s. she's not lactose intolerant. this is a night problem caused by the fact that I fall asleep while she nurses, and she-- being a big fan of the nip-- keeps idly sucking long after she's done feeding, thus swallowing lots of air. which makes her tummy hurt. which makes her want to nurse more, since it's her favorite thing to do. which makes her have to poop.

why don't i just stay awake while she nurses? well, i'll try. but i'm in my sixth week of sleeping in two-hr bursts, so the odds aren't good.

Baby girl slept from 10.30-2 last night, then nursed only 3x between 2 and 7.30. Huge, people. Huge.

But even better was the hour she spent with us last night, grinning, taking in the world, and most importantly-- not crying.

I'd like to take the credit, but ain't nothing changed. That's my new parenting philosophy: I do the best I can at all times, and I don't take credit for her easy behavior or blame for her bad.

But her good looks? All me. And possibly her papa.

The Good ole Funk

Yesterday, the umpteenth of ladies from our church came by and dropped off a onesie for annaliese. We've had phone calls offering babysitting, meals dropped off at our door, and handmade baby blankets galore.

It's a neat town, this place where we live. I'm from Virginia-- a proud, rich state, with a lot of history. You say Mississippi in Virginia, and people raise eyebrows.

It's no secret that K. and I don't plan to stay in MS. But when we leave and head back easterwards, there are things I'll miss about this place...

the fact that people take a week off from work to drive their RVs, full of family, fifteen miles away to the lake. And that's their annual vacation.

the bumbling but goodnatured antics of our board of aldermen...the vanity plate of the town mayor, which reads "WVMAYOR"-- he paid for it himself.

the fact that people aren't easily pigeonholed here--the ponytailed phone repair man also plays rock'n'roll, and like every other person in MS, has written a novel.

And places can't be dismissed either...the most dive-looking shack might turn out to be the hottest restaurant for miles around.

People know how to have fun down here. When we move back to the staid East Coast, I hope we can borrow some of the joi d'vivre and good neighborliness.

Who knew babies are so loud? She snuffles, grunts, coughs, sneezes, burps, and farts... and that's before the crying!

4 weeks in and life HAS improved. If we could get her down to 2 feed-and-burps a night, we'd be golden... for the past 2 nights, the routine has been she gets very gassy at 3-ish am, vomits milk all over me a few times, and cries for 15 mins or so before going back to sleep. (BUT SHE'S NOT COLICKY. Here's why: colic is inconsolable, high-pitched wailing that lasts for more than 3 hours, on 3 or more days a week, for at least 3 weeks.)

Annaliese is just fussy. And gassy. But so far, thank Heaven, never inconsolable.

She's going with me on 2 interviews this week. Wish the sling magic powers...

It is a fantablulous day here in Mississippi... jeans and long-sleeved shirt weather, blue sky, warm sun. K. and I took the bebe and the dogs for a log walk this morning; it's funny, since Annaliese has come I find myself longing more for our own land. Because I want to walk-- boy, do I want to walk!-- but I don't want to see anyone, avoid the neighborhood's loose dogs, deal with the occasional car... I just want to go tromping, but there's nowhere within walking distance to tromp alone.


Still, though, it's a beautiful day. K's down at the building-- he's resumed his Saturdays here, though the hours are shorter-- and I managed a nap on the couch with my beautiful daughter. So life is good.

Enviromental tip of the day: three years ago, at 4am in a Virginian Wal-Mart, K. and I found that the Black Friday cheapo laptop we had come to purchase was sold-out, so we bought a tiny $4 crock pot instead.

It was very early.

Since the crockpot is too small to actually cook with, we've ferried it around with us...but now we have a baby! who dislikes cold things on her nether regions, and who has parents who dislike throwing wipes out! So, we launder the baby wipes after they are used (they hold up fine, and are incredibly soft), then subsequently use them with the warm water that sits in the crockpot.


And in good movies updates, if anyone loves wacked-out British movies the way I do, Keeping Mum is great-- especially seeing Maggie Smith and Patrick Swayzee (sp?) in the same film.

Chip chip cheerio.

Mom has gone, and it's just me and the kid. Or, the Mom and the Kid.

Man, I don't really feel like a Mom yet. More like the Great Milk-Provider.

Happy Monday, y'all!

Well, I know I'm feeling better-- because I'm bored. Three weeks on Sunday, meaning next week... next week I hope to be a bit more active than I've been.

In an effort to talk about something besides our darling daughter (who is hanging peacefully in her sling as I write this), there's been a whole lot of presidential debates going on in this house. I'm of the opinion that whomever does get elected will be so darn tired from the drawn-out campaigning that they'll collapse of exhaustion or have a heart attack right off the bat. You think we could condense this whole process...it's not like they have a lot to say.

So there! A non-baby thought!

In baby news... she really is very cute. We had a big day Wednesday, with a 2-week appt with the midwives in Memphis and her first visit to her pediatrician in Oxford. She handled both well, thought 1. it sucks watching your baby get a needle poked in their heel and 2. it sucks to watch her cry in her car seat b/c she's hungry, and not be able to feed her because you're late and it's illegal to take her out in the car.

Health-wise though, she's a strong lusty little thing, despite her fine looks...she's over 8 lbs now, which is more impressive when you realize that (like most babies) she lost weight after being born. 14 ounces in 9 days; I'm very proud of my milk.

K.'s still the husband of the year-- such a good-natured man I married, even at five in the morning!

Check it out:

Good Lord, child.

(note time.)

2 weeks in, and we're still here

I drafted a column today. It felt good to do something with my mind; granted, I was writing about the baby, but man alive, I was WRITING, after all.

My start date for my my old jobs is Feb. 1st. It'll be good to get all my balls back in the air, I hope the baby thing gets a bit easier between now and then. Because right now showering, making breakfast, and taking a walk seems like a reasonable list of activities for a full day.

In Annaliese news, we went through a brief spell of discussing how much we could get for her on the baby black market, but then she got cute again, thank Heaven. Nonetheless, it'd be nice to get some sleep at night (and by some, I really do mean some...)

(Regardless of my whining, I'm really very glad that she's been here for 2 whole weeks. I wouldn't go back to two Sundays ago for ANYTHING (right about now was when I was moaning like a dying cow and forcing myself to walk up and down our front porch steps, since "steps are good for getting babies out" and we don't have any INSIDE). )

So happy 2 weeks, kidlet. It'll be neat to see what tricks you pull in the next 14 days.

In the world's greatest role reversal, K. is actually now the one in need of r&r, between caring for me, the dogs, the baby, and starting back at work. hence the lack of posts over at his blog. I'm attempting to take up some of the slack.

We had a fab Sunday (one week! yes!!) and went on our first excursion that was not within spitting distance of the house, so we could listen to our baby girl cry under a bright blue sky.

The dogs were very happy to be somewhere different, as was I-- so much so that we hopped in the car and went a-driving. It's true; cars really do puts babies to sleep. She didn't make a peep.

Oh, and K. shaved his beard....in stages of varying grossness, as he likes to do, by which I mean he emerged from the bathroom sporting this:

But now, thank heaven, he's all cute again:

In Annaliese news, she's doing just fine. She's a great baby, though some sense of circadian rhythm would be much appreciated.... Because we are us, we still mock the baby though:

saturday

every day gets better. we ventured across the way on saturday. super-fun. my first time out since the 6th!





ain't she gorgeous? apparently new babies should spend a lot of time nekiid, but i love stuffing her into her "outside" outfits...

the two faces of annaliese

of course, we think she's darling, even when she's crying...

so.

I had a baby. What have you been doing?

I now know that the smell of milk and baby is heartwrenchingly lovely. That living in the present is the only way to get through this; right now, I can type and reach my juice. Yesterday, I shaved my legs. This afternoon, I ate some gingerbread. These are the small good things that mark my hours, since I am not going to be my old self, bounding around the house unencumbered, ever again, and nor am I yet the sling-wearing mama I hope to someday be.

But progress is being made...Sunday night, I could not sit up. Monday, I could not walk to the bathroom without help. Tuesday, I took a bath. Wednesday, I gained some breast-feeding confidence after a visit from the midwife. And today? Today I walked around the house for a whole ten minutes while Annaliese slept on her own. We're doing good.

Amazing how accurate the term "labor" is, and that's all we'll say about that.

Funny thing:

I am sweating up a STORM. Apparently, it's one of the ways your body gets rid of all the fluid you retain during pregnancy; consequently, my legs, feet, arms, face, etc-- so much thinner than they've been. I hadn't realized.

http://picasaweb.google.com/alexe.pvb/AnnalieseUpdated

for a few pics and video.

so many blessings

Our freezer is full of grass-fed beef and gourmet frozen meals. Roses sit in a vase; "we're sorry you have to wait," said the friends who dropped them off.

The L.P.'s crib has a hand-made crocheted shawl draped around it; next to the bookshelf is a basket full of hand-knit booties, a pair for every day of the week in every color of the rainbow. She has two handmade sweaters, a handmade quilt on its way, and onesie after onesie. She has dresses made by a great-great-grandmother, carefully passed down; a box full of clothes she won't be able to wear for months yet...and so much more.

We've received a child care manual, recommended by a mother of four; a pampering home-care pregnant mama book, an organic baby book, a DVD on communicating with infants. We have boxes of chocolates waiting until after the baby comes, a pot of very rich skin cream, lavender soap, fancy talcum powder, diaper rash cream. We've gotten card after card, call after call, email after email; "I can get you groceries," one friend said. Another recommended a pediatrician and told me not to hesitate to call at two in the morning if I ran into problems.

People tell me they dreamt about us. "She was beautiful," they say, and all I can do is nod and hope that it will be so.

We've gotten support from our families, excitement from the friends that don't have children, wisdom from those who do. Our neighbors, in this small town we've been in for just a year, are beyond kind.

So many good thoughts for one little baby, when babies are born all the time all over the world. I wish that every mama-to-be could have some of the love that surrounds me on all sides.

(yep. K.'s building, inside second floor. Isn't the brick beautiful?)

Who knew?

80% of first-time mothers deliver between 40-42 weeks (Due dates clock in at 40 weeks sharp). 10% go BEYOND 42 weeks.
10% don't make it to the due date.

40 weeks, 5 days, and still waiting.