A few firsts

Today was a day of firsts!

For the first time, I used the diaper-changing thingie in a restaurant's bathroom and then I nursed Kylie in the mother's room of Babies R Us (first time nursing outside of the home).

Then we bought Kylie her first floppy sun hat.....actually we bought three hats!

Our little one still has LOTS of acne on her face so we'll post hat pictures later. For now, here's a picture of Kylie sucking in her bottom lip in surprise at all the cool things her moms did today.

-Wendy

Holiday?

I had forgotten that this was a holiday weekend until I saw a neighbor loading coolers and folding chairs into his car. I swear the days are running together over here at The House of Baby.

Here's a good one for you.....
Last night at around 4:30am, I laid Kylie in her crib after feeding her and I started to pump. About 2 minutes into the pumping, Kylie belted out a hellacious cry due to a vicious gas bubble. I yank the pump off and take the few steps to her crib trying to simultaneously pull my bra up.

But the breasts are still pumping. Milk is flying out of me, all over me, into the crib and onto the carpet. I'm cussing like a sailor in front of my newborn.

Yep. Good times.

-Wendy

Proud

It's amazing what a little sleep and making a list will do!

Last night I made a list of some of the things I want/need to do. I realized that some of the anger I was feeling was due to feeling out of control and list-making helps put it all into perspective for me. So...feeling better now.

We took Kylie out and I ended up changing two diapers and one outfit during the excursion. I was proud of myself for managing that small task without a flicker of nerves. It's a small success but I'm going to celebrate it!

By the way, Kylie has a case of baby acne (at least it looks more like acne than a rash) all over her face. Our friend, Heather, recommended putting mits on Kylie's hands to help the acne because she tends to rub her face and hair alot. We're going to give that a try.

Does anyone else have any recommendations for dealing with baby acne?

Here's a photo of our girl. If you look closely you can see one of her dimples!



-Wendy

Night shift person

I only start feeling like a normal person around 2pm each day.

I think this is because I stay up late to get Kylie to sleep (she goes to sleep around midnight) and because I get up to do the 2-3am feed (which takes 1 1/2 hours). Karen bottle-feeds Kylie around 6am and I stay asleep. I'll roll out of bed again around 9am.

But many times, I feel grouchy and petulant until after lunch. Just like some kind of angry, third-shift person or as I told Karen today, "I'm a right foul git!"

Today, I was itching for a fight. Karen sensed the vibe and very smartly stayed clear until the clouds parted. Is this a Scorpio thing or a post-partum thing?

The smallest things will get the anger cooking. Like the cats playing too loud or the velcro on Kylie's bib making too much noise and waking the baby when I take it off. Or the persistent four beeps of the mircrowave (I heard you the first time!!!)

And I long for a punching bag and some gloves to pound out the anger. Instead, I go for a drive and play my music really loudly. A trip to the bookstore and some deep breathing also helps.

Jazzercise will also help burn off some excess emotion; I really need to get back to that exercise class.

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I do have some happy news to share.

We got a nice, big lounger chair for the nursery to go with the glider that's already in the room. Many times, Karen ended up sitting on the floor while I'm nursing Kylie in the glider. So we decided to get another chair in the baby's nursery. We picked one that will someday move to the family room. And it's extra-long to fit Karen's 6ft frame. There's a picture of it at the bottom of this post.

And we got a freezer for our garage for the extra freezer space. Now we have room for pizza boxes! Hurray!

-Wendy

Family Visit

Karen's mom and sister just left for the airport to go back home to Tennessee. They've been staying with us since last Thursday. It's been wonderful having them here to help take care of the baby. Karen's mom would get up every morning to do the 6:00am bottle feed allowing K & I to get some extra sleep. They watched Kylie one evening so that Karen and I could have dinner out by ourselves.

For the majority of their four-day visit, we just stayed home and played "Pass the baby please...It's my time to hold her!" But we did manage to go to Portland's Rose Garden where we took these photos (the roses weren't in bloom yet but the rhododendrons were beautiful!) We also went shopping and out to eat twice.

Now for some Kylie updates....
As of Saturday, she weighs 9lbs 1oz.
She now wears size 1 diapers instead of the newborn size.
She has started holding her head up more and more.
She also has started holding her hair or our shirts while she eats.
And the smiles! How we delight in the smiles! We haven't captured a smile on camera yet but you know we'll post when we do.

You can see more pictures here.


-Wendy

First real smile

OK...I'm going to be a complete and total sucker when it comes to my daughter. This is evidenced by the fact that this morning Wendy called out to me to "come see, come see" as Kylie had smiled at her! I didn't hold out much hope that I'd get a smile too (smiling is such a new task to be able to do when mama wants it!) but came running to see if she'd do it again. And, sure enough, I leaned over the crib and cooed at her a bit and wa-la! A smile! I melted....a complete and total melt down to my toes, give her anything she wants, feel my heart nearly explode, melt!

She graced us with several more smiles before she decided it was time to nurse vs. perform for her mommies so I placed her in Wendy's arms and just stood there and beamed at the two of them. Wendy got tickled at me for being so "lit up" about the whole thing. :)

It was a great way to start the day! Here's a few photos of our sweet girl. At least two of which Kylie will be embarrassed about one of these days...hee hee.







- Karen

Mother's Day

What's the best thing you can get a new mom on Mother's Day? SLEEP!

Karen took care of the baby so that I could get a wonderful, afternoon nap. She also gave me a "new Mom" card and a delightful book. I have NO idea of when she made the time to do this! I didn't get her anything--poor K.

It's a bit odd to be a two-mom household on Mother's Day. When I was growing up, my Dad would do nice things for my Mom on Mother's Day and vice versa on Father's Day. Karen and I do nice things for each other every day. So how do we make Mother's Day special? Ideas anyone?

We managed an outing with Kylie yesterday. We went to the scrapbook store--it was a two-hour trip. I wore Kylie in her sling while shopping. I was very nervous that she would scream her head off and that other shoppers would yell "Bad Mother!" and throw stuff at me or give me disapproving glances. But Kylie was an angel and didn't make a peep. I know one day she will just lose it, in public, and I know I'll handle it. But I'm so grateful this wasn't the case yesterday.

Here's a few photos for you:
I call this one- "How do you like my hair?"




A few more photos here.

-Wendy

Tagged for 7 Things

We've been tagged by Stacey...oh my!

So, first...the rules:
Each player starts with 7 random facts/habits about themselves. People who are tagged need to blog about their seven things and post the rules as well. At the end of your post, choose 7 people to tag and list their names. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them that they have been tagged and to read your blog!

Even though Stacey counted us a two tags (very efficient I must say!), we're going to post our 7 things together (some are for Wendy, some are for me).

Fact/habit #1 (Karen):
I do clock math. Clock math is done mainly in the middle of the night and occurs when I've gotten up for a bathroom break or been awakened from a dream or when I just can't seem to sleep. Clock math works by taking all the digits of the current time and adding them up (for example: 3:26am is 3 + 2 + 6 = 11). Now, the math continues until you get a single digit number. Using our 3:26 example again, if I add up the digits and get 11, then I have to add the digits one more time, 1 + 1 = 2. So, two is my final answer. My brain then plays games with the numbers and makes deals about when I can go back to sleep. My rules are: if the time results in an answer of 1, I go back to sleep immediately...otherwise, I can't go to sleep until I see a time that does result in a 1. If I happen to close my eyes and miss the time I need, then I tell myself I can't go to sleep until the next time the digits work out to 1. Why do I do this? Heck if I know. I'm a numbers/math nerd so maybe that's part of it, but let's face it...it's just weird. Very weird.

Fact/habit #2 (Wendy):
Wendy was a beekeeper. She had the cool white suit with the funky helmet and everything. She had 3 hives of bees and even once saved the bees from a nearby tree where they had swarmed. Don't get her started on how bees dance....

Fact/habit #3 (Karen):
I'm an obsessive compulsive dishwasher reloader. Everything has to be placed "just so" in there or I move it all around. This annoys Wendy...although she usually just rolls her eyes at me and sighs.

Fact/habit #4 (Wendy):
She likes to dance to the songs at the end of movies while the credits are playing. This is a habit she got into with her dad when she was a little girl. I love this one and we share a dance after all the movies we watch at home (and even sometimes at the theater!).

Fact/habit #5 (Karen):
I still hold 2 Freshman records from my days as a UT Lady V*l. I'm 3rd all-time on the list for most field goals made by a freshman in a single game (12) and 5th all-time on the list for most points scored in a single game by a freshman (27).

Fact/habit #6 (Wendy):
Wendy's laugh is a raucous, earth-shaking, gut rumbling roar. For such a sweet little thing, her laugh sounds like it would come out of a 300 lb linebacker. It's priceless!

Fact/habit #7 (Karen and Wendy):
We both love and watch movies (all kinds of movies) so much that there is virtually no life moment that we can't whip out a movie quote to fit the moment. And usually, we can identify each other's quotes and just laugh and laugh. Other people, however, usually just think we're strange.

And, we're supposed to now tag seven folks but I'm not sure there are 7 people left who haven't already been tagged on this one! But, here's a few (if you've already been tagged, please excuse the repeat): Kerry Lynn, Lynanne, Traci and Heather.

Finally, I can't end a post without flashing at least one photo of our beautiful little girl!



- Karen

Pacifiers

Why are there pacifiers EVERYWHERE in my house but never in the room when I need them? It's like living in a pacifier Twilight Zone.

Kylie had a great night--thank heavens! We all got some much needed sleep.

Here's a few pictures for you.

-Wendy

Milk race

It feels like Kylie's milk needs and my supply are running neck and neck in a race. Right now, I'm just barely keeping up. Each day for a week, I've been pumping with the intention to create some reserve milk and each day, we've needed to feed it to Kylie. It's like I'm barely keeping her satisfied and I'm really feeling the strain. So I've started taking fenugreek and blessed thistle to boost my supply and am pumping more throughout the day.

The last 24 hours have been challenging. Kylie had some lower wind/gas problems throughout the night. **If you have some hints about how to relieve a baby's lower gas problems, please share them with us.**

And just when I felt my most frazzled and ragged from the cries of my hungry and gassy baby, my dear sweet friend Heather brought us a wonderful dinner and dessert. Thanks babe! You are a life-saver!

-Wendy

Clothes

Kylie doesn't groove on the getting dressed/undressed scene. She tends to give me this look that asks, "What the heck are you DOING to me?!" while shouting out her confusion. So I tend to keep her in one outfit all day.

But dang! Baby clothes are soooo cute. I just snicker every time I see her little body all dressed up.

Today, Kylie is sporting her karate gi look. As for the pink socks....well...one does want a hint of color!


PS - I'm really feeling my stitches these past few days. Somebody please tell me that this will pass soon.

-Wendy

Surprises

So far the first twenty days postpartum have been pretty much what I expected. But I have had a few surprises.

Nightsweats
It's incredible! I wake up totally soaked. I go through two cotton night shirts each night. The sweating doesn't wake me up but I feel so gross when I do get up. I get cold really quickly and all I want is a hot shower but there is no time for that when the baby is hungry!

Oxytocin
This lovely, breastfeeding hormone has me really chilled out. I've been surprised that I don't really want to do much in between feedings. In fact, staring at the wall or at my belly button has become my new pastime. I'll have the thought, "Gee...I should really do this or this or this" and then I'll just sigh and go back to staring at the wall. My lackadaisical days have surprised me.

What about you? What surprised you the most about the first 20 postpartum days?

-Wendy

PS - Can't have a post without a picture of my beautiful daughter. You can see more pictures here

Going Out

This was the scene at our house today.

I realize that I'm only comfortable in v-necked shirts. Round neck shirts make me feel like I'm choking. I blame the bigger boobs. I only have two v-necked shirts and I've been wearing them back and forth for the past 16 days.

Karen and I talk about it and we decide to take Kylie on her first real outing that doesn't include a hospital or doctor's visit. We're going to buy some shirts! Woo-hoo!! We change Kylie, feed her, burp her, take a bunch of pictures and then load her in the carseat.

We start to leave and I realize I don't have any burp cloths in her diaper bag.
We start to leave again and I realize that I need a snack bar and some water for the trip.
We start to leave again (actually make it to the garage this time) and I forget to grab the diaper bag.
We're sitting in the car and we realize that we didn't load the stroller in to the trunk.
We're in the car, on the road, when I remember that I have a gift to return at one of the stores we're going to. We circle the block and pull BACK in to the garage and grab the gift.

Whew!! How crazy is that?! But then again, it's just our first outing. Hopefully we will get better at this!

For now, I'll just leave you with some new pictures. (PS- I did put a sweater and blanket around the baby for her outing. I don't want our family to think that I'm freezing the baby)

-Wendy

Days fly by

I think I finally understand why my parents always said time seemed to move so quickly when I thought it was eternally slow when I was a child. Watching your child grow and change day-by-day and focusing your energy, love and attention on them is kinda like time lapse photography. The changes appear as if by magic in what seems like moments although the reality is hours, days or weeks.

Kylie is just two weeks (plus 1 day) old and it seems as if the time has flown by. Even with a few long nights thrown in, I look back and wonder at how quickly it has all come and gone. In my opinion (however biased it may be), she grows more beautiful each day as her little cheeks fill out and her arms and legs unfold. I can sit and stare at her for hours (and do) and never grow tired of it.

Was this how my mom felt? Did she hold me and stare at me while I slept? Did she gently touch my fingers and toes and feel so full of wonder and joy that she could barely breathe? Wow. Who knew? I think it really is true that becoming a mother makes you really know the love your mother felt/feels for you. It's quite a "circle of life" kinda thing and I think it's marvelous.

We're doing pretty well. Wendy and Kylie are doing much better with the breastfeeding and seem to have developed a good routine together. It's so neat to watch them. Kylie continues to gain weight and is having many more periods of alert time during the day (and night!).


Life is good. Life is very, very good.

- Karen