babyblog

Meet The Teacher

Both boys went to their respective schools yesterday to meet their teachers and get oriented for the beginning of term on Tuesday.

Dylan was thrilled find that he is going to get the male teacher he'd been hoping for, and also that his best friend is going to be in his class again. He came home extremely happy! I can't believe he's going into 3rd Grade already. This year he has some exams for the first time which he is nervous about. Gareth met with his new teacher though and is very happy with him - thinks he will be great. I'm also pleased that our psycho neighbours kid isn't in Dylans class again as this means we won't have to have any dealings with her this year.

Harry starts Montessori next week and we went to meet his teacher too and introduce him to the classroom. Being typical Harry he ran from one thing to another loudly exclaiming and the teacher followed him attempting to teach him to be quiet (LOL). Also when he picked up a couple of plastic animals and started driving them into each other shouting CRASH she said 'They're not angry animals Harry, they're happy animals' (!!!!). I hope they don't suck the life out of him as he's fantastically happy and boistrous, but at the same time he could use some lessons in being quiet occasionally ;-) He liked it anyway.

Babysitter had her last day yesterday and what an enormous help she's been. I am definitely going to have her again for future school vacations.

Speaking of vacations - we're going to the UK, leaving here on Boxing Day for 2 wks, yay.

Me - 432 months

Ugh! Happy Birthday to me.

Tabitha - 2 months old

Dear Tabitha

Today you are 2 months old.

In alot of ways you're not a 'newborn baby' any more. And in many others, you still are. Appearance wise you've obviously filled out and gained a few pounds, and you're getting more solid - your head isn't quite so likely to flop everywhere and you feel more sturdy than you did 2 months ago. You still have the same amount of hair that you were born with (grow hair, grow!) though, and you still have a little of the baby acne that you were born with, and you still have the general appearance and manner of a cute tiny baby. People still stop us everywhere we go to coo over you. When I think to the size of your brothers at 2 months it's amazing to think your'e still swamped by 0-3 month clothes and not already outgrowing everything.

We are beginning to get you into a routine. It's still very up in the air but you will now sleep for 6-7 hours at a time at night, waking once for a feed and then going back to sleep until morning. This is wonderful for an 8 wk old baby! The downside to this though (and of course there is one) is that you will nurse for 3 or 4 hours straight all evening long 'tanking up' for that big sleep stretch at night, which is of course very exhausting. Also, when you wake for that 4am feed, you will only go back to sleep if lying on your dad's chest. He doesn't mind too much so it's not a massive issue at this point and I'm sure you will grow out of it, but hopefully you will begin to let us put you back in your crib soon :)

In the day you will sleep in your swing, in the car, on a person, anywhere but your crib. I'm trying to do the routine where you're put back down for a nap after being awake no more than 2 hours at a time, and that seems to be working well - your mood is definitely improved by having more rest!

When you are awake you're starting to be very delightful. No longer fussy all the time you will lie and coo and smile and be very lovely indeed. Infact now I think about it you're only usually fussy when your nappy needs changing, if you have gas, any time after 6pm, or if you're fed up being in the car too long!

You definitely prefer to be held than to be put down anywhere when you're awake. You don't like to lie on your playmat or sit in your bouncy chair yet. That's a big difference with you to your brothers .. and I'm told by my friends that it's fairly typical of little girls to need their mummies that bit more. I secretly like this :-)

I'm really enjoying having a little girl, you. There's something very special about having someone in the family that I can relate to on a very different and special level because she's like me. I am really looking forward to you growing and doing girly things with me and being great friends as well as mother and daughter.

I'm also enjoying dressing you in the most adorable little clothes! Your dad is despairing because I cannot pass a shop without wanting something for you. He'll soon realise that having a little girl means a far larger clothes budget is required! :-)

Anyway little lady, I must sign off. Keep doing what you're doing, you're just gorgeous and we all love you to bits.

Mummy xxxx

Harry cuteness

'I lub you mom'
I love you too Harry.
'I miss you' (at bedtime)
I miss you too Harry.

Girl babies are harder than boy babies

I've reached this conclusion with some help from my cousin who has one of each.

Girl babies are hard work.

Tabitha needs alot more attention and stimulation than the boys ever did. When she's awake I'm spending every minute trying to keep her happy, or consoling her when my efforts fail. I am permanently taking her from A to B to C to D to E to F in my efforts to entertain her. She is absolutely not content to sit or lie down and watch the world go by. She also gets very over-wrought and over-tired and in the case of last night gets herself into a state and then cannot go to sleep (until 11.30pm - ARGH). If she is content doing something it is for a very short time untl she gets fed up.

She is nursing alot when awake and unlike the boys used to, doesn't get into that nice milky full sleepy state afterwards, is back up and raring to go again and usually grumbling.

My boy babies were quite different in in comparison! As long as their bellies were full they were much easier, they would happily lie on a play mat for a while or sit in a bouncy chair, or on your knee and spend a couple of happy hours between naps and feeds.

It's a fact that girls tend to develop more quickly than boys, in particuar girls are alot more into mentally stimulating activities as children than boys are, tend to talk earlier, read earlier, etc while boys are more advanced with the physical development. I think that this is why girls are more difficult as babies too - they're more alert and aware than their male counterparts and they require alot more stimulation and entertainment to satisfy their needs.

Bugger.

Passports & Medicals

So in order to send off for Tabitha's passport today, we had to take the forms down to the court house. Despite the somewhat informal content of the forms themselves, in order to get into the court house we were subjected to an airport style bag search by armed guards, and had to pass through an x-ray machine.

We then gave the forms to a woman behind a thick glass counter and she checked them over, took the fee, and then asked us to raise our right hands and swear that this was infact Tabitha Lily Jones. I found I was unable to do this without giggling incredulously which earned me quite the frown. I guess it's some kind of American thing but why on earth does my holding my right hand in the air make me more likely to tell the truth than, say, not holding it in the air at all?

After this was done we went to get our medical exams for our Green Card application. This consisted of several inches of paperwork per person, a blood test for G & I, a tetanus shot for me, and a TB skin prick test for all of us. We have to return on Friday to check the TB thing and complete the medical. All our paperwork, except the medical results, has now been submitted and hopefully it won't be too long before we're permanent residents of the US, which is cool and means I can work if I want to (which of course I don't ).

Still enjoying the babysitter..

Hiring our babysitter is definitely the single most brilliant thing I've ever done in my life. These last few weeks of summer holidays, even with 3 children to worry about, are not even remotely stressful as I've got someone around to help out!

We've also been doing lots - ensuring the boys get some fresh air and exercise every day by going to various parks with friends, or taking trips to fun places.

Tab was in a lovely mood yesterday and I actually braved the supermarket with the 3 of them BY MYSELF. And later took them all to the mall to pick up my rings where they were again really well behaved and it was a breeze! The rings, by the way, are stunning. My engagement ring in it's new setting is absolutely beautiful and I can't stop staring at it! Can't wait to get my eternity ring back on Friday to complete the set :)

Today I have a migraine - blah. Not sure why as I'm off the sugar and off the caffeine....... although I did cheat and have a couple of chocolate chip cookies the day before so maybe that's why.

Another thing to note before I sign off - yesterday I started figuring out how to apply for an American passport for Tabitha. In the UK applying for a passport isn't terribly easy, there's alot of forms, things to be signed by witnesses to your existence, etc. In Canada it's worse again because the law on the photo's is absurd and you try getting an infant to look directly at a camera with both eyes open, mouth closed, and two ears visible. Oh and your witness? has to be of a certain profession and if you're a resident alien in a country where you don't know anyone in one of those professions nor have you lived there long enough for them to sign even if you didn't....... well, you get the point.

I expected applying for an American passport to be more difficult again but it was suprisingly easy. Fill out her name, DOB, SS#, address, and supply a couple of photo's and her birth cert. Easy. The fact that she's sticking out her tongue in the photo and turning her head slightly to one side? Not a problem. Bizarre for a country so security concious.

Better Sleep

Tabby has improved her sleeping habits over the last few days.

She has started to fall asleep for the night around 8.30pm after cluster feeding and suffering colicky crying for a couple of hours.

The other night for the first time she slept for 7 hours straight and for the 2 subsequent nights she's slept 6 and a half hours. She will then wake up for a feed and go back to sleep until 7.30am....... which isn't half bad. That's much better than Harry did!

The issues I still have with her though are that she will only go to sleep while nursing, and she will only be put down in bed if she's already zonk'd on me. Then when she wakes for her 3.30am or whenever it is feed, she will only go back to sleep on Gareth and she will only sleep th erest of the night if she stays on Gareth. The problem with the latter stretch is that she tends to really wake up for the night feed and it's hard to get her to go back off. When she does go back off she's a bit squirmy and windy and requires alot of patting and such, so she just can't go back to sleep if she's in her crib.

There are worse problems to have I suppose.

What I need to learn now is to go to bed earlier and then I'll get more sleep too! But it is really nice having our evenings to ourselves (with the exception of Dylan who is up far too late during the summer!)

Comcast

Comcast, our cable provider, have recently "upgraded" the software on our DVR, rendering it pretty much unuseable.

Prior to the "upgrade" the EPG and menu's were apparentl provided by Microsoft. (I didn't know this until recently and I'm only saying so because I don't want anyone to think I'm defending MS :-). While not perfect, it was easy to use, the interface was attractive, and despite being occasionally slow it pretty much worked fine.

The new interface is provided by 'TV Guide' and it absolutely stinks. It is ugly and hard to read, there is difficulty viewing any info about a programme, it is colourless and square, and the DVR menu almost unfathomable.

It also lost all of the recordings that I had set to go, so I missed a couple of things that I had wanted to see. More baffling is that it randomly records a programme on Discovery called "Survivorman" every day or so. I have checked thoroughly and there is absolutely nothing set to record at all, so quite why it does this I don't know but I can't seem to stop it.

Finally, you can no longer easily fast forward or rewind through a recording. It used to be that you had 4 options.

Slow FF.
Quicker FF.
Quick FF.
Fast FF.

'Quicker FF' was the perfect speed to zoom through ad breaks. Now, you have 3 options.
Slow FF for 30 seconds and then freeze.
Fucking Fast FF.
Really Fucking Fast FF.

So you can't actually FF through any ads without accidentally going 5 minutes into your programme. Nor can you rewind back without going back to the beginning of the ads again by the time you've hit play. Irritating.

It has to go. We're getting a TiVo.

Ring Ring

When I got pregnant with Harry, my fingers swelled and I gained weight and had to remove my wedding ring and engagement ring. After Harry was born my fingers didn't shrink so I haven't worn them since.

Another problem - my engagement ring was an antique from Bond Street in London. Because it's so old, the gold band actually wore so thin that it snapped at the back.

After Harry was born I took both rings to a jeweller to enquire about getting the engagement ring repaired and both of them resizing. The jeweller said that the prongs holding the diamond had also worn thin and that I was in danger of losing the stone, so should seriously consider having the stone reset into a new band. Rather than agree on the spot I took them home to consult G and then never did anything about it....... so I've basically been without rings for the last 4 years, which I really hate.

On the day Tabitha was born G presented me with this gorgeous diamond eternity ring from Tiffany..... really beautiful. This week we took it to get resized and aLso took my engagement ring to see about getting it reset. They had a fabulous new band and setting for it so we went ahead and left it to be done, and also to resize and polish my wedding ring.

Note: When did gold become unfashionable? My engagement ring and wedding ring are gold, as was the tradition when we got married, other options were not really very common or available. Now, it seems the people working in jewellery stores look at you with a bit of a sneer when they say incredulously 'you want YELLOW gold?'

But sod them, I'm really excited because this week I'll finally have my rings back plus my new glorious eternity ring and will finally stop feeling like a single mother when I'm out on my own with the kids ;-)

Who are you and what have you done with my baby?

Over the last couple of weeks Tabitha has become more & more miserable. For certain periods of the day she has been very very fussy indeed, obviously in alot of discomfort, writhing her body in pain

She's had what felt like very trapped wind all of the time, and has been throwing up quite alot after feeds and between feeds. Basically every minute that she's been awake she's either been feeding or very unhappy, and it's been a real struggle, especially at 2am for 4 hours at a time.

Not much has consoled her, gripe water has occasionally soothed the pain for 5 mins, but mostly she's been crying or grizzling, and yesterday I think both G and I reached a point where we became concerned that this was just not right, that we should have a happy baby, a contented baby, and not a baby who is clearly struggling with pain all of the time.

When I woke this morning it occured to me that she could have a problem with milk protein in my diet. Cutting out dairy is one of the first things to do when you have babies with this kind of problem. The other 'suspect' was acid reflux.. something I've heard a bit about and can be quite common with babies.

Anyway - I took her to the pediatrician this afternoon and asked him what he thought and he was fairly convinced that she has acid reflux. He suggested I might cut out what seemed like a couple of obvious triggers to her problem - namely my afternoon nonfact decaf latte and my evening sugar-free ice cream - but otherwise don't cut out all dairy & we will start by treating her for reflux with zantac, and see how she does. The pediatrician said he was almost going to guarantee that we'd see an improvement with the zantac,

Anyway - I came home and gave her a dose of the zantac medicine and it was like someone switched her for another baby, one who for the first time sat contentedly - smiling and looking around her for a good hour.. who sat happily in the car seat looking out of the window.... who enjoyed being in the park looking at the trees...who came home and lay for a good 30 mins on my lap smiling at me. All things she has never done before due to being always in pain and discomfort.. it was amazing! When G came home, she lay in his arms doing the same then contentedly fell asleep.

I hope I haven't jinxed us by thinking that we've just found a miracle cure, but wow :)

The best decision I ever made..

Was to hire our 15 yr old neighbour / babysitter to come for 3 afternoons per week during the rest of the summer. She's been twice so far and it's made an *enormous* difference to my general sense of wellbeing. I'm no longer stressed about G going back to work, I'm not stressed thinking of how I'm going to get through the day with the 3 of them to worry about, and I'm not feeling alone with someone else over the age of 8 to talk to!

More importantly, the boys are very happy, especially Harry. He's got a new best friend to play with, someone who can give him 100% focus and far more energy than his poor sleep deprived mother has right now.

Not that I'm removing myself from the equation, far from it. I remain with them, but I can sit and comfortably feed Tabitha without having to get up and take Harry to the loo or deal with whatever other immediate crisis arises every 5 minutes. We've been to the park every day so far too and Harry has someone who can lift him into the swings but he still has his mummy right there too.... know what I mean?

Today I'm going to take Tabitha and visit a friend leaving the boys at home with the babysitter, but I have no worries on that front at all.... so all is great! :)

Last night I was quite proud of myself as we arrived back from the park at 5pm and the babysitter went home.. and within 20 minutes I had managed to take Tabitha out of her car seat, change her, feed her, get Harry washed and changed, get Dylan organized with a sweater, pack a bag, and go out to meet friends for Dinner by 5.25. Not bad for a new mum of 3.

We met with friends for dinner down in the town center where they have a "Wednesday Night Concert Series'. Dinner was great... ... then we strolled into town. The street is closed off and they have lots of activities for kids including bouncy castles, chalk to draw on the road, huge bubble wands for them to make bubbles with, pretend tattoos, drinks, etc. They had a jazz band playing in the main area and we had a nice walk up and down listening to the music while the kids had a blast. Must do it again next week. Tabitha even managed to stay asleep or content until 8pm when we got home, only starting the nightly screaming round when we got there..... not bad at all.

Banning Harry Potter

Dylan, my prodigious reader, has got stuck on Harry Potter. He started reading them when he was 4 or 5... but in the last few months in the run up to HP7 has become obsessed with the series, reading the books over & over & over again. He has literally been reading them one by one then starting over again and must've read each at least 5 times.

At school they have 'Accelerated Reader' tests where they test students knowledge of books, each book graded to the age the reader should be expected to be when reading, remembering, and fully comprehending. These Harry Potter tests are aimed at Grade 7. He's done all of the tests (in Grade 2) and got full marks in each. He knows every detail of the books inside out. Not surprising because he has refused to touch another author in months.

Once we'd read 'The Deathly Hallows' (and he'd re-read it) I told him we were putting a ban on all Harry Potter books for a while to give him a chance to read something else. So far we've had 2 nights of tears because he can't read them..... he's so obsessed it's ridiculous. He's also now refusing to read anything at all if he can't read HP...... I know this won't last because he has a huge love of reading and will not want to go to bed without a book in hand for long, but arghhh I feel very wicked banning them, but what can I do ? I don't want his brain turning to Harry Potter Mush.

One of those mornings

Tabitha has just refused to nap for longer than 10 minutes so far today. Exhausting. And inconvenient as I'm trying to clear out Harry's room and sort out his shelves! On the plus side, she did sleep in her bassinet all night last night thanks to some swaddling and a dummy which I managed to convince her was not the ultimate in unpleasant things to put in ones mouth. Result.

Our babysitter starts today - she's coming 3 afternoons per week to play with the boys. Hurrah.

Back to reality

G went back to work today after 5 blissful weeks off.

I have been dreading it. Not because I'm nervous of looking after the kids by myself, those I can handle. What I have dreaded is being alone without adult company around me all day.

Any stay-at-home mother will attest to this I'm sure. Being at home with kids is hard mostly because you are surrounded by small people and you lack the company of big people. It's such a treat when you can have adult conversations, and on a normal day these are usually limited to playdates with your little ones and their mothers. It can be a lonely way of life.

And of course your days become the daily grind of routine... get up, play this , do that, have lunch, play this, do that, make dinner, wait for hubby/daddy to get home. One of the most enjoyable things about the last 5 weeks has been the break from that grind, and it had become an awful grind if truth be told with the last few months of pregnancy getting me down, every weekend spent doing DIY by G and childcare by me, and basically having no energy & never spending any time together as a family.

When he went this morning I was quite positive, managing to clear out Dylans closet while wearing Taibtha in a Baby Bjorn, tidy up the kitchen, get dressed (albeit not showered), and then go out for a 3 hour playdate with a friend and her two boys. When I got back though, it hit me that I felt suddenly like I'd never had this break from the grind. I called G and when I got him on the phone I realised I missed him dreadfully, hearing his voice away from me and the kids was horrible.

I also realised that while he was here and I could focus on feeding the baby without having to worry about Harry needing an urgent poo / drink / wee / etc or if the baby were giving me a hard time that I could pass her over to someone to get a few minutes break, that doing it on my own is infinitely more tiring - especially after having had very little sleep. I feel very tired indeed, and I feel like I'm already forgetting what it was like the last 5 weeks, and that I'm back where I started.... exhausted and counting down the minutes until he gets home.

Hopefully tomorrow will be better.

No News

The DR (or rather, midwife) didn't know what's causing the pain in my incision area. She says the most likely suspects are a haematoma caused by some stitches being ripped out, or a muscle torn somehow. She gave me more pain medicine and told me if it's no better by next Weds that I need to go and have an MRI. It is actually a bit better mind you, as I've done very little for the last couple of days. We've been out, but not on major excursions, and I've been careful to avoid lifting things.

Instead, I'm on day 2 of a migraine. I think this is because I unwittingly got a caffeine addiction going again in the form of diet coke. I don't usually drink it but with G around (and him being an addict) it's been plentiful in the fridge so I've been having a couple of cans a day. I bought some caffeine free ones instead and as of yesterday switched to those, and sure enough - stonking migraine. Note to self: Avoid fizzy drinks with caffeine in!!

I bought Tabby a play gym today - she absolutely loves it. I lay her on it this evening and she smiled away at all the little toys and kicked her legs in glee. I also put her on her tummy for some 'tummy time' for the first time...... I never really did this with the boys because I'm a slacker and maybe it accounts for their being slow to crawl. Although thinking about it, I'm not sure I want her to crawl early. Immobility is alot easier!

On the colic front, we fixed her last night. She was screaming inconsolably again and G decided to take her for a drive. He was out for an hour and she fell asleep almost immediately that they left. When she got back she was hungry but no longer screaming. This is definitely the way forward if this continues for another 2 months as predictions for colic tend to say..... far less stressful than listening to her cry and not being able to do anything for her, the poor lamb.

Colic

Tabby is suffering, most evenings, with bad colic spells. She is very very fussy from 7pm through to about midnight, in pain, wanting to nurse constantly but then pulling away crying, and in the case of a couple of nights ago - completely inconsolable. It's heartbreaking really. Nothing seems to help... although I've got some gripe water to try for the next spell of it.

She also 'spits up' (chucks up) alot after feeds. We had her 1 month checkup today and the DR doesnt' think it's bad reflux because it's not causing her pain from acid, but it makes for alot of changes of clothing (mine and hers!). I might invest in some bibs!

She's now 9lb, amazingly. Maybe some things will start to fit more now! She's still bang on the 50th percentile for weight, bless. I do love that, love that she's not likely to get the 'oooh big girl' comments like the boys used to get! Her skin is still appalling, covered in these little white newborn spots and looking like she has major acne. I can't wait for that to clear up. She's also extremely smiley now -the DR was very surprised that she's so advanced,, hehe.

I do hope the colic soon gets better in the evenings...... and that she can learn to sleep on her back in her crib. Her tummy is so uncomfortable for her that sleeping on her tummy on her daddy is the only comfortable position.

Tomorrow I am going to see the OB about the now excrutiating pain in the c-section area. I think I must've bust open some internal stitching or something it hurts so much. I need to get it seen to.