We've tipped the scales…
Archive for June, 2008
Jenn’s Daily iPhone Pic
12
Jun
Grace & Daphne at Chrissy Field!
11
Jun
Grace, clearly on the right (you can tell by her delicately small size!) and Daphne took their moms for a walk at Chrissy Field today. The weather was warm, the breeze was strong, and, were it not for the blankets covering their strollers and their inability to see more than a foot or so in front of their faces, the two girls might have enjoyed the view!
Experimentally Challenged
09
Jun
Every parent knows (we just read this in the manual) that having a kid is just a giant experiment. There are books and websites and people out there to tell you what works and what doesn’t but its all a crap shoot because every child is different and “perfect” in their own way.
This weekend Jenn decided the time was right for the Great Nipple Experiment. As you may or may not know, all nipples are not created equal. While this is obviously true comparing mine to Jenn’s, it is also true of the store-bought kind that we attach to Grace’s bottles. They sell slow flow (Level 1), medium flow (Level 2) and, for those wild babies learning to chug formula like a frat guy, fast flow (Level 3).
Dainty little Grace has been using Level 1 since she came home from the hospital. She generally takes a few ounces of formula in 25-30 minutes. Sometimes she does this easily but more and more often we have to work to feed her. Since she refuses to talk, it is difficult to say whether gas, clogged nipples or stubbornness is the cause of the tougher feeds. Yesterday, as Lincoln and I left for the hardware store, Jenn decided to test her hypothesis that it was the nipple that was causing the problems.
When we got home about 20 minutes later, Jenn said “So…um…I found out what Level 2 nipples do”
“Oh yeah?”
“First of all, she took the whole bottle in about 9 minutes”
I should mention that Jenn likes to add drama to numbers by hitting either ridiculous end of a range for effect. Things can either happen in 5 seconds or 1 million years. When I hear her say a number, I have to assess whether this is a drama number or a real number. This one sounded real. Hmmm, cutting the feeding time by 2/3 might save us hours per week, hours we could be doing laundry! BUT it also might yield some unexpected results.
“And?” I asked slowly, “How did that work out?”
“Well…there was kind of a wet burp…and then I spent the next 10 minutes watching all of it come back out all over both of us.”
So what did we learn? First, trying to save time for laundry can make more dirty laundry. Second, we might have a new way of making those volcanoes that are so popular at science fairs. Third, Grace probably isn’t ready for Level 2.
Happy notchurbirthday
04
Jun
Dear Grace,
Today is not your birthday. Sure, I could say that about 364 other days of the year, but today is a little different. When we found out about you a little less than 9 months ago, this is the day that the doctors told us you were due. At the time, your mom and I had just finished getting married (which sounds simple but isn’t) and we were setting ourselves up to relax and recover. Then your mom peed on a little stick (sure it’s gross but you get over it) and two little lines showed up instead of the one line that would have meant she was not pregnant. I suggested that maybe she was NOT pregnant with twins but that doesn’t really make sense, does it? Anyway, after planning a massive party, we started to plan for you. That is why today’s date meant so much to us. June 4th. THAT’S when things will really start happening. It wasn’t until mid-march that anyone suggested to us that June 4th might not be the date and we had better start planning for something else. As it turns out, we just stopped planning altogether because it became clear to both of us that we were not in charge.
I want to you know something. You can’t always be in charge. Sometimes Mommy and Daddy are going to have to decide what is best and make sure that whatever we need to have happen, happens. We are not completely powerless.
So you needed to be born on March 28th, more than 2 months before you were “supposed” to. To everyone’s surprise you came out very healthy (though kind of scrawny) and you have gotten bigger and healthier every day since then.
We do feel very lucky to spend our days with your (most of the time). We got to spend an extra 2 months getting to know you that most parents don’t get. That said, you really didn’t do much for those two months but eat and sleep. You were the most beautiful thing that either of us has ever seen, even when you were just doing those things. Of course, you cried a little when you were cold or hungry or your mom tried to suck the snot out of you with a little blue bulb (an activity she enjoys a little more than might be considered “normal”, if you ask me) but mostly we could swaddle you up or hold you close, and you would fall right to sleep making us feel like the best parents in the world.
So now we have reached the day that you were supposed to be. You are officially a newborn. With your new status come some new skills (which you have been practicing for the past few weeks). You now actually look at us like we are important, you smile sometimes when you are asleep and, most significantly, you cry more…a lot more. I know this is true, because I can hear you when Mommy and I talk on the phone. I can almost hear it between the lines of the notes she writes me during the day. Also, when I get home from work, your Mommy looks a little more frazzled than she used to. And there is more wine in the house. We are not drinking a lot more of it, but I think we are planning for contingencies in case you decide to keep crying a lot more.
We look forward to the part where you learn to tell us what is wrong or at least smile when we guess right. Smiles are important. I think smiles and giggles are at the top of the list of things that will melt our hearts when and if we ever get tired of just watching you sleep.
We’ve come a long way Baby!
04
Jun
Once upon a time, in a land not far from here, a young, recently married woman ate some cheddar cheese. This cheddar cheese had magical properties and formed itself into a little girl-shape…
Slowly, but surely, the cheese-girl grew. Then, one day, the cheese-girl decided that she didn’t want to be cheesy anymore. She wanted to be a real girl. So she wished it to be true. And before anyone knew it, it was true…
So the little girl got what she wished for, but it wasn’t quite what she expected. She was a real girl but she was cold sometimes and had to live in a box. So she wished again, as hard as she could. And she ate. And ate. And ate.
And she lived happily ever after (poo, poo, poo).
Happy Due Date!
04
Jun
About 4 months ago I bought a talking clock online. I think it is made for blind people but it had a unique feature that I thought would be fun. It lets me pick the date and/or time of 3 events and the clock remembers…and recites at the push of a button…either how long it had been since the event or how long until the event. This morning at 7am Jenn started calling from the bedroom asking “Why is that thing talking to me?!?” It took me a little bit to figure out that the clock was announcing that it was 0 months, 0 days until Grace was supposed to arrive. Woo hoo! I quickly hit another button and it told me that it has been 2 months, 6 days, 23 hours and 33 minutes since Grace actually arrived. I didn’t push the other button but I know that it would tell me that it has been 9 short months, 2 short days and a mere 14 hours since we got married.
In many ways, it feels like we have arrived at the starting line…after running around the track 10 times looking for it. With preemies, when people ask your child’s age you tend to give them their “adjusted age” working from their due date, to avoid the gosh-she’s-small-don’t-you-feed-her look. We can now stop working in negative numbers. We can finally start looking forward to the milestones that all the books say your child should reach. No more talk of oxygen and feeding tubes! Now we will join other parents in the practice of finding ways in which our little Gracie is doing way better than their kids. (Oh, I’m sure yours will smile in her sleep soon, ours is already thinking about the alphabet). In other words, the race is on!
Butterfly and Peanut Chat
03
Jun
Who knew that insects and legumes could have so much to talk about? Fortunately, whatever they were talking about was ultimately resolved.
Aunt Christie comes to visit
01
Jun
Cousin Ryan is at home waiting for a picture so I wanted to not disappoint her. Ryan is my sister’s oldest and her two brothers drive her a little crazy so she is really looking forward to spending time with her new cousin. For our part, we are counting on some great babysitting out of Ryan in the coming few years.