We didn't expect Madeline to share our tastes and interests in everything. We know that as she grows up she will probably reject our music, (Especially Eric's) our fashion choices, (Especially mine) and our rules. (What do you mean I can't get a cellphone?! I'm six years old Momma, everyone has a cellphone!)
What we didn't expect was for all this rejection to start so soon.
The only night of the week that we are truly interested in watching TV is on Thursdays. Our DVR goes bananas on Thursdays.
Eric and I are big fans of The Office. (Especially Eric. I mostly just wish that Jim and Pam were our neighbors so that our babies could play together and we could be friends. I contemplated stealing Jim from Pam, but really, that's just wrong because they totally belong together.)
Anyhow, Madeline has decided that she hates The Office. Every single time Thursday night rolls around, she starts screaming around 8:30 (which means we also miss 30 Rock...Damn it, Lemon.) and continues straight through The Office. Even back when she was a quiet baby who rarely made a peep, she would still cry during The Office. She even cries through the reruns!
I'm not quite sure what her objections are, but I suspect that it might have something to do with scenes like this. Madeline is not amused by baby humor. Babies should be taken seriously.
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Incredibly Boring Baby Updates
After a five-hour crying jag last night, I decided we were definitely calling Maddie's pediatrician this morning just to make sure she wasn't sick or injured.
Madeline was a good girl and screamed bloody murder during the entire (almost) two hours we were there. Normally I am not a fan of her crying, but I was happy that she provided proof that her Momma is not crazy.
The doctor looked her up and down and from side to side and found nothing wrong. She decided that Madeline probably is experiencing colic with some acid reflux issues mixed in there. She wrote us a prescription that I'm desperately hoping will bring Maddie some relief. It's so hard watching her be sad all the time. We'll see.
In other incredible baby news, Maddie weighs a whopping eleven pounds! Last time we saw the doctors a month ago she weighed seven. Pretty impressive. They weighed her on two different scales just to make sure that she was indeed that chubby. She's a hardy baby with cute fat rolls! No wonder she has acid reflux with all the eating she's been doing.
Madeline was a good girl and screamed bloody murder during the entire (almost) two hours we were there. Normally I am not a fan of her crying, but I was happy that she provided proof that her Momma is not crazy.
The doctor looked her up and down and from side to side and found nothing wrong. She decided that Madeline probably is experiencing colic with some acid reflux issues mixed in there. She wrote us a prescription that I'm desperately hoping will bring Maddie some relief. It's so hard watching her be sad all the time. We'll see.
In other incredible baby news, Maddie weighs a whopping eleven pounds! Last time we saw the doctors a month ago she weighed seven. Pretty impressive. They weighed her on two different scales just to make sure that she was indeed that chubby. She's a hardy baby with cute fat rolls! No wonder she has acid reflux with all the eating she's been doing.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
6 Weeks
Madeline is six weeks old today. Time is going by so fast. Before I know it, there will be snow on the ground, and I will be heading back to work. I need to keep reminding myself to appreciate every moment I have with her now because it will be very sad for Momma when I'm not with her during the day anymore. Luckily, we found a daycare we trust. Best part? We don't have to keep her enrolled full-time during the summer when we're not working. One less thing to worry about.
Madeline is getting so big. Her little cheeks are so, so chubby. I remember when I could wrap my entire hand around her head. Not any more.
She's continuing to smile. She's continuing to be more awake and alert throughout the day. She's rolled over from her belly to her back several more times, and her neck is getting stronger. Eric was carrying her around the living room last night, and she had her head way up off his shoulder as she looked around the room curiously for several minutes.
She likes watching and listening to her rattle. She started refusing to take her pacifier, but she really enjoys sucking on Momma's knuckles when she gets riled up. Her hair is redder than ever, but she's kinda rocking a mullet. It's really long and thick in the back, and she's basically bald in the front.
Unfortunately, her sad mood has continued, and even gotten worse. Almost every night she has a huge crying fit. Last night she screamed her head off from 5:30 to around 10 pm. Eric the wonder daddy tried everything in his bag of tricks to quiet her, but nothing worked.
On the bright side, she tuckered herself out so much from crying that she slept like a champ during the night. She slept for a record breaking six hours straight. Then, after she ate, she slept for another four hours. At least she has her crying fits in the late afternoon to early evenings so we can get some sleep. Although on Saturday night it lasted until 3 am, so maybe I'm getting ahead of myself.
I just try to focus on the fact that the crying won't last forever. Hopefully relief is around the corner. We love you Maddie Bear, please be happy for Momma and Daddy.
Madeline is getting so big. Her little cheeks are so, so chubby. I remember when I could wrap my entire hand around her head. Not any more.
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| Zoned-Out Maddie |
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| Curious Maddie |
She likes watching and listening to her rattle. She started refusing to take her pacifier, but she really enjoys sucking on Momma's knuckles when she gets riled up. Her hair is redder than ever, but she's kinda rocking a mullet. It's really long and thick in the back, and she's basically bald in the front.
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| Happy Maddie |
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| Unhappy Maddie |
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| Aww, cute baby toes! |
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Pretty in Pink
Giving birth to a baby girl means two things: One, you instantly start preparing for the day when you will have to endure the wrath of a fifteen-year-old female; and Two, in the meantime, your living space will start to look like a bottle of Pepto-Bismol has thrown up all over it. We have pink things everywhere! Pink balloons, pink envelopes, pink flowers, pink blankets, and her wardrobe? Well, this girl is going to be wearing nothing but pink-footed pajamas until she gets a job at Market Basket and starts buying her own clothes.
In my experiences, I've found that are two kinds of people. There are the people who love dressing baby girls in pink because it's adorable and sweet. Then, there are the kind of people who reject everything pink because they feel it represents the subjection of the female species.
Luckily, I embrace pink girlishness hardcore. Pink (as Shelby from Steel Magnolia's would say) is my signature color. Growing up, people always told me that I couldn't wear pink because it would clash with my red hair. Well, somewhere in my late teen years I finally stopped listening to this advice, and you know what? I look damn good in pink. It brings out the undertones in my otherwise transparent skin.
Now that I've spawned another redhead, thus doing my part to prevent the inevitable demise of our species, my girl will wear pink proudly!
For those of you who love pink as much as I do, a list of all things pink and lovely.
For those of you who reject pink, a list of all things pink and...not so lovely:
1. Undercooked chicken
2. Grapefruit juice
3. Rush Limbaugh's Face
4. The Energizer Bunny
5. The Pink Panther
6. Molly Reinwald's prom dress in Pretty in Pink (Seriously, she takes an awesome vintage 50's dress and turns it into some 80s monstrosity.)
7. Pink Eye
8. Pink Belly
9. Pink Poodles
In my experiences, I've found that are two kinds of people. There are the people who love dressing baby girls in pink because it's adorable and sweet. Then, there are the kind of people who reject everything pink because they feel it represents the subjection of the female species.
Luckily, I embrace pink girlishness hardcore. Pink (as Shelby from Steel Magnolia's would say) is my signature color. Growing up, people always told me that I couldn't wear pink because it would clash with my red hair. Well, somewhere in my late teen years I finally stopped listening to this advice, and you know what? I look damn good in pink. It brings out the undertones in my otherwise transparent skin.
Now that I've spawned another redhead, thus doing my part to prevent the inevitable demise of our species, my girl will wear pink proudly!
For those of you who love pink as much as I do, a list of all things pink and lovely.
- Pink Sunsets
- Pink Roses
- Cotton Candy
- Pink Lemonade
- Jem's Hair (It's truly, truly, truly outrageous!)
- Bubblegum
- Glinda the Good Witch
- The movie Pretty in Pink
- Shrimp Cocktail
- Cosmopolitans
- Strawberry Ice Cream
- Barbie's Dream House and Corvette
- Dizzy's Tongue
- Piglet
- Pepto-Bismol (I realize that Pepto-Bismol may at first seem gross, but since it makes you feel better, it makes the good list.)
- The Pink Ladies
For those of you who reject pink, a list of all things pink and...not so lovely:
1. Undercooked chicken
2. Grapefruit juice
3. Rush Limbaugh's Face
4. The Energizer Bunny
5. The Pink Panther
6. Molly Reinwald's prom dress in Pretty in Pink (Seriously, she takes an awesome vintage 50's dress and turns it into some 80s monstrosity.)
7. Pink Eye
8. Pink Belly
9. Pink Poodles
10. Victoria's Secrets Pink (Yea, just what we need V.S, a bunch of twelve-year-old tarts with the word PINK emblazoned across their rear ends. Plus, now I have the added embarrassment of running into students while shopping for ridiculously large undergarments.)
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
5 Weeks-Maddie the Grouch
If I had to describe Madeline in two words this week, they would be: Fussy Pants. If she's not busy sleeping or eating, she's busy being miserable.
Luckily, she's not the cry at the top of her lungs for hours type. Instead, she is the cry in ear-piercing short bursts while grunting, groaning, and wiggling for hours kind.
She doesn't seem to know what to do with herself yet. If she's awake, she thinks she should be eating, but then she eats too much and spits up bucket loads of curdled milk all over her Momma. (Gross.) The poor girl also gets gassy and hiccup-y all the time...that would make me fussy too. She just can't seem to get comfortable. Sad.
In other news, she's developing by leaps and bounds. In between bouts of crying, she's smiling now. Not just gassy, was-that-really-a-smile? smiles. I mean real smiles! She likes it when I stand her up on my lap so that she can look around the room. That usually makes her smile. When I congratulate her with "Good girl!! What a big girl!!" in an annoying, high-pitched momma voice she also likes to smile. She opens her mouth wide and wrinkles her nose up like she's up to no good. It's my favorite thing that she does.
She's extremely curious about the world around her, which is another reason I think she gets so fussy. She seems frustrated by the fact that all she can do is slump around like a slug. In her desperation to see the sights, she's learned some new tricks. She can support herself on her forearms and hold her head up for a few seconds at a time. AND, although it was probably a complete accident, she flipped herself over from her tummy to her back once. I swear, homegirl is going to get up and walk across the room by the end of the month. Then she's going to ask to borrow the car and break her curfew while she carouses with the bad baby from down the hall.
But first? First, she needs to stop fussing because it drives her Momma bananas. It's hard watching your daughter be miserable without being able to do anything about it. And when I get frustrated, I start to fuss. (Like mother, like daughter, eh?) Which means that when Eric gets home from work, he has two fussing redheads to deal with. That's a sad world for Daddy, but luckily he has lots of experience dealing with fussy redheads.
Luckily, she's not the cry at the top of her lungs for hours type. Instead, she is the cry in ear-piercing short bursts while grunting, groaning, and wiggling for hours kind.
She doesn't seem to know what to do with herself yet. If she's awake, she thinks she should be eating, but then she eats too much and spits up bucket loads of curdled milk all over her Momma. (Gross.) The poor girl also gets gassy and hiccup-y all the time...that would make me fussy too. She just can't seem to get comfortable. Sad.
In other news, she's developing by leaps and bounds. In between bouts of crying, she's smiling now. Not just gassy, was-that-really-a-smile? smiles. I mean real smiles! She likes it when I stand her up on my lap so that she can look around the room. That usually makes her smile. When I congratulate her with "Good girl!! What a big girl!!" in an annoying, high-pitched momma voice she also likes to smile. She opens her mouth wide and wrinkles her nose up like she's up to no good. It's my favorite thing that she does.
She's extremely curious about the world around her, which is another reason I think she gets so fussy. She seems frustrated by the fact that all she can do is slump around like a slug. In her desperation to see the sights, she's learned some new tricks. She can support herself on her forearms and hold her head up for a few seconds at a time. AND, although it was probably a complete accident, she flipped herself over from her tummy to her back once. I swear, homegirl is going to get up and walk across the room by the end of the month. Then she's going to ask to borrow the car and break her curfew while she carouses with the bad baby from down the hall.
But first? First, she needs to stop fussing because it drives her Momma bananas. It's hard watching your daughter be miserable without being able to do anything about it. And when I get frustrated, I start to fuss. (Like mother, like daughter, eh?) Which means that when Eric gets home from work, he has two fussing redheads to deal with. That's a sad world for Daddy, but luckily he has lots of experience dealing with fussy redheads.
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| I'm going to nervously chew on my hand because I'm very confused as to why I'm on my tummy instead of my back. |
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| Okay, here we go. Let's do this thing! |
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| Phew, this is hard work! |
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| Almost there! |
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| I'm doing it! I can see the Dizzy Cat! |
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| Okay, I give up! Too hard. Back to crying. |
Monday, October 18, 2010
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Hello, My Name is Summer, and I Am Not an Alcoholic
I still remember the last drink I had before becoming pregnant. It was the Mr. K's Perfect Martini with extra olives at Cobblestone's in Lowell. In fact, I had two of them that night because they are that delicious. It was sometime in January.
That means it had been almost ten months since I'd consumed an alcoholic beverage (until last night)...because, you know, I've been busy growing a human. And it's generally a big no-no for people growing humans to hit the sauce... except, apparently it's not anymore??
Mere weeks after I gave birth, a study was published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health that suggests that light drinking may not be harmful to an unborn child at all. (More info.)
Which means I could have been drinking all along. Sigh, all those bottles of wine wasted over the past few months...
EXCEPT, even if the study had been published before I gave birth, I still wouldn't have drank while pregnant. (I was an uptight pregnant lady. Although maybe my sobriety was why I was so cranky all the time....)
It's not that I disagree with the study. I already believed that light drinking probably poses very little risk to your child. After all, look at people in other parts of the world who continue to drink throughout their pregnancies. They seem to be fine. However, shielding my baby from the possible harmful effects of alcohol was one of the few things I felt I had control over while pregnant. Giving up drinking wasn't a hard thing to do for me...it was harder giving up tuna fish sandwiches and caffeine quite frankly. Plus, the message to not drink has been so ingrained in our society that drinking while pregnant probably would have made me feel...well, a bit trashy maybe.
It will be interesting to see if the culture around drinking while pregnant changes, but I have a feeling it won't. Most medical communities are not changing their position on drinking because of this study, and again, there's the social stigma as well. Honestly, what would you think if you saw a big pregnant lady drinking in a bar?
But last night, last night, my friends, I broke down and had my first alcoholic beverage in a long, long while. I had a small glass of red wine while we ate Chinese food. I had forgotten the mysterious way wine dances in your nose. Pure magic.
Apparently, while I have strong feelings against drinking while pregnant, I don't have strong feelings about drinking while nursing. I don't know why that is, but it was nice to let loose, even just a tiny bit, for a change.
That means it had been almost ten months since I'd consumed an alcoholic beverage (until last night)...because, you know, I've been busy growing a human. And it's generally a big no-no for people growing humans to hit the sauce... except, apparently it's not anymore??
Mere weeks after I gave birth, a study was published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health that suggests that light drinking may not be harmful to an unborn child at all. (More info.)
Which means I could have been drinking all along. Sigh, all those bottles of wine wasted over the past few months...
EXCEPT, even if the study had been published before I gave birth, I still wouldn't have drank while pregnant. (I was an uptight pregnant lady. Although maybe my sobriety was why I was so cranky all the time....)
It's not that I disagree with the study. I already believed that light drinking probably poses very little risk to your child. After all, look at people in other parts of the world who continue to drink throughout their pregnancies. They seem to be fine. However, shielding my baby from the possible harmful effects of alcohol was one of the few things I felt I had control over while pregnant. Giving up drinking wasn't a hard thing to do for me...it was harder giving up tuna fish sandwiches and caffeine quite frankly. Plus, the message to not drink has been so ingrained in our society that drinking while pregnant probably would have made me feel...well, a bit trashy maybe.
It will be interesting to see if the culture around drinking while pregnant changes, but I have a feeling it won't. Most medical communities are not changing their position on drinking because of this study, and again, there's the social stigma as well. Honestly, what would you think if you saw a big pregnant lady drinking in a bar?
But last night, last night, my friends, I broke down and had my first alcoholic beverage in a long, long while. I had a small glass of red wine while we ate Chinese food. I had forgotten the mysterious way wine dances in your nose. Pure magic.
Apparently, while I have strong feelings against drinking while pregnant, I don't have strong feelings about drinking while nursing. I don't know why that is, but it was nice to let loose, even just a tiny bit, for a change.
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| Taken long ago and far away when "light drinking" meant only half a handle of Poland Springs Vodka. I wasn't actually drinking the Jack Daniel's...that would have been too classy. P.S. Don't ever buy Poland Springs Vodka. |
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