Link Love Archive

I got married when I was nineteen and a half and after tying the knot I assumed that children would be the next step. I wasn’t in a hurry for children necessarily, but I did want something to baby, so in the mean time I got a dog instead. My ex and I didn’t last long together and despite a lack of birth control children never happened in that relationship. In my next relationship we had an “oops” that became a miscarriage. Despite the fact that relationship was on the rocks when the “oops” happened and the absolutely horrible timing of it all, there wasn’t anything I ever wanted more. After that relationship, I dated for a while and then met Kurt who after four months told me he didn’t want children. I stuck with him anyway. I got another dog, then a cat, and a parrot. It took six years of nagging the man before he finally broke down and then it took another year and a half to actually conceive our little pumpkin. It took so long to get to motherhood that I thought I’d never ever get a chance to leave a love note for Kurt outside the bedroom door of our daughter like the one I left today…

Unfortunately she woke up AGAIN before he got home.

This pumpkin outfit isn’t Sophia’s “real” Halloween costume. This is just a cute pumpkin hat and booties from Sophia’s aunt for my little pumpkin baby.

For a scary picture, check out the last photo on my baby bath hairdo post.

I’m not very inspired by this weeks word though I do love trains minus living near a stretch of tracks that has many crossings. *grumble* What’s funny about the tracks I currently live near is that right next to them is a sign that reads, “Sound ordinance strongly enforced”. I shit you not. I’ll have to get a picture of that sign someday.

My senior year of high school I used to play hooky all the time and go to a park that was about three miles from where I lived. At this particular park there was an overpass over the tracks which lead to the “beach”. I use the word beach loosely because this was in WA state and the beaches are quite sad - not as sad as those in Alaska, but I digress. I would hang out alone on this overpass and watch the freight trains travel below me. At this spot they would sometimes go very slow and I kept trying to work up the courage to hitch a ride and see where it would take me.

I moved to Michigan three days after graduation and after signing up for the Navy. My first train ride was when I was shipped off to boot camp from Michigan to Great Mistakes Great Lakes Illinois. Despite that I still love trains. It probably helped that anytime we had liberty in boot camp it was the train that also took us away to Chicago for the day.

Ten things I’ve learned about my newborn and motherhood so far:

1. Meconium is not just the *first* poop it is the first three or so days of poops. Sophia had about five meconium diapers in the first 24 hours.
2. Kurt is better at soothing the baby than I am
3. Car rides put her to sleep, but only if you can get up to speed on the freeway. I can just see it now…She’s going to be like the kid in the movie, Talladega Nights - The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, “I wanna go fast! I wanna go fast!”
4. Babies with Sophia’s skin pigment turn an orange color when they have Jaundice.
5. The whites of Sophia’s eyes are naturally tinted blue and with Jaundice - Blue and Yellow make Green!
6. My little pumpkin can go from orange to tomato red in .03 seconds.
7. When my baby turns red it’s not just her face. She turns red all the way down to her legs!
8. Most newborns have a quiet almost cute cry that sounds like, “ah la ah la”. Not my child. She screams as if her limbs spontaneously dislocated themselves.
9. I didn’t want to use pacifiers at first because I had heard about babies having a hard time switching between that and breastfeeding. I heard about “Soothies” which supposedly force the baby to suck the same way as when breastfeeding and I bought some. My child hates them. She prefers a pinky.
10. She loathes wearing hats. Placing a hat on her causes color changes and not so cute newborn screams.
11. The instructor in the breastfeeding class I took while pregnant should receive the coveted “understatement of the year” award when she told us that our boobs and nipples will be “tender” the first few weeks. I have to cover my nipples when taking a shower because the water hitting them causes tons-o-pain!

Because this week’s heads or tails theme is keys I’m going to cheat a little and link to an old post about Kurt and the mini Christmas treasure hunt I did last year.

For more Heads or Tails Keys go over to Skittle’s Place where Heads or Tails Tuesdays were invented.