Pregnancy and Motherhood Archive

Not made with real babies.

When Kurt was a baby, his mom made him a blanket from scraps of yarn. From the stories I’ve heard along with the fact that he still has this “blanket” in our closet I’d say that he has an unnatural attachment to it. It was crochet with red and blue flowers and there had apparently been another color made with an angora yarn which baby Kurt didn’t like - He chewed all of the angora flowers off and spit them out.

Toddler Kurt named his blanket “friend” and used it as his superhero cape. One time when young Kurtie was sick he had “friend” balled up next to him and Kurt’s mom came by to cover him up with another blanket. Young Kurtie protested, “No, you’ll cover his eyes”. Kurt’s mom looked down to see “friend” arranged in such a way that two previously flowered gaping holes were staring back at her.

Young Kurtie was also upset every time his mother decided “friend” needed a washing. Kurt would stand at the washer the whole time and then watch “friend” tumble in the drier. Kurt would then complain that “friend” had lost its smell and proceed to rub “friend” all over himself to get the smell back.

This year for Christmas, I unwrapped all of the presents for Sophia. A couple of her presents were specifically from Kurt and I was not privy to their contents. The first present I opened on Sophia’s behalf from him was a green and white striped onesie with blue lettering that read, “I (green heart shape) Mommy”. All together now, “aaawwwww, how sweet!” The second present was his old “friend”, which would have been a very nice sentiment if “friend” wasn’t a stringy thirty-five year old brown semi crochet mass of musty fermented Kurt spit with a few red and blue flowers left on it. EEEWW!! Get this hepatitis and e-coli ridden thing away from my baby!

Kurt’s mom had no idea that he had wrapped his old “friend” for Sophia let alone that he still had the musty old ball of yarn in his possession. When Kurt’s mom saw me open the gift of “friend” for Sophia, she dug through the Sophia gift pile for a specific box. I opened it when Sophia’s turn came around again. Inside I found three pictures of young Kurtie with his “friend”. “Friend” was originally a WHITE crochet blanket with burgundy red, dark blue, baby blue, white, bright pink, baby pink, lemon yellow, and pistachio green flowers and a baby blue cloth backing. Under the pictures and wrapped in tissue paper was a new “friend”. We dubbed it “Friend 2007”. We’ll see what kind of memories this one creates.

I’m never cutting baby nails again! I don’t care how much she scratches her face up with her own nails. I was cutting her nails while she was nursing but didn’t get them all, so I made another attempt when she was a little more fidgety. I should have known better. At first I though I cut her nail too short, but after her red-faced-screaming and crocodile tears subsided I saw that I had actually lopped off a tiny chunk of skin. Now I just feel like shit. I held her close, rocking back and forth, and almost produced my own crocodile tears. My poor baby is now sick with a snuffly nose and sporting an adult sided band-aid on her left thumb, which she promptly popped into her mouth.

I was sick during Christmas and now that I’m over it, Sophia caught my cold. Yesterday she was sneezing a lot. Now today she’s coughing, sneezing and her tiny voice sounds a little horse. Maybe her case it’s a pony. I called to make an appointment with the doctor. I’m sure he’ll just look at her and say, “Yep it’s a cold” and that’s it. But just in case she starts developing an ear infection or some other problem by Monday we’ll have the appointment in place.

Sophia got a rattle from her great grandma for Christmas and she wrapped her little fist around it and shook it, but it wasn’t until the last day of 2007 that Sophia learned she can reach out and manipulate objects with her hands. I bought a toy that was meant for her to start spending time on her tummy, but that still doesn’t happen very much. This toy also has tabs to fasten things above baby’s head to reach up and grab. One of the toys was an orange mirror that she seems to like. She grabbed it, pulled it toward herself and tilted it from side to side in order to see herself in it. I’m not sure if she knows that she’s the baby in the mirror yet, but she did like looking at the other baby. *wink*

Month three’s diaper of the month was just a small blowout, but because of the onesie it happened on I couldn’t pass up picking this one as the top Baby Squeesins Diaper of the Month. Because this is a holiday squeezins we joked about calling it the Yule Log, but Sophia isn’t on solids so nothing is well formed, maybe next year. These pictures were taken on December 6th.

Kurt and I went to visit a large daycare facility. I loved it. All employees have to go through a background check, and all are trained for the age group they work with. It’s a large facility that even has a special outdoor play area for infants only. Each infant has a space in the refrigerator for their food, so I’ll be able to have breast milk stored there for Sophia. Each infant gets their own crib and all the cribs look like they’re in good condition (none of them are metal cribs with witch paint like some of the ones at the other place). There are four infants per caregiver and the infants stay with the same two primary caregivers until they move to the toddler group. The lady giving us the tour said that the transition from the infant rooms to the toddler area is the toughest because they’re moving to an environment where everybody is mobile and it’s a little more noisy, but that sometimes more than one baby is moving from the same infant group to the toddler group, which makes it easier on them. That didn’t bother me at all, because at least everyone will be her same age and we weren’t being told to make our house noisier so that she’ll get used to it for daycare.

We were their during regular business hours and so we got to view the caregivers in their natural environment. We didn’t get to go into any of the rooms, but we could view the animals from the hall though the large windows. All four infant rooms were relatively quiet. one of the rooms had the lights out while three of the four infants slept. The sole awake infant was happily bouncing in a “stationary entertainer” (think baby walker minus the wheels). Everything looked relatively clean and the toddler room even had sinks for hand washing at toddler height. The lady giving us the tour said that the kids all eat at a table in a family style setting (all the kids within one room, not ALL the kids) and they learn to use utensils and pass plates down the table. The preschoolers learn preschool stuff like the alphabet. As we went down the hallway for the preschoolers, one group was playing in the hall. The halls serve as the indoor play areas, whereas the rooms are for crafts, learning, etc. Some of the kids played independently, others played together and three of the girls sat around one of the caregivers as she braided their hair. I didn’t see a single kid sulking in a corner.

Kurt will be close enough to go see the baby at lunch time if he wants. I’m so excited about this place, but apparently I’m not the only one that thinks it’s great despite the significantly higher cost. They have a waiting list. Sophia may not get in until she’s nine months old, and I have to go back to work three months prior to that. We put Sophia on the list just so we aren’t further down the list when the time comes. So I still need to find temporary daycare. *sigh* I honestly didn’t think that I would like the large daycare corporation type of place, but it felt so much more comfortable there than the home daycare I saw. I know the one home daycare I saw doesn’t represent them all. The place we visited today might not feel like family but one bonus is that the transition to school won’t be as dramatic.

Kurt and I discovered a new game to play with the baby, although I think it’s more amusing to us than it is to her. Earlier tonight Sophia was having a bit of a fuss session. Kurt was holding her, standing and swaying, but Sophia kept on fussing. I don’t know what prompted Kurt’s next reaction to her fussiness, but then again what prompts Kurt to do any of the things he does? (Don’t think about that one too hard, it’ll hurt) I was sitting on our bed and Kurt was on the other side of our tiny master bedroom. I didn’t actually see what he did, but Sophia briefly stopped her fussing and Kurt laughing hysterically came over to me, “Watch this”. Sophia started her fussing and Kurt blew on her face which triggered her startle reflex. Her arms flew up from her sides, she stopped her fussing, stared at him wide eyed for a few seconds as if to say, “You Bastard!” We both laughed. Nothing more entertaining than baby torture I tell ya.