Category Archives: Pregnancy and Motherhood

From the truly tasteless and disgusting to emotional stories that feel very much like heartburn squirming on a pitchfork this is my parenting journey from pregnancy forward.

Brief baby updates

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On Saturday (February 2nd) we gave Sophia a taste of her first doctor and mommy approved solid food. Baby’s first solid food

Tuesday (February 5th), Sophia learned to roll from her back to her side.

Wednesday (February 6th), she began pulling at her ears. I didn’t know what that could mean until a friend of mine suggested that it could be teething. The facilitator at our “living with baby” class confirmed that by saying about pressure building in the ears when their teeth come out and that it’s worse when they lay down. Well, last week it was sort of hard to tell if she would have trouble sleeping since I kept waking her up to go to the hospital. Last night she woke up at midnight to eat, but she didn’t fall back to sleep right away like she usually does at night. This morning she woke up at six am – about an hour and a half before her usual on time schedule. Her ears were red. She had scratches on the side of her face leading into her ears and blood inside her ears. Poor baby. For her morning nap I gave her Baby Orajel. Oh what a beautiful product. Sleep! She slept for two and a half hours. Hint for other parents of teething babies – don’t get the “nighttime” formula. The ingredient list is the same, the product amount is less, and the price is higher – talk about marketing.

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Noncooperative baby

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We just got back from our “living with baby” class. Since Valentines Day is coming up the facilitator had some red paint to sponge onto the babies hands to make a hand print card for us mommies. Sophia, taking after mom, refused to cooperate and made a fist. She also started screaming when I went to wash her hand off. *sigh* Yep, she’s mine. Kurtie came with us for the class, which was nice. Sitting on the floor for an hour may have been a little hard, but I think it was good for him to get out and walk a bit (it’s a good little walk going from the parking garage to the class).

The inside of the card read,

Here’s my little handprint
Just so you can recall
Exactly how my fingers looked
When I was Very small!

It comes with hugs and kisses
On my first Valentine’s Day
So I can say I LOVE YOU
In a very special way!

I love you, Mommy!

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She hates it again

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Sophia is back to hating bath time again. Last night’s bath she didn’t like at all.  The following pictures were taken last week. Last week’s bath she was ok with. She didn’t even mind the hairdo I gave her. :P Whoa Hairdo

It was when we brushed it the right way that she became upset…
Brushing her hair back down
I don't want my hair to look like daddy's!

“I don’t want my hair to look like daddy’s!” I guess she likes to look like Baby Don King. :P

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Sophia’s Four-Month Birthday

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Sophia’s four-month birthday was on Friday (hence the Baby Squeezins: Diaper of the Month post). At four months, this kid has great control of her head now. She can lift it up to look around weather she’s on her back or stomach, but she absolutely refuses to use her arms while on her tummy to do the half push up (oh I hope she’s not going to be like her dad – more on this at the end of this post). If I hold her hands she can repeatedly push herself from a sitting to standing position and she can also stand for longer periods of time while just holding our fingers. A couple weeks ago I bought her the new set of rattles and within the last week she has figured out that if she can’t reach them with her hands she can use her feet to bring it up to her hands. On Monday I had her propped up with the Boppy pillow and a blanket behind her in such a way that she was sitting up straight. I’ve only seen her do this once, but she actually leaned forward to the point of bending herself in half to reach for a rattle and then she actually pushed herself back to the sitting position. She still has to be propped up to sit, but never the less I was impressed that she got herself back into that position.

Tuesday Sophia had her four-month check-up. She is thirteen pounds, thirteen ounces, and twenty-five inches tall/long. Poor baby received two shots in each leg plus one oral vaccine. Her tiny little left leg now has two welts. :( The shots on the right leg didn’t swell up like the left. The doctor said we can start her on solid food anytime. He said to start with a very thin consistency cereal first, specifically rice because it’s the one thing that doesn’t cause any kind of bad reactions. She has really been eyeballing our food for the last couple of weeks, so we’ll give sold foods a shot this weekend if I can make it to the store. The doctor said to stick to baby cereals for a while then alternate with fruits and vegetables. Try each new thing for a week before adding another new item, and no eggs or meats for a while.

four month vaccinations

On Tuesday I pulled out her doorway bouncy jump toy thing. As you can tell I have no idea what to call it, but I knew little Miss Kicks-a-lot would love it.

jumper toy thing

She doesn’t like the “stationary entertainer” *eye roll* that I pulled out of the garage on Wednesday very much, but she’ll tolerate the not-a-walker for a while. She figured out how to make the yellow squeaky (by her left arm in the picture) work and she was very pleased with herself. She hit it about three times before getting board and moving on to something else.

Sophia has been able to spin herself around in the crib since she was about two months old. More recently she learned to push herself away from the edge of her bassinet/playpen/crib with her legs while she is on her back. I’ve been placing her on her tummy after diaper changes to put her pants on and while I walk away to wash my hands for the past few weeks. On Wednesday I put her on her tummy to put on her pants as usual and she spit up. I rotated her in a way that her face wouldn’t be in the spit-up if she put her head back down, but I still positioned in a way that she can watch her crib mobile while I went to wash my hands. While I was gone I heard much fussing and screaming emitting from her general direction. After finishing I went back to see that she had her legs under her body in a crawling stance and her arms spread out flat on her mattress with her head down and up against the side of the crib. She had basically done a lower body half crawl with her face sliding through her spit-up. Her hair on that side was all wet – eeeww! :P Apparently when her father was a toddler he had an aversion to using his arms as well. His family lovingly dubbed baby Kurtie “Unicorn boy” because when he would trip or otherwise begin to fall he NEVER put his arms out to prevent his head from hitting the floor. The child had a permanent bruise in the middle of his forehead.

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Uncle George

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Not only would I love to actually meet my favorite performer but I also wish I were related to him. I don’t want him as a dad for a couple reasons. 1) I love the dad I have and you technically only get one of those. I know someone with four moms but she’s a little odd. :P 2) I have never seen an interview with his daughter so I don’t know if she turned out ok.

I think he’d be cool as an uncle or great-uncle. Because my paternal grandma would have been a little young (physically possible, but a little young) to give birth to George he would have to be my great-uncle and he would have been raised Mormon instead of Catholic. If he were a part of the maternal side of my family he could be my uncle but then his name would probably be Jorge. Why do I want to be related to him? I think it would have added a fun completely different intellectual car crash type dynamic to our family gatherings. *evil grin*

I’ve seen him perform in Vegas, but never actually had an opportunity to meet him. In a way I’m glad I haven’t because I’m afraid I’d probably say something stupid. I mean what do you say to someone you absolutely idolize? I think he’s awesome. He is without a doubt my favorite comedian, Mr. George Carlin.

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No win daycare

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On Friday, I did more calling and checking into daycares without any further luck. I’ve only had three private home daycare interviews and one at a large daycare facility. The first private home daycare wasn’t even close to my standards. The second one was very clean and nice. The layout was good and plenty of toys for the various ages she cared for, but I didn’t like the person that ran it. It seemed like she took great care of the children but I didn’t like her personality much. She knows everyone in the city and is quite the gossiper.

She had asked me who our pediatrician was and because this seems relevant to her caring for my child, I answered. Well she doesn’t like him or any of his staff. She says none of them are any good if a child has a rare problem. Well duh! They’re FAMILY doctors. That means they know a little bit of everything and if you need a specialist they refer you to one. She also went on about how she’s an expert at diagnosing children before the pediatrician can. She said she was especially good as diagnosing personality problems like ADD and asperger’s syndrome. *eye roll* I understand that as a caregiver she would be observing my child more than say a doctor but in my opinion her limit should be telling me about odd symptoms/behaviors. Because uumm she ain’t a doctor and I don’t want her trying to diagnose my child.

Ms. Gossip Queen asked me if I had visited any other daycares and I told her another provider had referred me to her. She started to talk bad about that person and then stopped herself saying, “oh but she’s my friend I shouldn’t say that about her”. No shit you shouldn’t, especially since your “friend” is the one that referred me. How does this woman get any business if she talks bad about everyone? She asked me what I had thought of the other provider’s place. I told her the lady seemed very nice but I felt the space was small with an awkward layout. I didn’t mention that it also appeared dirty to me, or the fact that there was a child against the wall that seemed to be ignored.

Kurt says the aspects of her personality that I didn’t like doesn’t matter since Sophia will only be there for three months until the large daycare facility calls us around June. I agree with him about that, but the other thing that turned me off about this second place was that there was no separate area for the infants and she cares for children up to twelve years of age. She kept saying how “her girls” (other children in her care), ages nine and twelve would love Sophia. I know I originally wanted the “family” environment but these girls weren’t there for me to meet at the time, so I don’t know them at all. The fact is they aren’t family and I’m not paying children to play with my daughter as if she’s a doll! I’m paying an adult to care for my real life human baby. If I wanted a child to care for my infant, I would personally interview teenagers. That place is simply out of the question.

The third private home daycare was good. I really liked the lady that ran it. She had just moved to a new location and her daycare setup wasn’t complete so it was difficult to evaluate that properly. Unfortunately, she also seemed to want to keep her options open and didn’t want to save an infant spot for me since I don’t need a daycare until March.

I called another large daycare facility that has two different sites that are close enough for me to deal with for the three months that we would need them. I called the closest one first of course. The lady said, “Oh we won’t have an opening for a couple months.” I was excited, “So you’ll have something in March?” “No,” she says, “we won’t have anything until July.” That’s six months not a couple months you stupid bitch! I didn’t say that of course but I was quite frustrated. I called their other site. Nothing until August – I just can’t win. They have another site that will be opening nearby in “the spring of 2008”. I called their main office to find out what month of “spring 2008” they mean. I had to leave a message and haven’t heard back from them yet. *GGRRrrr*

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Baby Squeezins: Diaper of the Month

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Sophia lay across my waist on the Boppy pillow nursing while I sat upright in our recliner with my laptop on a tiny portable table. I was typing out a post about her new nap and nighttime sleep habits. Halfway through Sophia was finished nursing. I kept her on the pillow and she smiled, and cooed. Then I heard the wet peculating coffee sound from her diaper. I made note, but otherwise ignored it. I new there was more to come and I wanted to make sure she was done lest I get splattered while changing her. That hasn’t happened yet. *searches for wood to knock on* She has let out a couple little farts while I’ve changed her before, but nothing actually hit me. *finds that wood to knock on*

She let out her second set of “productive” farts and suddenly I felt something warm. OHMYGOD NO! EEEeeewwww! I pushed the table away. I kept Sophia in place by holding the Boppy pillow and keeping it all pressed against me till I made it upstairs to the nursery where I could lay it all on a changing pad. The Boppy pillow got out of it completely unscathed but the front of my pants and the shirt that tucked in them were both soaked. I needed to change clothes without a doubt and probably a shower.

I took Sophia’s onesie off without getting poop on her face, but with her arms and legs flailing and her latest development of an obsessive compulsive foot fetish – the child and I both needed a bath. This was the very same day she discovered her feet and thus my new annoyance with diaper changes. Poop was on her hands, arms, legs, and my hands. It was a mess under that onesie and diaper. Of course, she had to do this when we were sort of in a time crunch. I needed to get started on the bread pudding I was taking up to Bellingham for the football game later that day (poor Packers lost against the Patriots).

I (heart) mommy - diaper blowout

The thing that really had me scratching my head, aside from the fact that she was wearing the “I (heart) mommy” onesie that Kurt bought at Christmas, was when I took my shower Kurt popped Sophia around the shower curtain and I gave her a kiss. I never ever thought I would kiss someone minutes after they literally just shit on me. Just so we’re clear – no, I’m not into that.

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Appealing to the senses

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Baby Einstein Discover and Play StarI bought this along with two other toys for Sophia on Friday. This one requires batteries and the other two don’t. She likes this one best. *grumble* And from day one she was strong enough to pull on the red triangle at the bottom to make the two morning sounds – a rooster crowing and an alarm clock. I don’t think she cares as much for the sound as she likes to see the cheeks on the smiley face glow when a sound is playing.

Infantino rattlesI also bought a set of rattles that where different shapes and colors with different textured fabric covering each. One side of each of them is a clear plastic so you can see what is making the rattle sound in the inside. Each one also has a different plastic teething thing attached to it – she doesn’t care for that part at all. The only things I’ve seen her put in her mouth are clothing and blankets that she has already drooled or spit up on. I don’t know if it’s the smell, taste or the texture but despite the amount of preteething drool she just isn’t into the teething stuff yet.

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