Something nicer to read...

Had a much nicer day today :o)

I had scheduled my 6-week postbaby appointment for 9:30 this morning, and arranged to meet my cousin and her new baby at the mall at 11. Lying in bed last night, I started freaking out about this because how was I going to make Haleigh's limited good mood last from 9:30 through lunch, play time at the mall, and at least two nursing sessions with Hayden?? AND possibly no nap???

I was so close to calling my grandparents at 8:30am and asking them to take Haleigh for the morning so I could have a peaceful dr. appointment. Because how do you stop your child from opening cabinets in an exam room when you're sitting up on a table naked under a paper napkin, afraid to move because yes the dr. knocks, but she doesn't PAUSE after that knock, and would no doubt see everything. I always wonder what they would do if I took my own bathrobe to one of those appointments.

But I digress. Haleigh was well-behaved! Luckily, they have child locks on the cabinets so all I had to do was bust out the Teddy Grahams and water bottle and I was good to go for at least 10 minutes. Too bad it took the dr. 20 minutes to find my exam room.

But Haleigh was still good because I asked her every 30 seconds or so to check on Hayden who was sleeping in his carseat on the floor next to me. She'd give me a full report every time: he is sleeping, with his eyes closed, and his mouth closed, and has a blanket, a blue and yellow blanket, and he doesn't eat Teddy Grahams, because he only drinks mommy's milk, and I like milk, do you have any milk for me mommy, okay can we get some?

Time to complain a bit - Photo in post below from earlier

So I've had a fever of over 101 on and off since Wednesday night with overall flu-like symptoms and just general cruddyness feeling. I didn't think to call the dr. because the Ibuprofen was working and Friday I felt fine without any meds. Of course this morning my right boob is on fire and the fever returns. On a Saturday.

Chad just picked up the antibiotics the on-call dr. called in for me and I should feel better sometime in the middle of the night. Why am I up now? To eat something with the antibiotics and to write this out so I feel a little better. It helps. And it's my blog.

I was not feeling well most of the day today, but still had both kiddos ALL DAY by myself. And had to take them to Toys 'R' Us for an ahem last minute gift (Happy Birthday Hannah!) that Haleigh picked out herself. That half hour or so was the ONLY time she wasn't spouting sass and jumping around like a maniac. And I swear I didn't give her ANY sugar besides the cinnamon applesauce she had with lunch. And she has that all the time and doesn't freak out like this.

She just knows how to push my buttons now. And I've been trying, really TRYING, to pay her equal or more attention than I do Hayden, but the younger is attached to a boob probably 20 hours out of the day! Okay not really, but his long nap is at the same time as hers so we don't even get quality time then either. He put himself on that schedule... I think he's already trying to piss her off.

So this evening, after she wouldn't eat much for dinner, and I was feeding Hayden on the couch, she proceeds to bring her over-half-full cup of milk from dinner across the livingroom to the bookshelf. Her water bottle is supposed to stay on that shelf so she doesn't set it on the couch and knock it over and it leaks and leaks until I find it an hour later EMPTY.

Anyways! I ask her, from the couch with baby attached, in an up-beat tone, "Hey would ya leave that milk on your table there because I don't want it to spill." Her response as she CONTINUES to walk toward the shelf? "Uhhh... no." And her doll stroller was sitting directly in front of the shelf so I knew she'd have to reach far to even get it up on the shelf... she got it halfway onto the shelf. And milk went everywhere. I didn't have time to unattach baby, lie him down without burping (yikes) and stop her. Though I did have to unattach baby in a hurry, lie him down without burping (all okay) and clean up milk EVERYWHERE all over her toys, the carpet, MY books, photo albums and sheet music on the bottom shelf... apparently I should move those more important things.

So she had time-out for three minutes, and she calmed down faster than I thought she would. I was very angry and I think she was scared of me the way I came flying across the room, so she sat there and bawled while I cleaned up. I didn't even touch her though, just zoomed past and started moving things still in the milk's path. We hugged and said I love you and she went back to play, Hayden went back to eating (of course he did!).

Shortly after things were back to normal - normal meaning sass and attitude - Chad called to say he'd be about another hour and I just broke down. I really needed someone else there for her to be mean to and take advantage of. So he came home and she went to bed early. So did Hayden and I. What a day.

monkey shirt!


first smile on camera!

1 Month Old

More at Flickr

Niagara Falls

Hayden and I lie down belly-to-belly to start a nursing session. He looks like a little turtle when he stretches out his neck to find me. He gets going and within seconds I feel the milk "let down" on both sides. He starts the slow suck-swallow pattern, relaxes his body, closes his eyes and settles in, seemingly content.

But I think I have what is called "overactive letdown" because then he starts to kick, his eyes open real wide and he looks at me like, turn off the fire hose woman! and I find myself silently cheering him on, chug! chug! chug! because if he pulls off now, somebody's getting squirted.

Most of the time now he can handle it. But if too much is going on around us, like Helicopter Haleigh is hovering and shrieking in her outside voice, "OH look he's looking AT ME!"... he loses his focus and chokes, pulls off in frustration, and milk sprays everywhere unless I catch it quick.

Sleeping is here and there still. He'll only sleep for 15 minutes at a time in his bed, but he sleeps much longer in his little swing, turned off because Haleigh has killed the batteries by swinging her dolls. So shhh guess where he's been sleeping mostly. He'll go 4-5 hours in his first stretch at night so that's been nice. But when he wakes between 4am and 6am, he's up for the day.

He started smiling the other day at right around 4 weeks, especially if you make clicking noises with your tongue. Too funny watching Haleigh trying to duplicate the sound: she hasn't figured that out yet but she tries so hard.


4 weeks old - of course I couldn't catch a smile. He's such a chunker; size 2 diapers and 3-6 month clothes already.


Haleigh "playing" with Hayden with one of her old baby toys. Really, she would dangle that toy in his face for 2 seconds, then run off with it. She kept coming back to show it to him, but she wasn't ready to admit that he could have it as one of "his" toys now. Hayden didn't care, he loved watching her run back and forth and couldn't have cared less about that toy.

Big Boy and Good Girl

Hayden is growing like crazy... took him to the dr. last Friday because he was breathing hard and seemed really congested. I couldn't tell if he was wheezing or not, so I took him in. His lungs were clear, and doc said it was just newborn mucus getting dried out in his wittle nose. So I have to spray saline up there a few times a day and suck it out, and it helps him breathe better. He doesn't mind it, except when he moves and I spray him in the face a little. He was 10 lbs 7 oz at the appointment at 18 days old, and he's grown out of most of his 0-3 month clothes and into the 3-6 month outfits.

No wonder he's so big, he's been nursing non-stop it seems. I stopped pumping and went back to nursing because it was just taking too long to feed him a bottle, then get him back to sleep, then pump for the next bottle, then get myself back to bed... then he would wake up again. He's gotten a lot better at nursing, and it's actually working out well. He just wants it so frequently lol.

Next week it will be 3 weeks until I go back to work, so I think I'm going to start working our way towards the schedule we'll have when that happens. Get up at 5am and nurse, put him back down until 7am when we leave for the sitter, 3 bottles during the day (I will pump 3-4 times at work), nurse at 5:30pm when I get home, then play it by ear for evening and nighttime. I will just have to start going to bed early and DVR my shows to watch when I'm up nursing at night I guess.

Haleigh is still being good with Hayden. He loves to watch her do anything, and she really gets excited when he stares at her, "He's watching me mommy!" But she gets in his face a lot, and when she hugs him her hair gets in his face which bothers him a little. Today she poked him in the ear and bumped heads with him once... she just gets too excited to be around him. I can't wait until he starts smiling and reacting more to us; she'll be uncontrollable I think.

We're also working on the he/she and him/her issue. There are only one or two little boys at her daycare occasionally, so she's spent all day with all girls for almost a year now and doesn't know the difference. She knows she's a girl and Hayden's a boy, but Mommy is a Laurie and Daddy is a Chad and there's no convincing her otherwise... so I don't think she's getting it. She's always referring to Hayden like, "aww she's so cute" or "you're going to change her diaper mommy?" We gently correct her, and she agrees and it seems to sink in, but two minutes later she's doing it again lol.

But I really couldn't ask for a more polite and well-behaved little girl. She cleans up herself after she eats now (box of wipes on her table) and puts her dishes and trash in the right places. She doesn't want to go on the potty and won't wear underwear or a pull-up ("no, not yet," she says), but she'll go and get a diaper and wipes when she needs to be changed. She'll do absolutely anything I ask if it has to do with Hayden, and she still loves to sleep. We've never had trouble getting her to go to bed for naps or at nighttime. We just let her know it's "bedtime-thirty" (because the time keeps changing as she gets older or if we're doing something late and I didn't want to confuse her... and the term stuck) and she helps pick up her toys. Then she closes her door for me, shuts the light off, makes sure I've turned on the fan and her nightlight, grabs her blanket and a pacifier (I know, I know...) and when I put her in the crib she just rolls over and closes her eyes. At night she'll sleep 12 hours, and after lunch she'll take a 3 hour nap.

I hope we're just as lucky with Hayden...

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