Cordy-isms

Cordy walks into the kitchen.

C: Mommy? I need help.

Me: With what?

C: My cup. It’s broken. (Puts sippy cup on the counter.)

Me: It’s broken? What’s wrong with it?

C: It’s empty. It needs juice. Fix my cup, mommy?

Me: (laughing my ass off because in college we’d always talk about our “broken” [empty] drink cups at parties)

***************

In the car.

Mira: Aaaaawaaaaawawaaaaaaeeeeeaa (longest I’ve ever heard her vocalize – must have been 15 seconds without a breath)

Me: (looking at Aaron and laughing in amazement) What was THAT?

Cordy: (totally serious from the back, with a sigh) That was MIRA, mommy.

I could practically hear her rolling her eyes at me.

**************

In the living room. Cordy is behind me.

C: Mommy, get me gone?

Me: What? Get what?

C: Get me gone, mommy!

Me: Get you gone?

(I turn to see this:)

I have no idea how she snuck the box into the living room.

Me: You want me to mail you somewhere?

C: Yes!

Me: OK, where should I send you?

C: To outer space!

Me: Hmmm…I don’t think we can afford the postage, sweetie.



Haiku Friday: Nursing School Back in Session

Moms and new babies
My clinicals start today
Nursing can be fun

I’ll be waking up at 5am today to get into scrubs and drive downtown for my second quarter of clinicals. This time we’re focusing on mothers and infants, so we’ll be spending seven hours each week on the labor & delivery and postpartum floors of the hospital.

Some students seem disinterested by this, but I’m thrilled. This is why I decided to switch careers and become a nurse – I want to work in OB, helping new moms through this difficult and amazing transition. It’s going to be hard, since this is the first time we’ll be actively taking care of patients (last quarter we did only a few basic care duties in a nursing home), so I hope I’ll do well.

PS – Be sure to check out Mommy’s Must Haves today, too, where I’m reviewing The Wheels on the Bus: Mango’s Big Dog Parade DVD for the Parent Bloggers Network. Roger Daltrey (remember him from The Who?) is one of the character voices, and that’s not even the best part. Bonus feature (from me, not the DVD): another new photograph of Mira!

To play along for Haiku Friday, follow these steps:

1. Write your own haiku on your blog. You can do one or many, all following a theme or just random. What’s a haiku, you ask? Click here.

2. Sign the Mister Linky below or at Jennifer’s blog with your name and the link to your haiku post (the specific post URL, not your generic blog URL). If you need help with this, contact Jennifer or myself.

3. Pick up a Haiku Friday button to display on the post or in your sidebar by clicking the button above.



I Should Be A Nominee For Clueless Mom of the Year

As many of you know, I had a lot of trouble trying to breastfeed Cordy. She was given a bottle in the hospital because of low blood sugar, and after that she was never interested in the breast when she could have a bottle that required far less effort. That’s my girl – doing only the minimum to get by. I pumped and made her try feeding at the breast each time, but she got less than half of her early nutrition from me. By four months I had given up entirely.

Mira has been far more interested. She was a breastfeeding pro from her first hour in the world. It took us over a month and buying one of every bottle made to convince her to take a bottle of pumped milk occasionally. Hitting the six month mark for breastfeeding was a huge accomplishment for me.

Then in December, Cordy was kind enough to bring home from school a gastrointestinal virus with her art projects and letter tracings. I had nothing to eat or drink for nearly two days, resulting in a decrease in milk. Afterwards, I drank lots of water and thought that my milk supply would bounce back without any problem.

Mira started to get really fussy in December. OK, she’s always been fussy and cranky, but it seemed like December was even worse than normal. I chalked it up to teething as she was putting her hands in her mouth and crying all. the. time. She woke up twice a night on average, and her naps were short and restless. I’d give her Motrin on the really bad nights and put her back to sleep fussy. She would often have to cry it out, since otherwise neither of us would sleep at all.

My mother said to me over and over, “You need to feed her more! I think she’s fussy because she’s hungry.” But I breastfed on demand and gave her three or more jars of solid foods a day. She had to be full!

Turns out my mom knows my child better than me.

I checked her weight about a week ago, and was surprised to learn she weighed exactly the same as she weighed at her six month check up. In a month and a half, she gained nothing. How? I’ve been breastfeeding around the clock, and the daylight hours are filled with spoonfuls of yogurt, oatmeal, and pureed fruits and veggies.

“Give her one bottle of formula and see how she does,” my mom urged. I didn’t want to. I was proud of breastfeeding this long – I could produce what she needed to grow! Only she doesn’t seem to be growing now, so I reluctantly agreed to give it a try.

Mira went to sleep without any crying after that bottle and slept through the night for the first time ever.

I tried it again right before a nap: she slept three hours for that nap and woke up happy. A bottle at bedtime again resulted in another undisturbed night.

Turns out, I was starving my child. I feel like shit just typing that out.

No wonder she’s been crying so much lately. She was hungry and I totally misread the cues. It wasn’t teething, it wasn’t reflux, and it wasn’t a result of her being a crabby baby. She cried and fussed from hunger. She slept poorly because her growling stomach was waking her. And she cried herself to sleep at night because she wanted to eat, not go to sleep.

The one problem with breastfeeding is that it’s hard to tell how much milk is actually being produced. It’s not like we have ounce markers on our breasts. I thought I was still producing plenty, but a quick pumping session revealed that my supply is a lot less than it used to be. It’s no wonder she wasn’t gaining any weight.

I feel so dumb for not figuring this out sooner and putting my infant through a month and a half of hunger as a result. Shouldn’t I have had some kind of motherly instinct to guide me to this solution? My mom figured it out before me, and she hasn’t had a baby in 31 years.

Mira is still breastfeeding, but I’m now adding in two bottles a day to satisfy her hunger. She’s already sleeping better at night and taking longer naps. She’s happier during the day, too – smiling, playing, content. I’m thrilled to see her in a better mood, but part of me still feels like I’ve failed. It’s crazy – my logical brain says this is no big deal, formula isn’t poison and you raised your first on it with no problems, but my big, mushy, emotional heart hates to concede that I can’t make enough milk to feed my child properly. I would have been less upset had Mira simply decided to wean early.

I need to remind myself of my own philosophy that I’ve shared with others so many times: do whatever works. I’ve never been someone who stuck to rigid parenting rules, instead choosing to believe that if it’s working and no one is getting hurt, it’s all good. In this case, formula and breastmilk together work for Mira, and that’s what needs to be done.

Still…I feel incompetent.



Still Running On Fumes

Our weekend trip to Chicago was fun, but I’m glad to be home. While my agenda was very free and open, Mira made sure that I got as little sleep as possible. After this weekend, I now understand why sleep deprivation is banned by the Geneva Convention. During the drive home I was so tired I began to hear voices in my head. They were carrying on a conversation, but I was too focused on driving to listen in. They were probably saying something like, “Stop driving and get some sleep!”

I’m still too tired for a full narrative, so here are the highlights:

Traveling with a baby is great! Mira slept for most of the drive up to Chicago, and the entire way back. This was in stark contrast to traveling with a toddler two years ago who decided to stay awake most of the trip.

But traveling with a baby sucks, too. Although she was the perfect driving partner, Mira wasn’t so happy about sleeping in a hotel room. Or sitting in a hotel room. Or doing anything in a hotel room that doesn’t involve being held and comforted the entire time. As a result, I spent little time in the room, and suffered through only three hours of sleep each night.

There are things you don’t anticipate when traveling alone with a baby. Aaron left for Chicago a day before me, so I drove with only Mira in the car. About three hours into the drive it dawned on me that maybe drinking lots of water and tea wasn’t a good idea. I had to pee, but Mira was sleeping peacefully, and I couldn’t leave her in the car. Tough situation. I can tell you that holding an unhappily awake baby while trying to pull your pants down in a narrow public bathroom stall is a feat that should be included in the Mommy Olympics.

Meeting other bloggers is fun! Last year I met up with Mrs. Fortune (who has since moved away from Chicago), and this year I had the pleasure of meeting Tracey from Just Another Mommy Blog and her three kids for lunch, shopping, and ice cream. They were very patient with me as I dragged them into store after store. Tracey made wrangling three kids look easy – I have no idea how she does it! Of course, I forgot my camera was in my purse until the end, and then I couldn’t get it powered on until after they left. Mira loved seeing the older kids, although all of the excitement (and ice cream!) finally took its toll:


Babies love to see other babies. Sunday was spent at Ikea (of course!) and also visiting my old college roommate and her husband. She had her first baby in September – I saw her very pregnant when I was in town for BlogHer in July, but had yet to meet little Julia. She’s a beautiful four month old with an amazing head of hair. She also weighs the same as Mira, despite Mira being three and a half months older. Mira and Julia sized each other up, probably using baby telepathy to plan out the havoc they will cause next year when we get together again and take them to the children’s museum.

Still not quite sitting up on your own yet?

It’s OK, you’ll get it soon. Once we walk, we’ll own this town.

Leaving Chicago at 8:30pm is stoooopid. I wanted to be on the road by 6:00 or so, but outside forces (as in, the workshop Aaron was attending) prevented that. We were both tired, it was already late, and we were too poor to pay for another night at the hotel. Bad combination. But we struggled through it and somehow arrived safely at home by 5:00am, just as Cordy was waking up for the day. I faded in and out of consciousness when I wasn’t driving, vowing quietly to never do this late night drive ever again. (and this time, I mean it)

Now I must attempt to catch up on the 500 or so posts waiting on me from the weekend. Oh, and thank you all for delurking last week! Did you see I had 100 comments? I’ve never hit triple digits before. And it was good to see so many other moms would hide and eat the cookie, too. I love my kids, but I won’t share my fudge stripes.



Haiku Friday: More Changes From The Warrior Princess

Drawing a picture
Look, mommy! A happy face!

Why yes it is, dear!


A giant Miffy –
No, no! His name is Sammy!
He’s her new best friend.

Kissing Miffy Sammy goodnight

In the past week, Cordy has suddenly been leaping forward in progress. The hugs for Mira have continued, although she’s also taking toys away from Mira, too. But two new developments have me giddy and beaming like I’ve got the next Einstein for a daughter.

First, the “happy face” drawn on her knock-off magna-doodle is the first time she’s ever drawn anything other than scribbles. Cordy sat down, announced she was drawing a happy face, and then talked us through the steps involved as she did it: “Draw a face, then an eye, then another eye, then a smile!” I’d like to take the credit for teaching her that, but the truth is all praise goes to Yo Gabba Gabba, where she saw the face drawn the first time.

Second, you may remember the Miffy contest I had last month. Not only did I give away a Miffy, but I got one, too. (Thanks, Mir & Ty’s!) Miffy arrived earlier this week in a huge box, because this is a gigantic bunny. I told Cordy the box was a present for her, and we opened it together. She pulled out this mammoth stuffed animal with glee, amazed at the size but not quite sure what it was.

“That’s Miffy. She’s a bunny,” I explained.

She gave the bunny a long, hard look. “No, this is Sammy!” she corrected me.

Wha? My child is now naming her stuffed animals? And where did the name Sammy come from? Not only has she named him, but he now follows her around the house. He sleeps in her bed at night, and I must tuck him in with her.

In the morning, we must carry Sammy downstairs for her. (She can’t carry him or she’d fall down the stairs.) When I ask her what she wants for lunch, she tells me she wants a sandwich, and oh, Sammy wants a sandwich, too. Occasionally in the afternoon she’ll tug Sammy onto the couch and tuck him in for a nap.

It’s adorable, and like nothing I’ve ever seen before from her. It’s so exciting to see her drawing and engaging in imaginative play, something she had no concept of six months ago. Part of me hopes these rapid changes continue, while the other part of me wants her to slow down just a little, so I can savor these new advances.

To play along for Haiku Friday, follow these steps:

1. Write your own haiku on your blog. You can do one or many, all following a theme or just random. What’s a haiku, you ask? Click here.

2. Sign the Mister Linky below or at Jennifer’s blog with your name and the link to your haiku post (the specific post URL, not your generic blog URL). If you need help with this, contact Jennifer or myself.

3. Pick up a Haiku Friday button to display on the post or in your sidebar by clicking the button above.

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