Working Mom

Well, it's a new year and new me. I've now joined the ranks of the working mom. There's them and us, and I'm an us. I really liked being one of them, a stay-at-home mom, but I'm trying to get into the swing of the whole working mom thing. The first few weeks have been kind of rough. The first few days I was just kind of in a fog, and then the misery started kicking in. I missed Elizabeth so much, and I spent at least half of my time thinking, "what in the world am I doing HERE!!!???? I should be with my baby!" I actually told my students that I missed my baby, and they said they could tell. Not good. That was a turning point. I knew I had to get my head in the game. Last week was better. My classes were better. I focused on what I was doing in class instead of wishing I were somewhere else. I never work overtime, like I used to (unpaid, of course), and when the end of the day comes I can't wait to come home and see that little face smiling at me. And I really enjoy the weekends. That's nice. When you're home all the time, the weekend doesn't matter.

Elizabeth has changed so much. She's 9 months old now. At her last check-up she weighed 19 pounds, over 4 pounds heavier than at 6 months. 5oth percentile. The doctor said that was good. She's pure delight. She's getting stronger, and smarter. She crawls so fast, and tries to open every door and drawer that she can. She loves to shred paper. That's her number one hobby. She loves all major appliances. Especially the dishwasher. I'm sure at night that she dreams she's pulling everything out of the fridge and throwing it on the floor. That would be her idea of a good time. She loves to take things out of bins and containers, and throw things down on the floor that are on tables. But she can't put anything back. Sooooo, our living room pretty much looks like a disaster area all the time. But that's o.k. She says da-da-da now. Danny says she likes him best. I just say, "It's linguistics, baby. Language acquisition only. I'm still the mommy!" She makes us so happy. I've never felt joy like the joy she brings me. It's like the feeling you get at one of those moments in life where everything is good. Like on a trip with people you like, having fun, eating dinner at the end of a fun-filled day, and just feeling like you're happy at that moment and nothing else matters. It's like that, but over and over again because you feel it every time you look at her.

baby proofing

We are currently trying to babyproof our home. You always hear that term, and it makes sense, right? Just make your home safe for your baby. Well, it's not as easy as it sounds. Elizabeth is crawling, fast, and pulling up on everything she can, and she's like a little terminator. Anything that she can get her hands on, she tries to rip up or throw down. And we are people with lots of stuff. I'm a piler. I pile stuff here and there. Papers, magazines, bills, whatever. She's destroying my piles. Now I can't even put stuff on the sofa because she can pull up, reach over the cushion, grab my stuff and start throwing it around the room. I'm running out of places to put my stuff. She also likes to play with electrical cords. I don't know what to do with those. And as soon as our tree goes down, we're gonna have to put away tons of stuff that she is blocked from getting to now. She's active, which is good! But man, babyproofing is hard.
BTW, she just got her first tooth! A little white dot jetting out from her lower gum. I'm so proud.

People are always telling me how cute and sweet she is, and I'm like, "I know. She's totally awesome!" She is.

The Crawler

Elizabeth is crawling. It just sort of happened, a couple of weeks ago. One day she was just kind of flopping around, scooting a bit on her belly, and the next thing you know, she's on all fours and on the move. It's amazing, and adorable. It's the most wonderful thing I've ever seen. She crawls all over the place. The last couple of days she has started crawling to me, wherever I am. If I'm in the kitchen and I've just put her down in the living room to play with her toys, I'll look up and there she'll be, crawling toward me. She stops at my feet and just looks up at me. If I put her down to play in her room upstairs while I am brushing my teeth, after a couple of minutes I'll hear a little shuffle and there she'll be at the bathroom door. I am TOTALLY in love with this little crawling creature. Also, just a day or two after crawling she started pulling up. She loves to find anything that she can reach, pull up, and just stand there, hanging on for dear life. She wants to cruise, walking by hanging on to things, but she can't. But I don't think it'll be long. Also, she grabs anything and everything in sight. She's particulary fond of dishes and paper. Although we've bought her toys for Christmas, it seems kind of pointless. I really think she'd be happier with some crinkled wrapping paper and a few pieces of tupperware and spoons.

Mommy Panic Attack

For anyone who actually reads this, I'm sorry that I don't post regularly. What can I say? I'm a loser. I have a baby, and slow dial-up, and sometimes I just don't make it to the computer during the day. If I do, by the time I check all my e-mail, it's been almost an hour, and I have to move on to something else.

Anyway, for a qick update on E.A. she is pure delight. She's 7 months old, absolutely beautiful, sweet, fun, curious, awesome! She's very active. She can almost sit up, she can almost crawl, and she grabs everything in sight. She loves to go out for walks. She loves people. She's wonderful.

Now to the panic attack. The last several days, Elizabeth has been VERY constipated. She can't go. She strains, and cries in pain, and her face turns red. It's terrible. So several people have told me to try Karo syrup. It works, they say. So against my instincts, I thought I would give it a try. It couldn't hurt, right? Wrong. After I had been putting it in her bottle for a few days, I was searching in my "Super Baby Food" book for information about constipation. The index led me to a paragraph about not giving your baby honey or corn syrup because it can contain botulism spores, which can make your baby very sick, and possibly be fatal. It said that symptoms of botulism are constipation, loss of appetite, and weakness. I knew about honey, but corn syrup? I ran into the kitchen, picked up the Karo syrup, and saw that it was indeed corn syrup. I immediately freaked out. I called her doctor, like 3 times, and finally got her doctor's wife on the phone, who is the office manager. She talked me off the ledge, consulted with her husband the doc, and told me that Elizabeth would be showing signs of paralysis by now if she was suffering from botulism.

Maybe I overreacted, I don't know. I know that tons of people have given their kids Karo Syrup and I've never ever heard of a baby getting that. It's probably extremely rare. But none of that mattered to me then. All I could think of was those words: corn syrup - botulism - fatal. It was horrible.

Now I'm giving her milk of magnesia, and pear juice and prune juice. For the moment, I've taken her off of the solid food she was eating (sweet potatoes, squash, peas), and I'm just nursing her and giving her juice. She was better yesterday. Being a parent is wonderful. But it's scary. Sometimes I feel like I have no idea what I'm doing. I just hope that my little one will survive all of my mistakes without too much damage. This experience taught me that I should trust my instincts more, and not just dismiss them. I didn't feel good about the karo syrup, but I ignored my feeling and did it anyway. Next time I'll trust myself more. I hope!

6 month check up

E.A. went for her 6-month check up yesterday (10/19/06). She is unbelievable. She got 4 shots and she didn't even cry. She just wimpered a little at the last one. I'm calling her super baby now.

Her stats were interesting. 28" long. That's off the charts. Over 95th percentile. Her doctor told me she would be over 6 feet tall. Now Danny and I are arguing over whether she will be a model or an athlete. I want her to be an athlete. Since Danny hates sports, he wants her to be a model. I said no way. My child will not be a bulimic/anorexic chain-smoking coke snorting piece of eye candy. I want her to be a tennis star. But I guess it's not really my choice, is it. Sighhh.

She weighed 14 lbs, 12 oz. That's just 11 oz. more than at 4 months. She dropped to the 25th percentile for weight. The doctor said that was fine. She's just started on solid foods (if you can call mushy peas and sweet potatoes solid), so she should put on some weight more weight in the coming months.

Her head circumference was 17 1/2 inches. That's also the 95th percentile. She's got a big head. The doctor said that was good.

It's so exciting to see your little one growing. She's just so sweet and so adorable. I love her more and more each day. I can't wait for her to start talking.

I need Tivo

Life changes when you have a baby. Everybody tells you that and it's true. The new fall lineup has come out. Normally, this would be an exciting time for me. Something to look forward to after work. Checking out new shows, enjoying new seasons of old favorites, etc. I love TV!

But all that has changed. I'm basically out of commission for the 7 - 8 p.m. time slot and often the 8 - 9 timeslot. This is because we have a night time routine now. It works for E.A., which is awesome, and I really enjoy it. She usually has her last meal between 6:30 and 7:00. Then, between 7:30 and 8:00 she gets to eat some cereal from a bowl. (not cornflakes...baby cereal).
Also, she gets a bath in there somewhere every other night. After all that is done, she goes upstairs and gets her PJ's on, I read her the book "Goodnight Moon," we rock a few minutes, and she goes to sleep. It's awesome. She's gotten used to it, so I can just put her in her crib and she'll play with the strings hanging from the mirror attached to her crib and then go to sleep.

This is wonderful. She's such a good baby. But I'm missing all the shows. So in the middle of caring for her we have to run around the house putting tapes in one or tw TV's to tape the shows we're missing. Last night there were 3 shows on at the same time that we wanted to see. We taped "House" and "Gilmore Girls" and I missed "Dancing with the Stars." And I LOVE that show.

I try to find other times to watch the shows. Sometimes I stay up after she's gone to sleep and watch them. But if I stay up too late, and then she wakes up early, I'm tired all day. And sometimes I watch them during the day, since I'm home with her now. It's working out O.K., but when I go back to work, I'm doomed.

Oh, the sacrifices of motherhood have already begun.

Roaming

Elizabeth is on the move. She can roll wherever she wants to go. It's pretty cool. She rolls from her stomach to her back to her stomach, etc. She usually just rolls in one direction, over and over. I've seen her roll over once or twice, but I realized the full extent of her rolling last week. I was at home doing laundry, and I put her on her tummy for the obligatory "tummy time."
I say obligatory, because nowadays babies are supposed to sleep on their backs all the time. It's supposed to be safer for them. So for them to develop the strength and skills they need to learn to crawl and walk, you have to put them on their tummies to practice baby push-ups and stuff.
Anyway, I was doing laundry and I came back into the den and I didn't see her. I kind of freaked out, and then I looked around and she was across the room, smiling at me. She had rolled all the way over there!!!

I've already put away some clothes that she's grown out of. 0-3 months. And it won't be long before I put away the 3-6 months stuff. It's funny. I can't wait for her to become more communicative, and to start doing new stuff. At the same time, it makes me sad that she is growing up. I look at those little clothes and it's like, "she'll never wear that again." My little girl is growing up!!

I'm not worthy!

That's such a funny phrase. I'm not worthy. It's used flippantly, as a joke when people are in the presence of something or someone that they feel is very great. When I was expecting E.A., I would often imagine what it was going to be like to see her and hold her for the first time. I imagined that I would feel extreme joy, which I did. And I knew that I would feel so blessed and grateful to have successfully brought her into the world. After carrying a baby for 9 months, and worrying if everything was going to be allright (at least that's what I did!), it was such a relief to have her arrive, with 10 fingers and 10 toes, a tiny little miracle. I knew that I would be overwhelmed with emotion, which I was.

But one emotion that I didn't expect to feel was unworthiness. I often look at her, and I just can't believe that God gave HER to ME! I feel like she is more than I deserve. Those first couple of weeks at home, I couldn't believe that they let me take her home from the hospital. Just like that. She was mine. I remember thinking, "shouldn't I have to take a test, get a background check...something??" Nope. God created her, and he gave her to me. What a gift!!!!!

I can only compare it to the feeling of becoming a Christian, and getting to the place where you get it...you realize that even though you didn't do anything to deserve it, God loved you so much that He made a way, through Christ, for you to be in fellowship with him forever. He gives us the gift of salvation. I remember being younger, and being so excited about that, and so excited about my relationship with the Lord. I would tell people about it, because I wanted them to know. Having my daughter has made me look anew at the wonder of his creative power. He is the Creator! And He is the Savior. And He loves us even when we don't deserve it, because that's who He is. And now there is another soul in the world, and I am already praying for her, that she will grow up with a tender heart, a heart that has a passion for God.

I am so thankful for and humbled by the precious little life that God is letting me be a part of.

The Name, Part II

Once you pick out a name for your baby, the next thing you have to do is make sure that the initials are gonna be O.K. When we were in Florence last week, one of my mom's friends was talking about this. Her daughter's name is Heather, and she wanted to give her Olivia for a middle name, but then her initials would be HOT. Take away the T and it's HO. That is not cool for your baby girl. Not cool at all. Nobody wants the little boys on the playground to be screaming, "come here, Ho! Hey Ho, you are HOT!" I think she went with Briana for a middle name. HBT is much more respectable.

I also know a little girl whose initials spell out ASS. This kid is only like 6 or 7 and she's already having problems. Poor kid.

We picked Elizabeth Adell (Adell was my grandmother's name, which is why I wanted it), and that made her initials EAW. No problems there.

The Name

One of the most important decisions an expectant parent has to make is what to name his or her child. When my husband, Danny, and I found out that we were going to have a baby, one of the first things we did was to start thinking about names.

It was fun, but at times pretty frustrating. Our conversations would go something like this: (I'm 'P' )

P: What about Mary?

D: Nah. I lived across the street from an ugly girl named Mary.

P: O.K. How about Susannah?

D: I don't like that song.

P: I really like the name Natalie.

D: The girl who dumped me the night before Senior prom was named Natalie. I spent $5000 on therapy to get over that. Not an option.

P: Well then.....(I"m starting to get frustrated-) Christina's a nice name. Whaddaya think?

D: My cousin already took that name. Next.

P: Good night.

D: ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ


We didn't definitely decide on our daughter's name, Elizabeth, until the last minute. It was a name that we both liked alot. It's classic and beautiful and has lots of cute nicknames if we decide to go that way.

Her middle name, Adell, was even harder to choose. I always wanted it, but Danny wasn't sure. Toward the end of my pregnancy he told me that he wanted to name our daughter Adell because he remembered that I had told him a couple of years ago that I had a dream that I had a daughter and named her happy. He looked it up and Adell means joyful. So Elizabeth Adell it was. Pretty cool.

Separation Anxiety

According to some experts, separation anxiety doesn't start for babies until they are a little older, maybe 8 or 9 months old. Supposedly, very young infants (under 6 months), can adapt well to other caregivers. However, this doesn't seem to be the case with little A.E. Whenever other people watch her, or even hold her, she often fusses and cries. Since she was born, my husband has referred to himself as "not the momma." Does this mean that she's brilliant and way ahead of the curve? (that's my theory!) Or is she just an anxiety-ridded little person, destined to scream and wail every time I leave her, for the REST OF HER LIFE.

Who knows. Time will tell. But here's an example. My friend Elise took me out for dinner for my birthday last weekend. My husband, of course, cheerfully agreed to stay home with the baby. I left her at 6:15 p.m., fed and content. When I got home at 9:15, both daddy and baby were asleep. But baby didn't have on her PJ's, and I knew she hadn't eaten, because I feed her.

My husband woke up from a half sleep and said, "she wouldn't stop crying. She sobbed for an hour and a half!" She just cried and cried and then passed out in exhaustion around 8, still gasping for breath like babies do when they cry really hard. I picked her up, put on her pj's, and of course she woke up, and I fed her, but she wouldn't go back to sleep until about 11.

So, it seems that my little one is a Momma's girl. It's a blessing and a curse at the same time.

traveling woes

Once you have a baby, traveling takes on a whole new level of stress. I decided to go with my mom and dad this week to Florence, where they used to live. Of course E.A. came, so that we could show her off to friends.

First of all, there's the packing. In addition to my stuff, I have to pack TONS of stuff for her: clothes, diapers, wipes, toys, etc. It took me two hours to pack, and I had 3 bags and a bulky plastic toy (her play mat that has a cow, a pig, and a chicken hanging from a musical plastic arch).

My parents, God love them, are kind of slow when it comes to traveling, so I thought I was running late when I got to their house, but it was 2 more hours before they were ready to go. My mom made ME call her friends and tell them that we were running late. We called her friend Marsha, who was expecting us mid-afternoon. When I told her I wouldn't be there until around 7 she said, "Oh my goodness. I figured you would be a little late, but not that late!" Of course, I just blamed it on the baby: "ha, ha. you know how it is, traveling with a baby."

The trip, which is about 2 1/2 hours, went smoothly. E.A. slept most of the way, which was great. But when it came time to go to sleep that night, things got ugly. She didn't want to go to sleep, and didn't until almost 10:30, about 1 1/2 hours past her usual 9 p.m. bedtime. She slept in a pack-n-play that Marsha has here at her house, which was great. But she kept waking up. She was up at 1:30 a.m., and didn't go back to sleep until almost 3, and then up again at 6. I hardly slept all night. So I was a zombie all day yesterday at my mom's friends' house. Since E.A. was tired, she fussed most of the day yesterday, and didn't even want to nap much. It was a rough day. I was really nervous and exhausted by the end of the day. I think it's gonna be a while before I go out of town again. I need a few weeks to recover and forget the stress of traveling with an infant.

Welcome to Boopsie Poo

This is my first post. I'm super excited to be in the bloggesphere.

Boopsie and Poo are two nicknames I had as a child / adoloescent. Only my mom calls me boopsie, and only my mom, dad, and best friend from high school Susan call me Poo. They are silly nicknames, but they make me happy because they remind me of happy times from my childhood.

I'm blogging mainly to chronicle the ups and downs (mostly ups so far) of raising my first child, Elizabeth Adell. She's four months old now and she is totally awesome!!!

Her nickname of the moment is "Little Elf", because she looks like a little Elf in her three month pictures we got made of her at Sears.

Today she got her 4-month check up at the pediatrician. She was 17.1 lbs, which is the 75th percentile. Her height was 26.5 inches, which is the 95th percentile. Her head was 17.25 inches around, also the 95th percentile. I think she's got a big head because her brain is so big!

She got 4 shots today, and she hardly cried. I was impressed.