Interesting Times

May you live in interesting times

J once told me that was an old Chinese curse or blessing, depending on how it's said. I don't know if there is any truth in it, but things have definitely been interesting, though not in the Firefly/Serenity* sense. 

A couple of Fridays ago, J called, from Canada, where he'd spent the week training at the home office, to say that his early morning flight home had been cancelled. He wouldn't be getting home until 5pm instead of 9am. Bummer. Silver lining: if he gets home at 5, he won't go to faire for the day, so I get to see him for dinner and stuff before bed, instead of just for a few minutes between feedings. Hooray!

I got to the airport right on time, with The Squnchler sleeping in the back seat, which felt like a major accomplishment. She started fussing when I parked, and from the smell, needed a fresh diaper. I grabbed her in her car seat, a diaper & the wipes from the diaper bag and set all of that on the ground next to the car. I set my purse on the back seat, closed the door and went to the front seat to change said diaper. Only the front door was locked. And so was the back door. And all the doors. With my keys safely in my purse. Also, J's keys which he had given to me while he traveled. Yep. Locked out of the car. Thank God I had the baby with me. My cell phone was inside, so I grabbed the baby, the diaper & wipes and headed to the terminal to meet my husband. It was not the joyful reunion I'd hoped for. I felt like a giant failure and crazy lady. 

I have a very long rant where I tell you all the things that are wrong with A-1 Locksmith, but I will sum up with this: It took them an hour an a half to show up, an HOUR of which was after they told me they were just 15-20 minutes away. 

We had glorious plans of dropping the baby off with my folks and having a little pre-Mother's Day dinner, just the two of us. By the time we got back into the car, it was already 8pm, so dinner became the three of us at Olive Garden. Which was really nice, despite all the crappy feelings of a night's plan gone completely to pieces. 

Sunday got off to a wonderful start. Eleanor slept pretty well, I had waffles for breakfast and my folks & I got on the road to Scarborough Faire. We arrived just in time to catch the last song of J's first set. After saying hello to some friends, I took the baby backstage to feed her. La-di-da, everything is fine. Mom & I are walking back down the stairs to go meet J & Dad at the Queen Anne's Lace show. Mom is holding the baby, I've got the diaper bag and purses. I made it all the way to the last step. Then... I don't know. My foot slipped, my ankle rolled, there was a loud pop and I fell. First Aid was called. I was taken in a cart up to the front gate where they iced and wrapped my ankle. Mark, my favorite EMT, suggested I get it x-rayed. I thought my day at faire was over and ruined. It's my right foot, so driving was out of the picture, meaning I was going to have to ruin my parents' day too. Then my dad drove up in a little motorized scooter and the day was saved! I got to do all my visiting and sightseeing from the comfort of my little hot wheels. Spending the day with my mom and showing off Eleanor was just what I wanted. Oh, and I got to attend my brother's wonderful wine show for the first time. It did not disappoint.

The good news is after an x-ray, all I have is a bad sprain and some really ugly bruises. Oh, and this:

It's an unpopular opinion on my Twitter stream, but I do like heart-shaped jewelry. Especially lockets and pendants. This one is pale, pale, pale pink Swarovski crystal, and I love it. 

tiny hands

So, to sum up: locked keys in car, sprained ankle, pretty jewelry. Taking care of a baby with a gimped ankle isn't as bad as I thought, mostly because I avoided the use of crutches and that makes me extremely grateful. I must say though, getting to my doctor's appointments those first two days was pretty funny. My friend Heather, who is Eleanor's Diva Godmother**, came to drive me, which was wonderfully sweet...but funny too, seeing as how she's got a bum ankle due to an Achilles Tendon thingy. We were Gimped & Gimpy.


Squnchler has made it past the 10lb mark, weighing in at a hefty 10lb 4oz yesterday morning. She is smiling in response to stimuli now, which makes my day. She can see & focus on things much better now & is starting to take an interest in the toys dangling from her reclining chair thingy. I've figured out to shower when it's just the two of us. We're making the switch from disposable diapers to cloth by way of some GroVia hybrids--reusable cloth shell, disposable liner. It's pretty neat. I just want to be able to walk a little better before I have to start the extra laundry stuff involved in the cloth diapering.  

The 6 week growth spurt kinda kicked our hiney, but after one of the roughest nights we've had--she slept, but the feeding thing was so very, very painful--we had a wonderful snuggly morning. All of my parts feel a million times better and things are looking up. Also, more smiling is happening, so that makes everything better!


*"Define 'interesting'." "'Oh God, oh God, we're all gonna die.'?"

1 Month

A month! Where does the time go? That's actually something I spend most of my days wondering. All I do is feed and change the baby most days and yet I'll often look up at the clock and realize it's 8pm and I have no idea how I got from morning to night.

The vitals:
9 lb 4 oz
21" long
That's almost a full pound and a whole inch gained. I'm impressed. She's still wearing newborn everything and her 0-3mo stuff is long in the leg and sleeve, but it's too cute not to wear.
She has yet to wear anything other than sleepers/nightgowns twice, so, you know... Diva! Most days she only wears one outfit, which tells you that we've had no catastrphic diaper failures and only a few incidents of way too much spit up.

Highlights:
She's gotten to meet all of her great-grandparents on my side of the family
Her first at home bath was a success. I mean, she didn't really enjoy it in the "smiles and giggles" sort of way, but neither did she fuss, scream, cry or make it a miserable experience. Also, she gave us some really cute skeptical looks.

Skills:
Busting out of a swaddle to get her hands to her face
Being ridiculously cute
Eating (see above growth stats)
Sleeping for 4-5 hours at a time at least once per 24 hrs (which helps me do things like shower & eat)
Making suspicious-sounding noises two seconds before I'm about to fall asleep
People watching--she's tracking faces and objects better now

Works in Progress:
Holding her head up--she's got some strength, but lacks coordination & stamina
Rolling over--she's gone from belly to back twice, but not with any consistency. She can go about half-way from back to belly, but hasn't managed the full shebang yet.
Having enough hair on TOP of her head to put a bow in.

She Likes:
Car rides
Sleeping with her hands by/under her face
Trying to claw her eyes out
The giraffe pillow (I'm pretty sure just the high contrast pattern)
Being sung to
Being swaddled
The swing/sling/vibrating chair thingy

She dislikes:
Traffic (seriously. If the car is moving smoothly, she's happy. Stop and go? She fusses.)
Cold wipes (can you blame her?)
Sleeping alone

I like:
The crazy faces she makes (my 2 favorites are The Marlon Brando and the Winston Churchill)
Her velcroable swaddle sacks. When she's swaddled, J calls her the little slug. I like that too.
Her smiles (don't care if they're gas bubbles, it makes me happy)
When she reaches out to hold me
Frilly socks and headbands (ok, in general I like them, but right now I mean hers, not mine)
Her eyes are the exact same color as J's right now--a really pretty blue grey. I hope she keeps them, but I'm also excited to see if they change to any of the hazel/green from my side of the family. I don't think we'll get the pretty whiskey brown of my brother's eyes--apparently he was born with those.
When she falls asleep with her head on my chest
Covering her in smooches
Her fuzzy baby hair that sticks out all Einstein crazy after naps or feedings

I dislike:
Her reaction to me eating broccoli or fried okra
That she cries real tears
When she spits up (what looks like) everything she just ate & then smiles about it
Losing baby socks in the wash (just 1 so far, but it was the purple one. I've got to use the advice of putting them in a lingerie bag)
This baby acne thing. I know it's normal and nothing to worry about, but I still have irrational guilt that somehow it's my fault and her sweet face is messed up for life. See, irrational.
That feeding her still hurts. It's been a long month, and I love that I'm able to feed her from my person, but the ouch factor really puts a damper on things. I've tried every home remedy and cure listed on the internet, in books, and passed down from your grandma's great aunt's second cousin's neighbor's friend. At least, that's what it feels like. A chat with the lactation consultant seems to point to the problem being Eleanor's tongue--that slight tongue-tie thing isn't keeping her from eating or gaining weight. It's just keeping my parts from healing. I want to keep feeding her. I want this to work. So, we talked to our pediatrician about options and we have an action plan now. Keep us in your prayers, k?


Also, apologies if you've got a crick in your neck from looking at all the sideways pictures. She doesn't spend her entire life lying down, but most of it.