Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Anyone else do this? hmmm, no? just me?
Sometimes when I've had a particularly challenging or grueling day, the kind that take every ounce of my strength to get through, I think to myself at the end of it "wow, I hope this isn't like groundhog's day.".The movie, not the date in February. My worst case scenario? Moving day. Who the heck wants to do that every day for the rest of their life? Unless that's your job and if so I hope you love moving days. Today was one of those days. I'm laying in bed thinking that if I have to wake up and repeat today I may just stay in bed. Then I started thinking about my quirky fear of groundhog's day and suddenly needed to share it with you. I have a lot of other quirks. I could probably write a book of my quirks and irrational fears. It might just become a surprise best seller with a subtitle like "feel normal compared to this wackadoo!" (Or wacka-dudette?) But that's another post for some other day.
Monday, August 17, 2009
Two Months Old
Dear Carter,
Today you’re two months old! To celebrate, we’re all taking a nap. Well, your father and I are, you will probably flail in your crib for a while, possibly squawk with displeasure and proceed to stay awake for the next 6 hours. I sometimes feel like I gave birth to the energizer bunny. You don’t sleep nearly enough for your age and we can’t quite figure out where you’re storing these energy reserves you seem to tap into. You still only go about 3 hours between feedings, including at night. This has been the biggest struggle with you lately and we get all sorts of unsolicited advice on how to remedy this. We’ve come to the conclusion that you’re hungry a lot and not ready to go more than 3 (or sometimes 2, occasionally 4) hours. Some people have told us to ignore you and just not feed you. That would be disastrous. If you stay asleep too long and wake up too hungry you get absolutely furious. It’s those time when you beat me with your tiny little fist and claw my chest while I try my best to soothe you. So, yeah, ignoring you… bad idea for you, bad idea for the mental state of your parents. Others think you need to be swaddled. Those people don’t know you too well, Houdini. You haven’t wanted to be swaddled since before we left the hospital. If we try, which we gave up about 6 weeks ago, you voice your displeasure and thrash violently until you can free yourself. You prefer to sleep like a starfish, all of your limbs extended. For now, we’re zombified and just trying to make it through each night and resulting blurry days.
We had you dedicated on my birthday. I won’t publish the details of the difficulties you provided that day… let’s just say you owe us. I guess it was partially our fault for trying to dedicate you just shy of 5 weeks old. It was a very special moment for us, for us to basically commit to raising you in the ways of the Lord and pray that one day you would embrace Him. Carter, we want many things for you but nothing more than our desire for you to know God. We will try our best as your parents but we will undoubtedly fail. He never will. His love is perfect and He loves you more than we ever could. Let me tell you little guy, that is a LOT because it’s hard for me to imagine anyone loving you more than we do.
This has been a fun month for us. We know you a little better, you know us a lot better. You lock your eyes on me when I walk into a room and you recognize our voices and Stella’s barking. You used to hear our voices and look all around trying to find out where that strange noise was coming from. Now, you immediately turn your head toward our voices and stare at us. This week you’ve started smiling a lot. When I come get you out of your crib after you wake up you always give me the biggest smile and coo at me. It pretty much melts my heart with joy. You’re also very smiley when I change your diaper, which makes it a little better when you pee on me. Still, I could do without the being peed on part. Simply put, you learned how to work me before you were even two months old, smiling at precisely the right moments.
You laughed for the first time last weekend. Your dad had just weighed you and came out to report you were tipping the scales at 13 pounds. He held you up in the air at his eye level and announced in a very silly voice “13 pounds! That’s bigger than a ham!” Apparently that was the most hilarious thing you’d ever heard and you let out the cutest giggle I’d ever heard. You’ve laughed a few times since then, though we’re sure you have no idea what you’re really laughing at.
You are such a little sponge, growing leaps and bounds. It seems like every day you are less of a (very cute lovable) blob and more of a little person. Your dad says you’re the most amazing baby in the world. You like to stand and support all your weight. If you had the muscle control I just know you would be running down the halls already. You’ve been picking your head up from the first few days of your life and now you’re really starting to figure out what to do with it. You’re beginning to understand that your hands are connected to your arms and that you have control over them. Before you would sort of dive after them as they flew by your face, a bit like Stella trying to catch a fly. Even your pediatrician thinks you’re advanced. In fact, at your one month check up he told you to slow down and enjoy being a baby. He also told you to sleep more but that yielded no results. And remember the controversy over whether or not you had actually rolled over last month? You solved that by rolling over for real shortly after I wrote that letter, on the day you reach one month. I don’t know where you think you’re going but it seems you have big plans and places to go. I just hope some of those plans involve us, because we sure do like you.
Love,
Mama
Today you’re two months old! To celebrate, we’re all taking a nap. Well, your father and I are, you will probably flail in your crib for a while, possibly squawk with displeasure and proceed to stay awake for the next 6 hours. I sometimes feel like I gave birth to the energizer bunny. You don’t sleep nearly enough for your age and we can’t quite figure out where you’re storing these energy reserves you seem to tap into. You still only go about 3 hours between feedings, including at night. This has been the biggest struggle with you lately and we get all sorts of unsolicited advice on how to remedy this. We’ve come to the conclusion that you’re hungry a lot and not ready to go more than 3 (or sometimes 2, occasionally 4) hours. Some people have told us to ignore you and just not feed you. That would be disastrous. If you stay asleep too long and wake up too hungry you get absolutely furious. It’s those time when you beat me with your tiny little fist and claw my chest while I try my best to soothe you. So, yeah, ignoring you… bad idea for you, bad idea for the mental state of your parents. Others think you need to be swaddled. Those people don’t know you too well, Houdini. You haven’t wanted to be swaddled since before we left the hospital. If we try, which we gave up about 6 weeks ago, you voice your displeasure and thrash violently until you can free yourself. You prefer to sleep like a starfish, all of your limbs extended. For now, we’re zombified and just trying to make it through each night and resulting blurry days.
We had you dedicated on my birthday. I won’t publish the details of the difficulties you provided that day… let’s just say you owe us. I guess it was partially our fault for trying to dedicate you just shy of 5 weeks old. It was a very special moment for us, for us to basically commit to raising you in the ways of the Lord and pray that one day you would embrace Him. Carter, we want many things for you but nothing more than our desire for you to know God. We will try our best as your parents but we will undoubtedly fail. He never will. His love is perfect and He loves you more than we ever could. Let me tell you little guy, that is a LOT because it’s hard for me to imagine anyone loving you more than we do.
This has been a fun month for us. We know you a little better, you know us a lot better. You lock your eyes on me when I walk into a room and you recognize our voices and Stella’s barking. You used to hear our voices and look all around trying to find out where that strange noise was coming from. Now, you immediately turn your head toward our voices and stare at us. This week you’ve started smiling a lot. When I come get you out of your crib after you wake up you always give me the biggest smile and coo at me. It pretty much melts my heart with joy. You’re also very smiley when I change your diaper, which makes it a little better when you pee on me. Still, I could do without the being peed on part. Simply put, you learned how to work me before you were even two months old, smiling at precisely the right moments.
You laughed for the first time last weekend. Your dad had just weighed you and came out to report you were tipping the scales at 13 pounds. He held you up in the air at his eye level and announced in a very silly voice “13 pounds! That’s bigger than a ham!” Apparently that was the most hilarious thing you’d ever heard and you let out the cutest giggle I’d ever heard. You’ve laughed a few times since then, though we’re sure you have no idea what you’re really laughing at.
You are such a little sponge, growing leaps and bounds. It seems like every day you are less of a (very cute lovable) blob and more of a little person. Your dad says you’re the most amazing baby in the world. You like to stand and support all your weight. If you had the muscle control I just know you would be running down the halls already. You’ve been picking your head up from the first few days of your life and now you’re really starting to figure out what to do with it. You’re beginning to understand that your hands are connected to your arms and that you have control over them. Before you would sort of dive after them as they flew by your face, a bit like Stella trying to catch a fly. Even your pediatrician thinks you’re advanced. In fact, at your one month check up he told you to slow down and enjoy being a baby. He also told you to sleep more but that yielded no results. And remember the controversy over whether or not you had actually rolled over last month? You solved that by rolling over for real shortly after I wrote that letter, on the day you reach one month. I don’t know where you think you’re going but it seems you have big plans and places to go. I just hope some of those plans involve us, because we sure do like you.
Love,
Mama
Monday, August 3, 2009
Missing: July
Last seen for a fleeting moment somewhere around Independence Day.
Seriously, I can't believe it's August and Carter is 7 weeks old. I know everyone says that about their kids, but we had the most chaotic July ever, so that really just accelerated our lives to warp speed. The last half of June was very blurry with very little sleeping and lots of screaming and before we really got through that July hit. A few of our highlights:
So here we are in August. Hopefully this month will pass a little slower and we won't get sucked up, spun around, and spit out on the other side. Not that we didn't enjoy July, because we did and it was lots of fun, it just wore us out. I plan to take in every moment with Carter before I go back to work in a month and spend lots of time with my sister before she leaves for college in New York at the end of the month. We want to do much, much less, savor the summer, hang out with friends, and spend time with our little family.
Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.
-Ferris Bueller
Seriously, I can't believe it's August and Carter is 7 weeks old. I know everyone says that about their kids, but we had the most chaotic July ever, so that really just accelerated our lives to warp speed. The last half of June was very blurry with very little sleeping and lots of screaming and before we really got through that July hit. A few of our highlights:
- 27 straight days of family visiting from other states (3 separate sets- some of Seth's family from Rhode Island and New Hampshire, some of my family from Colorado, then some more of Seth's family from Vermont
- Chandra and Ian's wedding and accompanying wedding festivities
- Many birthdays, including my sister's, my dad's, and my own plus the resulting festivities
- Our anniversary, which was pretty sad actually. Our big highlight was picking which frozen meal we wanted to microwave. We're still planning to go out to a slightly fancier dinner at some point, but very small babies make for difficult date nights.
- Carter's first trip to the zoo
- Carter's first Padres game. They lost, of course, and I almost lost my mind worrying. We had really amazing seats on the field level right behind 3rd plate. Translation: gazillions of foul balls flying at us faster than you can imagine.
- My sister and I went to the Fray concert. They were great live, I definitely recommend seeing them.
- Some fence building
So here we are in August. Hopefully this month will pass a little slower and we won't get sucked up, spun around, and spit out on the other side. Not that we didn't enjoy July, because we did and it was lots of fun, it just wore us out. I plan to take in every moment with Carter before I go back to work in a month and spend lots of time with my sister before she leaves for college in New York at the end of the month. We want to do much, much less, savor the summer, hang out with friends, and spend time with our little family.
Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.
-Ferris Bueller
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