Second Verse, Not the Same as the First

I know I shouldn’t do this. Heck, I’m the youngest of 3 and I know what it’s like growing up with constant comparisons to older siblings.  But I just can’t help drawing the lines between M’s babyhood and MAD’s.  

  • - M was an awful sleeper.  She was 5 months before she slept a consistent 6 hours at night.  We never dared check on her after putting her down because she would wake up the instant we entered her room. MAD slept his first straight 8 hours at 6 weeks.  By 8 weeks it was consistent.  Nothing wakes the kid up, not even the dog barking at the mailman.  Now at 12 weeks he’s clocking 9-10 hours a night without a wake-up, even when I check on him.  It’s awesome.

 

  • - At 11 weeks MAD was 15 pounds.  M didn’t reach that weight until 21 weeks!

 

  • - M never, ever took a bottle.  We tried every kind, every trick, and every method from 3 weeks to 5 months before giving up.  We didn’t want the same problem with MAD so we started him on one bottle of formula a day in the hospital, despite the warnings from the lactation consultant. He did fine going back and forth from me to it and I was confident I would not be tethered to him by a 3-hour leash like I was his sister.   
    That was until about 6 weeks when all of a sudden he started refusing all bottles. Since then we’ve tried pumped breast milk, different formulas, new bottles, and different temperatures.  He wouldn’t take it. You can imagine my stress as I got ready to come back to work.  My job now isn’t nearly as flexible as it was then (although I still have the same amazingly understanding boss). We kept working on it and found that the Playtex Drop-In bottles with rubber nipples (not the exact same ones in silicone – no way!) were the only thing he could be coaxed to accept.  But then he would only take about an ounce and only from me.
    So I prepared to make 2 trips to daycare each day to feed him, although I still sent 2 2-oz. bottles for them to try. Day 1 he wouldn’t take a drop.  Day 2 he drank both bottles with no fuss.  Today I sent 2 4-oz. bottles and am keeping my fingers crossed he is cooperative.  I really need to only go over at lunch, or my productivity in the office is going to be nil.
     
  • - Speaking of bottles, I know this is probably way TMI but I am astonished at my pumping output this time.  With M, ever hopeful that she would take a bottle, I pumped for 4 months.  The most I ever produced from a 30 minute double pumping session was 4 oz.  You can imagine my heartbreak when I had to pour 45 pouches of breast milk down the drain when we gave up the bottle attempts with her.   
    This time 20 minutes gives me 6-10 oz. easily.  Every single time I stare at the full bottles and marvel.  It was so hard last time, and while it’s still not any more comfortable or glamorous it’s so much more worthwhile to see decent output.  Add to it that he’s, you know, actually drinking it and it makes it much less demanding to sit through those god-awful pumping sessions.
    Now, I know putting this in writing is all going to curse me and he’ll start taking 16 oz a day from a bottle and I won’t be able to keep up!

 

So far MAD has been a very easy baby.  I think it’s because of the sleep.  Anything is easier when you get 8 hours of sleep!

What about other mothers? Did you find yourself marveling at how different things were from one kid to the next? For the second (or third, or fourth) did you prepare yourself for some “problem” that never happend that time around or take steps to prevent something that happened anyway?

By kakaty on 14 July 2010

The boy, magpie

Happy Father’s Day

He didn’t want kids when we met.  No way, no how.  But I knew better.  I saw the father he could be buried beneath everything else.

8 years later he became a father.

And she instantly wrapped him around her little finger and showed him how to be a great Daddy.

Now, he’s a father twice over.  And he’s just as smitten with the little dude as he is with her.

Happy Father’s Day to my husband.  I knew you had it in you to be an incredible dad.

With the coffee mug M made for him at school

By kakaty on 20 June 2010

The boy, general musings, magpie, wedded bliss

Future Farmers of Suburbia

M has really been craving some mommy-time, so today I kept her home from school and we had an adventure.  We started at Patterson’s Strawberry Farm (hat tip to Classy Chaos for scouting the fields last year) where we picked and ate over 5 lbs of luscious berries.

Actually, she picked 95% of them.  I had MAD strapped to my chest and he got cranky every time I squatted down to do my own picking.  Either way, we have a bunch of sweet, juicy strawberries to consume.  I don’t think it will be a problem.

Once MAD had is fill of hanging out in the Bjorn, we headed up the road to Lake Farmpark.  One of the first things we did was head to the Dairy Room to meet their new calf, Unity and watch the other cows get milked. After that, we used the milk to make Farmer’s Cheese.  M was one of 2 girls there, so it was really hands on but they wouldn’t let us taste it since the milk was raw (bummer!).

After a nice picnic lunch we explored the barns.  We saw and petted sheep, piglets, goats, hens, cows, llamas, alpacas, and horses. We saw working beehives, explored the gardens and ran around the paths.
Then M asked to ride a horse.  She’s asked before but once the time came to get on the pony she got scared. I kept reminding her that I couldn’t do it with her, and she’d be on her own.  She surprised me by bravely getting on the pony and riding it around the ring twice! I was so proud of her.  Even though she looked alternately bored and scared, she said she had fun.
I had visions of keeping her home one day a week during my leave, but today, while awesome, was exhausting.  Juggling her wanting my attention and the needs of MAD (who actually slept most of the time, but also screams bloodily murder when he’s hungry and had an impressive diaper blow-out) left me whipped.  Ending the day in a frantic dash home to get the dog to a forgotten grooming appointment didn’t help my stress level.  SAHParents have my full respect.
—–
In other farming news, my patio garden which 4 weeks ago was this:
Is now this:
21 tomato plants (many in a storage container because I ran out of pots!), herbs, beans, broccoli and lettuce.  It’s a jungle out there.

By kakaty on 10 June 2010

Cleveland, magpie

My Girl

As we barrel towards the arrival of our new family addition (arriving 4/17 via induction, in case you haven’t heard) I find myself marveling at our first born.  All of a sudden she seems so grown up and I know this feeling will intensify when the baby arrives.  But, this kid, I just love her so much.

For spring break her daycare/preschool was shut down for a week and a half.  We swapped days with another family so no one had to take more then 2 days off.  But having 2 days to spend with this amazing child was just what I needed.  In keeping with my motto “if kids aren’t IN the house, they can’t mess it up” we had lots of excursions.  We went to Preston’s Hope Playground, made brownies for snack, hiked at Shaker Nature Center, traveled out to Playground World for the morning and spent a glorious afternoon at the Cleveland Botanical Gardens. Her partner in crime was a friend’s son who attends the same school is about 6 months older then her – they’ve known each other since birth.

What was so fascinating about these couple of days was just watching how M interacts with other kids.  We don’t do many playdates (with the whole full-time-working, crazy weekend thing) around here, so watching and listening as I waddled my pregnant self after them was eye opening.  Seeing her adjust and change on a dime, negotiate who got to do what first, when she decided to play by herself rather then play with him, the painful twinge in seeing my own shyness manifest itself in her around unknown children… it was all just really cool to see it unfold in front of me.

Back at home she’s been so attentive and cuddly.  She’s prone to crawl in my lap and proclaim me the “best mama in the world” at any moment.  She’ll stop what she’s doing just to tell me she loves me.  She’ll run over to me mid-dance to give me a kiss and will then kiss my belly.  I get gifts of dandelions and pretty leaves every evening and each morning she lifts up my shirt and tells the baby ‘good morning’.  This is not to say that she is some magical perfect child – oh, no way! She still has her tantrums, doesn’t listen and tends to ignore you if she doesn’t like what you are saying.  But the good is far outweighing the bad right now.

With spring here we spend a lot of times outside and she’s so interested in everything around us: “What kind of tree is that?” “What’s the name of that flower?” “What kind of bird is singing?”  She comes home from school and retells elaborate, detailed stories about her day. She can spell her name and write the letters (more or less). At her swim lessons she plunges fearlessly into the water and is getting quite good at propelling herself underwater.  Her memory is amazing and she will randomly compare something she sees/hears to something that happened over a year ago.  Every night, after an epic and sometimes comedic period of stalling her bedtime, she will lay in her bed and talk or sing to herself for up to an hour.  While I can get a tad annoying when she’s still up at 9:00, I also can’t help but giggle a little at everything I hear. 

There is truth to the saying “every age is the best age” and I have certainly felt that myself.  She’s getting so grown up so fast. But right now there are several moments each day that my heart just feels like it will burst with love and pride for this girl and I want to remember every second.

By kakaty on 14 April 2010

Prego, magpie

Make Me a Match

I’ve mentioned before that M attends a Jewish-based preschool/daycare although we are not Jewish.  We made this choice for several reasons and she has flourished since she started there almost 2 years ago. 

One of the fantasic side-effects of this choice is that Mark and I are learning a lot about the Jewish faith and culture.  This year we studied up on Hanukkah and lit the candles on the Menorah M made at school.  Last year was my first experince of Purim and we also helped her class decorate their Sukkot.  M has taught us parts of their weekly classroom Shabbat ritual. 

More recently we’ve noticed that M checks out food lables to see if the product is Kosher.  Her school is not fully Kosher but many of the children who attend are, and any class snacks must be marked as such.  Apparently she has picked up on what to look for!

This week her class has been cleaning their room in preperation of Passover.  They have been talking about the story and rituals of the holiday and having practice Seders before the school-wide Seder which was held yesterday. 

A couple of days ago I got an email from daycare while I was at work.  They wanted to share a photo of M and a classmate as they practiced for Passover:

My first thought, after a loud “awww!” escaped from my lips was of Tzeitel and Motel in Fiddler on the Roof…

I’m pretty sure there is a Yenta nearby!

By kakaty on 26 March 2010

magpie

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