BANANA

Remembering: The First Few Days

I'm thinking back to the first few days of Pippa's life. It was so amazing and overwhelming at the same time. The first night was quite good. She was still in the honeymoon phase of things. Mostly sleeping. Not really eating anyways so breastfeeding wasn't a big issue yet. Sto slept on the short bench seat they called a bed and the baby slept in the room with us. I remember being surprisingly thirsty all the time! I must have drunk gallons of water each day. By the second day it was becoming clear that we were having breast feeding trouble but the lactation consultant wasn't in until Monday. (The down side of having a baby on a Saturday). We ended up giving her a bottle of formula twice during those first few days. She was just not latching onto me and the poor girl was hungry. Looking back I know it was absolutely a good decision. But at the time I had tear streaming down my face. I already felt like a failure. 

Monday was the day we came home from the hospital. I think we both were a still shell shocked about actually having a kid! Packing up to leave was kind of humorous. I felt like I needed to bring everything home with me from the chucks to the diapers to the receiving blankets. I now have 4 crappy hospital receiving blankets that I have absolutely no use for! Then we went to put our perfectly swaddled angel into the car seat. But neither of us had any idea how to strap her in. She was swaddled. Wouldn't she get cold if we took the blankets off? I didn't think to bring a snow suit. Thankfully, it was still a warm day and that snow suit would have swallowed her up whole anyways! The nurse's aid patiently showed us what to do (though I did catch her looking at us like we were idiots!). 

We arrived home to my mom, Michelle, and the kids to welcome us. They made a sign that read "Welcome Home Pippa" and seeing her name in print made it all so real that I cried. That was the start of the tears that seemed like they would never end. I was so emotional those first few weeks. I knew it was normal, but it still surprised me to be so weepy!

Pippa slept in her cradle in our room with us the first night. The first and only night. I had no idea how noisy babies can be when they sleep! I didn't get a wink of sleep because I would jump up at every little grunt. The next night we moved her into our sitting room and we both slept much better.

Those early night time feedings where so special to me. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad I can get a full night's sleep now, but those early nights were so peaceful. Just me and the baby. The lights were dim and it was quiet. She would have such great moments of wakefulness. We would just gaze at each other and then nurse. As tiring as it was, it was a time of great bonding.

Spies With Strollers

Another great outing this week! We headed out to the Grounds for Sculpture in Hamilton NJ.  I've been to sculpture parks before and, in my experience, they are usually large fields with sculptures scattered about. I've driven past this particular sculpture park before and was not expecting much, to be honest. There are a lot of large (huge, really) sculptures in a somewhat industrial looking neighborhood and a random giant molar near the train station. I expected more of the same but was pleasantly surprised. After Meghan, with Connor, and I, with Pippa, snuck in through the restaurant without paying, we were greeted by a pair of beautiful peacocks showing off for us. The grounds were beautifully arranged with blooming flowers and trees fluttering in the breeze. Some of the sculptures were flat out weird, of course, but there were many that I found stunning.

We found a nice shady place to lay out our picnic and lounge for a while. We feasted on cheese and bread, fruit, and nuts with some amazing brownies for desert. The babies hung out, playing with toys and each other and admired the bright green leaves contrasting against an exquisitely blue sky. It was a perfect day.

On the way out, we discovered our way blocked by a locked door. Nuts! We needed to sneak back out the same way to avoid paying. So we managed to make our way though a private party, around the side of the restaurant (which required a bit of off-roading), and sneak out the employee-only back door next to the herb garden. We were like spies...with strollers...

Snotty Nose Girl

So my poor baby has her first cold. She's a snotty mess. Actually, its not too bad and I hope this is the worst of it. She can still nurse well enough and last night she slept almost as well as she usually does. I have a touch of it myself and I'm hoping that my superior immune system, built up by years of working in health care, will pass along antibodies to her tout suite! 

She really is a pathetic and cute sick kid. She can't breathe through her nose well so her little mouth is hanging open all the time. Her eyes constantly have tears and there is often snot running down her face. And, if its possible, I think she is drooling more! But she's smiling all the while. She has the cutest little cough and every time she sneezes, she farts. I giggle every time. Sto does not find her temporary condition so cute, though. His heart strings are a little more sensitive than mine, I guess. They do say that nurses have no sympathy for sick family members. Sort of true. I have to remind myself to baby Sto when he's sick.

I've gotten a lot of advice from friends and family which has been very helpful. Humidifier in the room. Check. Head of bead raised. Check. Though, there really is nothing stopping her from turning herself around and being upside down. In fact, that is exactly how I found her this morning! Bulb syringe. Check. She doesn't particularly like this, but she's resigned to it, I think. She's used to me picking her nose (and ears, for that matter) on a regular basis anyways!

Yesterday she spent a lot of the day in her baby sling. Thank the good Lord for those things! She loves being cuddled up and I love the way my arms don't feel like they are going to fall off. The maya sling even has a convenient toy holder! We took 2 walks this way, did chores, worked in the garden, and danced the day away. I'm sure today will be much the same.

Overall I feel very lucky that we made it almost the 6 month mark before coming down with something. Its inevitable that she get sick. It will help her build a healthy immune system, right? I'm not one of those germaphobe parents. Granted, I hope she gets over it quickly but I'm not too upset she got it.  I count my blessings every day that we don't have any real health problems to deal with. She is a healthy, happy kid, a good sleeper, and has a sweet temperament. I recognized how blessed we are and a send out thanks.

Genius Baby

Pippa is almost 6 months old now! I have a hard time even typing those words. Time flies!

Her current favorite things are:

1. Her feet: She found them a few weeks ago. So cute. One day she just started playing with them. At first she couldn't get them to her mouth, but after a couple of days she was sucking on those toes like a champ. Mmmm. Sock fuzzies. Yum.

2. Tummy time: Thankfully she really enjoys this now. It took while but now she is content to play by herself on her tummy for large chunks of time. In fact, she gets restless is she doesn't get to squirm around enough. It should be called wiggle time!

3. Exersaucer: Though she still can't really stand flat footed in it, she love to go after all those toys. She's figured out how to press the buttons on one toy to make animal noises. She looks up at me with glee when she does it. Precious.

4. Sucking on my face: Yup. She still does that.

5. Being carried in the sling: She loves the Moby wrap for shopping trips. I think she loves all the attention she gets in it, too. Ok. So do I. Lately we've been using the Maya Ring Sling for walks around the block. We both still have to get used to it, but so far we give it a thumbs up. I've been trying out a Wrap N Wear for the last couple of days. Its a shower gift for a friend so don't tell her. (Wink) We give that a thumbs up too because its a lighter weight fabric and shorter, so a little easier to deal with. But the Moby is more comfortable and I like how it stretches.

6. The butt pat: This seems to help her settle into sleep when she needs a little extra help. Interestingly, it doesn't work as well if you pat her back instead. I think all the padding of her cloth diaper makes it more pleasing to her.

7. Dancing with Mama: She's always liked to dace with me. I love it too. We always do a little dance before naps to sooth her into a sleepy state. She can be such a cuddle bug. I just love it.

8. Playing with Daddy: He's been busy lately and we haven't seen much of him, unfortunately. She was all smiles when he came home from work today! They love to play together and sing the wheels on the bus. I love listening to them over the monitor. So cute.

9. Kisses: She loves being kissed and kissed and kissed. She'll lean into it to make you keep going. Sto is especially good at getting her to laugh when he kisses her neck. It must be the whiskers.

10. Talking!: She's progressed from agu and aba to mamama and nyenyenye. Check off one more milestone! I got a genius on my hands!

Roly Poly

As parents, or at least first time parents, we are always so eager for our little ones to reach the next milestone. Its so exciting to watch as they explore the world and learn more and more each day. This sounds sort of cliche but its true. I can sit and stare at Pippa doing the most mundane things. In fact, I have hours of video to prove it! But there is one milestone that caused us a lot of problems. Rolling. Yes, rolling. It goes like this:

We would put Pippa down for a nap on her belly (She's always been a belly sleeper. Don't judge.) and, as she was drifting off to the wonderful land of slumber, she would roll over onto her back and proceed to start screaming. She was now stuck. I would walk in and the look on her face would say, "Look what happened to me!" Oh, the headaches this caused me. This was the end of good napping for us. I tried everything. I tried trying to sooth her back to sleep. I tried patting her back until she fell asleep to prevent her from rolling in the first place. I tried letter her cry it out. I tried everything short of pinning her down to the bed, and this was only because I didn't have any safety pins! After many weeks of this hell, she finally learn, not how to roll back again, but how to sleep on her back. I suppose this is a good thing, though I still roll her back over at night if I can. I don't trust she'll sleep very long that way. I'm told this whole saga may start over again when she learns to stand up and can't get back down. Great.

Well, today she finally rolled from back to belly! I had a feeling she was going to figure it out soon because last night, when I checked on her, she was on her back struggling to roll over in her sleep. It was the cutest thing. I just watched her struggle for a minute before helping her out. Then, today, she was just playing around on the floor while I was folding diapers next to her and voila! She rolled! I cheered for her, of course, and she just gave me a look like 'Well yeah, mom. No biggy.' I had visions of the teenage years to come.

Going Greek

My friend Meghan had the brilliant idea to go to the Greek Festival in a neighboring town. Fabulous idea! I heart Greek food and have been feeling a dearth of it since moving out of Manhattan, the land of everything. We also thought it would be fun to see some Greek dancing and listen to some Greek music while perusing the fine Greek wares. After all, it is important to expose our children to different cultures, right?

Well, it was a nice thought. And the food was really good, if not served on styrofoam plates. But as it turned out, the whole thing was really more of a church luncheon than an entire festival. No music. No dancing. There were wares, but I'm pretty sure they were made in China. No matter! Never ones to be brought down by such things, Meghan, Pippa, and I happily ate our lunches, bought some baklava for later and headed out.

We stumbled onto a flee market at the Quaker Meeting House (which I've been meaning to visit, by the way) and decided to stop. Such fun. I found an enormous old milk jug (I think) for a few bucks and Meghan walked away with a great beach tent for a steal. What a great day! The Flee Market was jumping, even if the Greek Festival wasn't so festive.

Love It So Much It Hurts

So I had to take away a toy for the first time the other day. Not the last time I'll do this, I'm sure. There is a particular toy that was given to us that I'm pretty sure is laced with crack. I now refer to it as the crack toy, as a matter of fact. Either that or cat nip. Is there such a thing as baby nip?

This toy makes Pippa CRAZY! It always starts of normally. Enjoying the colors. Ooh, good to suck on, too. But after a few minutes she starts grunting and trying to shove the whole thing in her mouth. Pretty soon she's crying over it but won't let go! Its like she loves it so much it hurts! Once I took it away and she started screaming! This last time, I knew better and gave her another toy first but to no avail. She was too far gone. I've never seen her so upset. Anyone who's ever met my daughter knows she's not a cryer. But, this day, it took a long walk to calm her down! I'm still not sure what happened. Possibly she hurt her gums on it, but why would she acting like she was in a pie eating contest? Maybe she had her first temper tantrum. Can a 5 month old really have a temper tantrum? Great. I thought I wouldn't have to deal with that until the terrible two's! So, needless to say. The toy is now out of circulation. Maybe I'll give it back next month. But maybe not.

Fuss away family.

So as my first Mother's Day as a mother comes to a close, I'm sitting here at my computer feeling pretty darn good. It was a very nice day. In fact, it was a great weekend. I desperately needed a date with my husband and my in-laws were actually willing to come to our house to babysit. I would have taken Pippa there, but I much prefer she go to bed for the night in her own bed, even if they kept her up considerably past her bedtime to play. Sto and I went to a great restaurant we had never been to before and yet again I surprised myself at how much I can eat. Go breastfeeding! Then we hit up the movies...and ate some more. We also managed to only talk about Pippa for half of the night! All of this fun still got us home by 8:30, which was great because all of a sudden that seems late to us!

This morning Sto made me breakfast. Luckily I had already bought all the ingredients for the blueberry pancakes and poached eggs I wanted. I know my husband well enough to plan ahead! After we put Pippa down for her morning nap we sat down together to eat. Me with my yummy pancakes and Sto with the burnt 'first tries'...and plenty of burnt 'second tries' left over. Then I opened my present from Pippa (a lovely bracelet) and got teary over the card that 'she' wrote to me. We were planning on meeting the rest of his family later for brunch so he hurried off to round and I started the dishes and some laundry. (Hmmm. Whats wrong with that part of the story?)

Brunch with the family was a lot of fun. Pippa is getting to be so much fun socially. She entertained everyone very well and showed off her favorite vocals (grunting with a smirk on her face). She also look smashing in her pink tutu and striped leggings. There is no better feeling than when people dote on your child! I realize I am completely biased in thinking she is the most beautiful and smartest child in the world. (Wow, I hope she's not actually dumb and ugly! Mmmm. Not possible. Wink.), so I love to see other people thinking the same thing.

I am so thankful for such an amazing daughter. I am especially thankful for my husband and recognize how lucky I am to have been given him. And I am very thankful for great in-laws who love my daughter so much and make such a wonderful fuss over her. Fuss away family. Fuss away.

Bradley Babies BBQ

I have been blessed with some amazing new friends. Sto and I took a birthing class of the Bradley method of natural child birth. It was a great class and we met every Monday. There were 5 young couples, all first time parents like us. Though we didn't really get to know each other as well as we would have liked (mainly because we were all starving pregnant women who need to go home and eat our second dinners by the time class finished), we did kept in touch through email a little bit. I was the first to go, then Mary (on the right) had Elizabeth. After a few weeks of being cooped up with new born in the winter time, I was going stir crazy, so I went out on a limb and e-mailed Mary to see if she wanted to get together. I'm so glad I did! After that first week, we got in touch with Meghan (middle) and basically invited ourselves over to see her and meet Connor. Connor came a bit earlier than expected and we had a feeling Meghan could use the new mommy support as much as we did! We now refer to it as the second week intervention. We've been meeting every week since and I am so grateful for them! All new moms need other new moms to lean on. When Pippa was going through her 4 month sleep regression recently, Meghan was also working on some sleep training with Connor. We texted updates to each other every night. It was like we were in the trenches together! And they were both SO supportive of me when I was having trouble breastfeeding. Sure, husbands are great too, and I have a particularly special one. But there is nothing like a girlfriend! Thanks ladies. And I could not ask for better kids for Pippa to grow up with!

Anyways, we hosted our first (of many) BBQ at our new house today. We had a great time hanging out on the patio, despite the 90 degree heat. Sto cooked some mean burgers and the grilled veggies where even better (so says the former vegetarian). I popped Pippa in her new swim suit and we tried out the sprinkler. She wasn't so sure, but she looked darn cute anyways. I'm sure in a few more months she'll love it. She and Ellie did love, however, the frozen wash cloth I made for them. That will definitely be a summer staple. Looking forward to the next BBQ and maybe a little bocce ball next time!

Little House on the Prairie Buddha

Last week we went met our friends at the Amish Market. We had a blast. I'd love to say that we spent time admiring the beautifully hand crafted furniture and other wares, but really we just ate our way through the market. And why wouldn't we, really? Its one of those places that has all sorts of free samples! Kettle corn in different flavors (white cheddar was awesome), home made rice cakes (these where surprisingly good), and woopie pie's (ok, this wasn't a free sample, but man was it good!).

In the end, we left with some yummy fresh produce, sun dried tomato bread, salmon for dinner, and this adorable prairie bonnet! I put it on her as a joke but couldn't help but buy it! This is one of those pictures that I love way too much. I'm sure it's just because I'm her mother, but look at that face! That smile lights up the world! Well, my world at least! She's definitely getting chubby. The good, cute kind of chubby. Like Buddha. Thats why Sto likes to refer to this picture as the 'Little House on the Prairie Buddha' shot. Love it!