Happy Holidays

Our first Christmas as a threesome has come and gone. Could have been better...I was sick as a dog...again. Twice in one week--no fair! And I think this is the third Christmas I've been ill for out of the last five or so. I don't know what it is. I don't feel like I get particularly stressed around the holidays. I love Christmas. Just a germy time of year, I guess. This has definitely motivated me to get a flu shot though. It's not too late, is it? Last year I was able to get one for free because I worked at the hospital. That was the first time I ever had one. Where do normal people go? Your PCP?
So we missed out on our holiday dinner plans with our friends. It's fun to go to their house because their dog, Sadie, plays with Chewy; and their two kids were excited to spend some time with the Papoose. But we did get to spend a little time with them on the 23rd when we all went to Winterhaven to see the lights festival. This is a neighborhood in Tucson that puts on the most fantastic Christmas lights display you've ever seen. It's free to enter, though you can pay to take a hay ride or trolley ride if you don't want to walk. All the houses participate and the results are over the top in the best possible way. I took some pictures, but they didn't turn out well, as pictures of holiday lights rarely do. I don't even think a verbal description would do it justice, but I'll try: one house had a fountain set to music (think Bellagio); one featured a giant open mailbox with a ski slope diarama inside; one was western-themed complete with a cowboy lassoing the moon; one did an original take on the 12 Days of Christmas (Maids-a-Milking were represented by breastfeeding mamas, French Hens were wearing berets and sipping red wine); far too many to list... It was impressive. The residents must just plan to stay in every night for the 10 days leading up to Christmas. There is just no driving up and down those streets what with the throngs of people on foot, horses, and trolleys.
Chewy accompanied us, sporting his new haircut. He had to get shaved, despite the winter temps. When the Papoose was born and we were in the hospital, Chewy spent a few days at the kennel. He came back with mats in his fur that only got worse over the next two months as we didn't have the time, energy, or knowledge with which to deal with them. Finally, on advice from the Husband's cousin, who's a dog trainer, we learned that mats are actually painful for dogs and we immediately made him an appointment for grooming. So he had a doggie spa day for Christmas this year. He's been much more energetic since returning (just what we needed!), but he also seems a little cold...not wanting to lay on the linoleum anymore, looking for anything he can make a bed out of. So I think I'm going to get him a doggie coat (a nice sporty one, nothing frou-frou), put a blanket outside, and maybe look into some kind of dog house.
This is the Papoose with her new BFF, Fredericka, a gift from her Aunt R. Maybe some of you have heard of this, but apparently there's a company that has taken children's drawings of monsters and made them into real toys. A portion of the proceeds go to charity, and your monster comes with the child's own description. For instance, Fredericka is a girl who apparently likes caramel ice cream, roast beast, and "bisketti." She also loves to dance. So cute.
Happy holidays, everyone! I, for one, will be focusing on health this new year.

24-Hour Cure

So, apparently, being sick can affect the supply of nursing moms. Could be something to do with my inability to keep down fluids for almost 24 hours...or my complete lack of appetite for three days... Anyway, there also, apparently, is a cure. A "24-Hour Cure," to be exact. This consists of Mom staying in bed with Baby for, you guessed it, 24 hours, nursing whenever Baby shows the slightest interest, and not getting out of bed for anything but bathroom breaks. The frequent feeding and lots of rest is supposed to get things up and running well again. So guess where I'll be for the next 24 hours shortly after I post this? Pray for my sanity.
The sleepy girl pictured above is my new angel and best friend. She can do no wrong in my eyes at the moment. Why? Because for the last two nights she's only woken up once in the middle of the night. Yay!!! Of course, last night, I still only got 3 hours total of sleep because of how long it took me to get her back down, but I don't care! She's on the right track. I also hear her waking up, making noises, fighting her swaddle, working on digestive issues, and other baby pastimes for a good hour before actually fussing herself up into a full-fledged cry. This must mean she's beginning to learn a little self-soothing, self-sufficiency. Also good news for our dessicrated sleep stock.

And the best part of all? I got my first smile of recognition on my 30th birthday, when she was five and a half weeks old, last Wednesday. This morning, at seven weeks minus one day, I got a full five minutes of smiles and eye contact. So, so awesome.

Finally, some gratitude.

Freebie

Sorry for the long hiatus. I know that Scarlet, in particular, has suffered. Our Internet service has been spotty, at best, for several days now. Know what we found out when we called our provider? The Husband and I are the luckiest people in the world when it comes to cable. We've had free cable for about seven years now, I think. At four different addresses. And never on purpose. No illegal boxes or anything. We just move places and the cable company never turns off the cable from the previous tenants. And this time, we never realized we weren't paying until they couldn't find us in their system. We signed up for cable at this house. They just apparently lost us. I thought we were on autopay or something and never noticed we weren't getting billed. So we're going to try to fix the problem ourselves, if possible, and hope they don't catch on and stick us with a $1000 cable bill for the past two years. But if they do, that's alright because we owe them. And if they don't, well, that's there fault since we just alerted them to the problem. If they continue to never send us a bill, I'll just assume they don't need our money.

I also have had the plague the last couple of days. The same one the Husband had about a month ago. Horrific. Feeling much better today. The Husband had to stay home from work the last couple days because I was too sick to even nurse and couldn't take care of the Papoose. Here's some eye candy to try and make up for the long absence (Sorry the lighting is so bad. I'm still trying to learn the secrets of using the flash without washing the pic out vs getting to dark of a shot).

I guess she still mostly sleeps. But, I swear, she's more alert and active now. I get smiles of recognition once every few days. Her head control is much better. She's learning things, like, when the burp cloth is tucked under her chin while she's sitting in a particular position, she's about to get a bottle. She loves to sleep in the swing. She likes to have her tummy rubbed. Still only sleeps about two hours, three if we're lucky, at a time at night. We're hoping that will improve a little soon, obviously. She still makes the grumpiest faces all the time, and we love them.

Oh, and the Fuzzy Buns verdict is in, as well as that on the Bum Genius diapers: we love pocket diapers. They seem to keep her sleeping longer at night than disposables or prefolds because she wakes up the second she feels wetness. These new pocket diapers wick it away better so she feels dry longer. The Fuzzy Bunz are very trim, too, though not as trim as disposables. But at least her clothes fit! And the Bum Geniuses are a little less trim than the Fuzzies, but much trimmer than the prefolds still. That's for all two of you out there who are interested in the subject. I won't bore the rest of you any longer.

When I can post again will depend on our Internet problem. As I said, it's in and out, so keep your fingers crossed for us.

Hoodlum

Week 5 in review:

• We survived our first night without the Husband, who was out of town on business.
• She must have hit another growth spurt because it seems like all she does is eat.
• We bought our first Christmas tree. It's up, with lights, but we have to dig the ornaments out of the garage still.
• Sporadic smiles have been spotted! None that are spontaneous, but occasionally in response to my smiles, and also this morning when reading, "Oink! I'm a pig!" accompanied by a pig that squeeks when you squeeze it. I think that book was the highlight of her day today.
• She has learned to like the sling, the Baby Bjorn, and the Moby Wrap borrowed from Ouiser, which is the most comfortable of the three by far. We both love it! Thanks, Ouiser!
• And we learned she looks dang cute in a hoodie.
  

The Story of Stuff

The Husband's aunt shared this short film with us, which I thought I'd pass on to you. The Greenies will like it. Right-wingers will probably want to skip it, FYI.

With a shameful awareness of the irony of saying so after watching that film, I'm feeling very wanty on the Liliputian's behalf for all the great gift ideas listed here.

But in an effort to be less consumptive (not in the TB sense of the word, but in the sense I'm forcing onto the word here; not that we want TB either), I think we'll refrain from buying Christmas presents for our seven-week-old. There's clearly no disputing the fact that she won't know the difference. Plus, she has rattles and other toys she hasn't discovered yet, as well as a supply of brand new Fuzzi Bunz to try out. And we're hoping to get a tree this year, for the first year ever. I'm thinking the tree lights alone will captivate her more than material gifts. Plus she already has one gift waiting for her from her generous Aunt R! So I'll refrain from further shopping for the wee one. This year.

Wish me luck in my attempts to sew over the next few weeks. I don't know if it's in any way possible, but I plan to make a valiant effort towards finishing the wet bag I never completed before the little one arrived. And if this tree thing actually comes to fruition, I'll want a tree skirt and/or tree topper, both of which would have to be made. I'm not even going to worry much about ornaments this year. The main concern will be just keeping the cats and dog from mauling the tree and sending it crashing through the sliding glass door.

Four Weeks Down

The Papoosekin is one month old tomorrow. Part of me feels like it went so fast, and part of me feels like thanking God that we're one month closer to getting more sleep. Speaking of which, last night was the first night that the Husband got to sleep through all the feedings. Which is not to say that he didn't get woken up by the wee one; he did. But he didn't have to get up and do anything and was able to go right back to sleep. This made me feel a bit bitter, to be perfectly honest. I was truly happy that he was able to sleep, but there is a bit of a feeling of "But when do I get to sleep?!?" I know, I know, in good time, Grasshopper.

While we wait for that blessed day, in the meantime, there are one-month birthday cupcakes to enjoy. These were chocolate with cream cheese/chocolate chip centers. Not so good without frosting. With the frosting, delicious. Although, the Husband really prefers a fluffy cupcake and these were pretty dense. Almost muffin-dense. Sorry no pics of the inside. We got interrupted mid-celebration by some projectile spit-up.

Apparently, reaching one month of age inspires one to try out new sleeping positions...
And allows one to reach the enjoying-the-sling milestone. Yay! So happy to finally get my butt off the couch and be able to do at least some things around the house. The Husband even managed to vacuum yesterday with her in the sling. It put her to sleep.