Archive for May, 2012

May 29th, 2012

productivity.

By all accounts I am very happy to be a home “owner”. I can see my family growing and enjoying our house for many years to come. Unfortunately it means leaving my comfort zone. This conflict of interest has lead to a lack of productivity. I am all about making my new house what I want it to be, but in the mean time I am having a difficult time convincing myself to pack. Some how it is still getting done, but it is painstakingly slow.

I had a similar problem when leaving Tennessee. So much so that when all of my extended family came around to pick up our stuff to take it to Virginia… none of it was packed. Well… some of it was. But most of it was not. I remember sitting on the floor as every one rushed around me packing up my apartment. To say I felt depressed was the least of it.

So, this time… we are planning better. We have been packing, actively, for weeks. Weeks! We’ve juggled different goals. Should we aim for one room a day? That hasn’t happened. One area? Usually it ends up being a Jeep-full. Since that is all we can move on our own. Every night B-man packs up the Jeep with our boxes and drops them off at the new house.

This coming Saturday we are renting a U-haul trailer and moving furniture. My piano from my parents’ house, as well as the other things that are too big for our Jeep.

It’s hard for me to feel motivated to pack, because for the first time in my life… I have a lot of friends. Good friends that I truly enjoy spending time with. People I can just go hang out with on a whim. We are not moving so far away that I will never see them, but it is far enough away that 20 minute visits are no longer practical.

Meh.

Today I painted the dining room. I still need to put up the second coat of paint, and then I am going to repaint the trim. Once we get moved in and have our internet set up I intend to inundate you all with excessive pictures of my house. *woot!*

In the mean time I have to go snuggle my babes.

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May 24th, 2012

Baby foooood

I’m sorry if my over use of vowels bother people. I really talk like that.

Just like every other aspect of babyhood, Ginny has been a challenge in the food department. Today she is driving me a bit bonkers, because apparently she has given up eating (not nursing, just the regular… ya know… people food).

At 4 months our pediatrician suggested starting “solids”. So I dutifully strapped on a bib… wait. Nope. I stripped Ginny down nekkid, and we spent five minutes every night trying the baby food thing. She wasn’t into purees. So… I have up on the store bought stuff. My sister-in-law bought me a baby food making kit for Christmas, so dived right into that.

Hours of my life wasted. I ended up giving it all to a friend.

Ginny hated baby purees so much that after just one spoonful she would vomit. Gag, then vomit. Usually wasting the last 20 minutes I had spent nursing her, plus the home made baby food.

So after tow months of this… I gave up. She’s a smart kid. She tells me when she needs to… umm… get stuff out of her body, and I decided to trust that when she was ready she would let me know she needed more stuff in her body.

Instead of focusing on actively feeding her we went to a passive roll. She would sit at the table with us, and I would put whatever we were eating on her plate. Cute up pieces of meat, pasta, veggies. Salty, sweet, plain or spicy. And… she started eating. She likes sucking on meats, nibbling on fruits, and even enjoys spicy foods. Go figure.

It’s kind of a strange dance, this parenting thing. And usually I end up doing several rounds before I get it right. As of today… 6 months after we started trying to feed her, Ginny will eat cottage cheese any time, day or night. It’s my fall back. She will also eat most fruits, or anything that I seem to be enjoying. Go figure. She likes buffalo chicken and veggies seasoned with curry. This isn’t surprising to me because I spent the majority of my pregnancy trying to make up for the lack of sugar in my diet with spicy food and curry chicken salad.

She also drinks from a straw. Which is nice because we can ask for a kids cup with water and restaurants and not have to carry a cup around.

We are progressing. She definitely has a sweet tooth, which I guess is understandable, considering my friend described the taste of breast milk as “melted ice cream”.

I guess this is just another example of having to trust the baby. She knows what she needs, and she lets me know.

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On a similar note – she is a really good restaurant baby (for dinners lasting less than 2.5 hours). She is a people watched, and loves to just sit and look at everything going on around her. We have been taking her to restaurants since the very beginning – which seems to be playing out well in our favor.

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And as a side note: My pediatrician recently said that there are staph infections that are being spread via public changing tables. People will use their changing pads from their diaper bags, and then take it and us it at a different place – spreading the infection. A couple tips to avoiding this? If you must use your matching changing pad, wipe it down when you are done. Which… is too much of a hassle for me. I usually check the diaper in the car before we go in to a store or restaurant, and then again when I get out. I would much rather change the diaper in my car. Since most places rarely actually have the disposable covers available – grab some paper towels to cover the table instead.

I’m only talking about this because a staph infection can be very serious and very scary and I love y’all. Be clean, be safe!

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May 22nd, 2012

The sleep issue.

Something I hats about being a parent is that when I complain about a problem I’m having with my daughter, people will basically shrug their shoulders and say its my fault any way. Well… that may be true, but a little sympathy goes a long way. Just because I did things differently from you doesn’t make it wrong, nor does it mean I have to just accept negative “side effects” of my desicions.

We are co-sleepers. It is not for every one. I have done plenty of research on the subject and I am well aware of the dangers – as well as the benefits. With that aside – even though it has been good for us, there are things that can be difficult to deal with.

Typically Ginny goes to bed in her crib to start. Usually she was nursed to sleep by me, or rocked to sleep by B-man. She is our first baby, and in the very beginning B-man gave me permission to baby her. I fully enjoy holding her, nursing her, and rocking her to sleep. You only have one baby…once. Next time I will have two, so I won’t be able to sit around and just hold the baby. I took full advantage of this “only child” time. Back to the point. Once she wakes up B-man would change her diaper then bring her to bed for me to nurse.

About two months ago we accidentally fell into a bad sleeping schedule – staying up too late, then sleeping in until noon. It became easier to just take baby G to bed with me. Some times she thinks the bed means play time. And who can ignore baby giggles!?! Certainly not I. After a few minutes she settles down and falls asleep nursing. But a big change is in the works.

She lays down, start nursing, but in the early stages of sleep she lets go and rolls away. She is on the verge of walking – the last “step” before we move her to her own big kid bed. Well… a floor mattress. As we move into the house, her room will be completely baby friendly. I will probably still lay down with her, and nurse her to sleep, bit on her own bed. She will still be welcome in our bed though. Some people may think it’s ridiculous to have a kid sleeping in your bed,unbutton there r several things that make it doable, and enjoyable. Firstly – B-man is incredibly helpful, from diaper changes, pillow arrangement, requests for water and finding my Tums – he does it willingly and kindly. And secondly – we have a king size bed. It always seemed strange pre-baby to have al much space between us, but now ot provides.plenty of room for baby between us. The third thing is our crib – which I have set up as a toddler bed, bit the mattress is the same height as my bed. So no matter which side I nurse her on – she cant fall off with B-man on one side and the three sided crib on the other.

I have fully enjoyed this time with my baby. I get to snuggle her, I feel better having her close by, and I get to sleep more. Is co-sleepong something you have done or considered? I never thought I would do it – but after weeks of sleep deprivation we started and haven’t looked back. It might be easier to have a solid sleep schedule with her in another room – but my family is happy, well rested and thriving so I cant complain!

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May 20th, 2012

Let’s jump right in!

Things have been a brewing up here in Northern Virginia. My baby is almost a year old, but apartment is being packed up into boxes, and moved to this place:

So… it’s not the best picture of the house – but that’s okay for now!

We closed last Tuesday, and it’s been a bit of a whirlwind since then. The house is less than 30 minutes away from our current apartment, and it is on the way to B-man’s work. So every night we load up the Jeep with boxes and odds and ends, then every morning he drops them off on his way to work.

It’s a pretty good system.

We are planning to rent a truck in two weeks to move the bigger items like our bed and some heavier pieces of furniture. We are so lucky to have family and friends who are going to come and help move these things. I helped B-man load boxes yesterday, we had borrowed his parents’ pick-up truck, so we were moving some furniture too. It was kind of an eye opener to realize how much I actually did hurt my back during pregnancy. I thought my back was getting better, but yesterday B-man handed me a “light” box and even that was a struggle to carry. I have a feeling there is going to be some physical therapy in my future!

Aside from moving stuffs, we’ve also started painting. Rather, I have started painting.

Most of the main living rooms are neutral colors. Browns. Meh. But the living room was a dark red on top of the chair rail, and a light brown on the bottoms. So… it just had to go.

The house is surrounded by trees, which is really nice, but also can make the house feel kind of dark, so I am sticking to a “cooler” set of colors (whites, grays, blues) to help it feel a little more bright and airy. Plus – I really like those colors.

Once our internet gets moved from the apartment to our house (which will probably be in… approximately 2 weeks!) I will be back to blogging regularly, with pictures even! Mark your calenders ladies and gents, because you’re about to watch paint dry! Or… wait. That’s what I’m doing.

Never mind!

 

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May 10th, 2012

What’s the date?

My mind has been in a bit of a fog lately. Between spur of the moment trips to Florida and the closing on our house quickly approaching… my brain often feels like a puddle of mush.

We have started packing. I’ve got maybe… 15 boxes packed, and another 40 sitting in the hallway waiting for me. Ive packed all of the easy things. Like…. books. That was easy. A lot of the baby’s things were easy to pack. Next will either be the kitchen or my closet. Part of me just wants to start in one corner of my apartment and pack everything from there. And…that might be what it takes.

Also – for those interested in knowing… I am a full blown co-sleeper. About half of the nights Ginny goes down in her own crib then moves into our bed. The other half of the time she just goes to bed with us. I’m sure it would probably bother some people, but I really like having her around. In the evenings she usually plays by herself in the living room while B-man and I catch up on chores and Tv shows.  Currently I am typing this on my kindle while she sleeps right next to me. Sure… it would be nice if she were in a crib so I couldn’t do something other than watch her sleep… but part of me enjoys that too. Just the last few nights she has started sleeping a little further away from me, which gives me more room to get comfy. Yah for the king size bed!

Also – Ginnys favorite food is cottage cheese… which I think is weird because I really can’t stand the stuff. She doesn’t seem to want to branch out. She likes chewing on meats, dried fruits, and cheese. Everything else is kind of hit or miss. Feeding a baby is a bigger challenge than I expected…. mostly because I cant stand to see food go to waste. Its not like she’s trying to be wasteful, but babies are messy, which comes with an inherently wasteful component. When she feeds herself…. she likes to share with the dog.

We close on our house in a few days, and then I will be suuuper busy. And then slowly life will return to a new normal. But before then I need to paint. I’m a terrible decision maker and you have no idea how many different shades of white there are!

Also – Gretel is getting old. Her hips have severe arthritis and she seems to be very stiff after an injury she sustained while acting like a puppy. I’m hoping she will like our new house, since there are less stairs and a fenced yard. I feel bad for her, and I know that sooner or later she will probably need to be put down, but I don’t want to do it while shes still such a happy dog. Though… 14 is pretty old for such a big dog. Meh.

And… that’s all I can think of right now. I’m itching to put boxes together, but I’m sure the tape would wake up le babe, so instead ill just chill with my kindle for another 20 minutes.

It feels good to blog again. I should do it more often!

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