You're a little older now, but just as cute.
Happy 28th.
Happy 28th.
Love,
Jenny and Josephine
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Great-Grandmothers
Part of the reason behind some of our recent trips was so that Josephine could meet her great-grandmothers. She LOVES these folks! They have the best cooing voices AND light-reflecting glasses! Fascinating!
Here she is with Gam, Sean's paternal grandmother, who came down for a visit in May:
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Here she is with Gam, Sean's paternal grandmother, who came down for a visit in May:
My paternal grandmother flew to Bedford to be there when we visited my parents over Memorial Day Weekend. Here are the four generations:
Our trip to San Antonio was to see Sean's maternal grandmother. Four generations:
My maternal grandmother hasn't been able to see Josephine yet; she lives in St. Louis. So how about a picture of her holding me and my brother instead? By the way, her mother, who emigrated from Italy at the age of 11, is Josephine's namesake.
(...and yes, I still make that exact same face when I have cookies to eat...)
Yay for Great Grandmas!!!
Our trip to San Antonio was to see Sean's maternal grandmother. Four generations:
My maternal grandmother hasn't been able to see Josephine yet; she lives in St. Louis. So how about a picture of her holding me and my brother instead? By the way, her mother, who emigrated from Italy at the age of 11, is Josephine's namesake.
(...and yes, I still make that exact same face when I have cookies to eat...)Yay for Great Grandmas!!!
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
SEVEN and SIX
With 7 of 12 done, I should be officially 58 1/3% recovered from pregnancy. Technically. Not sure I feel it though, and probably won't until key things like weight loss and figuring out how to be productive are achieved. Something tells me those will be steps 11 and 12... Meanwhile, here are steps 6 & 7, backwards.
STEP SEVEN: Travel.
This one's a stretch. I'm not sure it has anything at all to do with pregnancy recovery. Mostly it's just something we've done, so I might as well turn it into a blog post and use the handy theme I have going. I feel like one of those cheesy preachers doing a sermon series titled with catchy alliterations. Never dawns on them that certain sermons are about as unrelated as an apple in a bin of papayas. Like God, Glory, Grace, Golf. Golf? Really?? It's like that. Travel?? What? Why?
But here's how I'll tie it in: it has to do with confidence and learning lessons. Might as well take the semi-routine you have established at home, throw 5 million variables into the mix and find out whether you can still swim.
In the end, I don't know that we swam with well-executed strokes, but we did manage to not drown, which I consider an achievement in and of itself. Since Memorial Day, we've been to Bedford to stay with my folks for several nights, San Antonio for a day trip, Atlanta for the majority of a week, and Teague the following weekend for several nights. That a lot of moving around in less than a month.
Jason with Janell at her Special Olympics State Games, which we attended while in Bedford.
Josephine being inspected by Wuzzy (my Aunt and Uncle's pom who happened to be sporting the child-friendly appearances of a lion). They were meeting Josephine for the first time during our trip to Bedford).
STEP SEVEN: Travel.
This one's a stretch. I'm not sure it has anything at all to do with pregnancy recovery. Mostly it's just something we've done, so I might as well turn it into a blog post and use the handy theme I have going. I feel like one of those cheesy preachers doing a sermon series titled with catchy alliterations. Never dawns on them that certain sermons are about as unrelated as an apple in a bin of papayas. Like God, Glory, Grace, Golf. Golf? Really?? It's like that. Travel?? What? Why?
But here's how I'll tie it in: it has to do with confidence and learning lessons. Might as well take the semi-routine you have established at home, throw 5 million variables into the mix and find out whether you can still swim.
In the end, I don't know that we swam with well-executed strokes, but we did manage to not drown, which I consider an achievement in and of itself. Since Memorial Day, we've been to Bedford to stay with my folks for several nights, San Antonio for a day trip, Atlanta for the majority of a week, and Teague the following weekend for several nights. That a lot of moving around in less than a month.
Here's how Josephine generally feels about all this travel:
Atlanta was definitely the hardest. Hence the post about the beer bottle buckle opener. Never have I felt quite so desperate for a nice, cold anything-containing-alcohol as I did after our first day of travel, during which the only form of transportation we lacked was boat. Did car, bus, train, plane, a pied. Well, bicycle-- there was no bicycle of any sort. So we lacked boat and bicycle. Okay, there were also no blimps, zip lines or camel rides. I guess maybe that day of travel wasn't as difficult as it might have been.
Anyway, now that all the travel is behind us, I'm proud of us, and I'm happy we did it (and that it's OVER). Of course, the litany of things awaiting my attention back here at home isn't exactly fun. Stuff like finding a pediatrician (and Sean and I also need dentist/doctor appointments-- so I have to find those people, too), attacking our jungle of a backyard, finishing some of the thousands of projects I'm in the middle of... But at least we're home.
Here are a few pics from our trips. I have more on my camera that I need to upload, so I'll post those next.
Anyway, now that all the travel is behind us, I'm proud of us, and I'm happy we did it (and that it's OVER). Of course, the litany of things awaiting my attention back here at home isn't exactly fun. Stuff like finding a pediatrician (and Sean and I also need dentist/doctor appointments-- so I have to find those people, too), attacking our jungle of a backyard, finishing some of the thousands of projects I'm in the middle of... But at least we're home.
Here are a few pics from our trips. I have more on my camera that I need to upload, so I'll post those next.
Jason with Janell at her Special Olympics State Games, which we attended while in Bedford. Josephine being inspected by Wuzzy (my Aunt and Uncle's pom who happened to be sporting the child-friendly appearances of a lion). They were meeting Josephine for the first time during our trip to Bedford). Josephine being held by Aunt Darla, above, and Auntie Em (Sean's cousin) below.
Sitting with Grandpa, sporting her Shiner onesie, courtesy of the Palmers.
With Sean in Atlanta. You can see her little red fingertip in the photo above. We've been told it's a birthmark, but also that it might go away in a few years... conflicting reviews. Meanwhile everyone thinks we've pinched her finger!
STEP SIX: Challenge New Dictator
Okay, so at Wendy's FABULOUS advice (a twice experienced friend in Atlanta, who draws on the wisdom of her mother-in-law who has 4 kids and 11 grandkids), I have been challenging Josephine's dictatorship ever since my post about the sleep routine business. I'm happy to announce that we successfully regained the throne!
The basic premise passed down from the 11-time grandparent, to Wendy, to me, is simply to try to keep Josephine awake during her last cycle of the day.
And now for the tedious details: For the most part, the Baby Wise techniques have been serving us well. These worked for Wendy, too, with both of her children, and several other friends of ours-- everyone we know who's tried them has been happy with how it's gone. So of course they told us to read the book. We did and decided to give the ideas a shot, which thankfully, proved useful for us, too. (I believe it's had some publicity otherwise, so I'd like to clarify that Baby Wise does not promote hyperscheduling-- though by directing certain aspects of the baby's life you do tend to end up with a natural routine. In short, and leaving out various important nuances, the aspects you direct as a parent are making sure the baby gets a full feeding when she eats-- avoid snacking-- and keep her awake for a period after she eats during the daytime cycles, then lay her down for a nap when she shows signs of tiredness, but before she falls asleep so that she doesn't learn to depend on anything to fall asleep. So the routine is: feed, awake, sleep. But the whole routine is still triggered by the baby's cues-- yawning, rooting, etc. We just find that we're able to tell when the rooting is just for comfort sucking, and when she's actually hungry, because we know how long it's been since her last full feeding. This also made it easier to learn the difference between the sounds of her hungry cry and tired cry and the gassy cry, etc). Anyway, I know there are a million variations of parenting techniques out there, and of course, parents just have to do what they are comfortable with and what works for them. I totally respect that-- no approach could ever fit everyone.
Moving on. From the time my milk came in, I have found Josephine to be predictable 95% of the time, which is nice when it comes to planning your day and knowing fairly accurately when to expect her to wake up hungry (from start of feeding to start of next feeding, Josephine's cycles are usually between 3 and 4 hours). As I indicated in the sleep post, what I couldn't predict was which nights she was going to stretch out the cycles and sleep longer, and which ones she was going to want to eat every 4 hours overnight. This is where Wendy's advice proved invaluable! Apparently the key to more nighttime predictability is that last cycle. This tidbit is not mentioned in the Baby Wise book. But like Wendy pointed out, it is worth the small amount of frustration she incurs as we attempt to keep her awake between those last two feedings, if it means she will be tired enough to go right to sleep after the last feeding, and then sleep quite soundly for as long as she can. (Plus the frustration was just transitional. Unless we've got her really exhausted from too much activity during the day, she no longer minds being awake that last cycle-- she seems pretty wired that way now).
To be specific, here are our results: after trying to keep her from napping much in that last cycle, or more realistically, at least not falling into a deep sleep, she immediately went at least 6 hours between night feedings and never looked back. (We'd previously had that every now and then, because she was just generally a pretty good sleeper, but this was no longer an intermittant achievement. This would have been when Josephine was almost 4 weeks old). A week later this was stretching into an average of 8 hours each night, and three weeks later she was consistently at 9.5-10.5 hour stretches. We hung out there for a while, but in this last week, we've actually passed the 11 hour mark a few times and even hit 12 once! Although, in my opinion, 12 might be a little long at this point, because it seemed her naps were shorter the following day, and I'm guessing that's related. The problem with that is she can't DO anything to keep herself entertained or wear herself out. So being awake so much during the day is a little draining on ME. So I think the 9 or 10 hour mark is better because she naps longer.
I should also clarify that the Baby Wise authors explicitly disapprove of letting babies sleep so long overnight at the age we were letting Josephine sleep, especially for breastfeeding moms who need to establish their supply. But my supply seemed ample, (if I got worried, I pumped to increase demand) and Josephine could live off the fat in her cheeks alone for at least a week. ;-) Okay, I'm kidding (...sort of... see pics below). My point is that she was gaining plenty of weight, so a longer overnight fast wasn't hurting her. Also, it was comforting to have both of our mothers' adamant support of just letting Josephine sleep and not worrying about all the rules that doctors have now. (My mom's an RN and had 4 kids herself, the first of which also slept "through the night" quite early. Note that only the first of my mom's four slept so well. So we're enjoying this little treat and braced for the fact that any future children might terrorize us. I certainly don't want to give to parenting techniques credit that belongs to the baby's nature... it is definitely true that Josephine is just a REALLY good sleeper, and we are VERY lucky. Of course, it's like I've told a few people... God only gives us what we can handle. So there isn't much point in us being proud of the fact that God clearly thought we could only handle the very easiest of babies.)
Here is our not starving baby...
The basic premise passed down from the 11-time grandparent, to Wendy, to me, is simply to try to keep Josephine awake during her last cycle of the day.
And now for the tedious details: For the most part, the Baby Wise techniques have been serving us well. These worked for Wendy, too, with both of her children, and several other friends of ours-- everyone we know who's tried them has been happy with how it's gone. So of course they told us to read the book. We did and decided to give the ideas a shot, which thankfully, proved useful for us, too. (I believe it's had some publicity otherwise, so I'd like to clarify that Baby Wise does not promote hyperscheduling-- though by directing certain aspects of the baby's life you do tend to end up with a natural routine. In short, and leaving out various important nuances, the aspects you direct as a parent are making sure the baby gets a full feeding when she eats-- avoid snacking-- and keep her awake for a period after she eats during the daytime cycles, then lay her down for a nap when she shows signs of tiredness, but before she falls asleep so that she doesn't learn to depend on anything to fall asleep. So the routine is: feed, awake, sleep. But the whole routine is still triggered by the baby's cues-- yawning, rooting, etc. We just find that we're able to tell when the rooting is just for comfort sucking, and when she's actually hungry, because we know how long it's been since her last full feeding. This also made it easier to learn the difference between the sounds of her hungry cry and tired cry and the gassy cry, etc). Anyway, I know there are a million variations of parenting techniques out there, and of course, parents just have to do what they are comfortable with and what works for them. I totally respect that-- no approach could ever fit everyone.
Moving on. From the time my milk came in, I have found Josephine to be predictable 95% of the time, which is nice when it comes to planning your day and knowing fairly accurately when to expect her to wake up hungry (from start of feeding to start of next feeding, Josephine's cycles are usually between 3 and 4 hours). As I indicated in the sleep post, what I couldn't predict was which nights she was going to stretch out the cycles and sleep longer, and which ones she was going to want to eat every 4 hours overnight. This is where Wendy's advice proved invaluable! Apparently the key to more nighttime predictability is that last cycle. This tidbit is not mentioned in the Baby Wise book. But like Wendy pointed out, it is worth the small amount of frustration she incurs as we attempt to keep her awake between those last two feedings, if it means she will be tired enough to go right to sleep after the last feeding, and then sleep quite soundly for as long as she can. (Plus the frustration was just transitional. Unless we've got her really exhausted from too much activity during the day, she no longer minds being awake that last cycle-- she seems pretty wired that way now).
To be specific, here are our results: after trying to keep her from napping much in that last cycle, or more realistically, at least not falling into a deep sleep, she immediately went at least 6 hours between night feedings and never looked back. (We'd previously had that every now and then, because she was just generally a pretty good sleeper, but this was no longer an intermittant achievement. This would have been when Josephine was almost 4 weeks old). A week later this was stretching into an average of 8 hours each night, and three weeks later she was consistently at 9.5-10.5 hour stretches. We hung out there for a while, but in this last week, we've actually passed the 11 hour mark a few times and even hit 12 once! Although, in my opinion, 12 might be a little long at this point, because it seemed her naps were shorter the following day, and I'm guessing that's related. The problem with that is she can't DO anything to keep herself entertained or wear herself out. So being awake so much during the day is a little draining on ME. So I think the 9 or 10 hour mark is better because she naps longer.
I should also clarify that the Baby Wise authors explicitly disapprove of letting babies sleep so long overnight at the age we were letting Josephine sleep, especially for breastfeeding moms who need to establish their supply. But my supply seemed ample, (if I got worried, I pumped to increase demand) and Josephine could live off the fat in her cheeks alone for at least a week. ;-) Okay, I'm kidding (...sort of... see pics below). My point is that she was gaining plenty of weight, so a longer overnight fast wasn't hurting her. Also, it was comforting to have both of our mothers' adamant support of just letting Josephine sleep and not worrying about all the rules that doctors have now. (My mom's an RN and had 4 kids herself, the first of which also slept "through the night" quite early. Note that only the first of my mom's four slept so well. So we're enjoying this little treat and braced for the fact that any future children might terrorize us. I certainly don't want to give to parenting techniques credit that belongs to the baby's nature... it is definitely true that Josephine is just a REALLY good sleeper, and we are VERY lucky. Of course, it's like I've told a few people... God only gives us what we can handle. So there isn't much point in us being proud of the fact that God clearly thought we could only handle the very easiest of babies.)
Here is our not starving baby...
See the NY onesie outfit above? You will not believe what her LOVING daddy said.
"She looks like a fat man in a leotard."
Gasp! Shock! Horror! Outrage! How could ANYONE say that about precious JOSEPHINE???
"She looks like a fat man in a leotard."
Gasp! Shock! Horror! Outrage! How could ANYONE say that about precious JOSEPHINE???
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Necessity...
...is the mother of invention.
Ah ha! You are all prepared for something great now, aren't you?? "WHAT," you wonder, "has Jenny invented out of necessity? Here she is, travelling with an infant (on Josephine's two month birthday, by the way! Happy Birthday, Josephine!)... Surely she has acquired sage wisdom, maternal insight, helpful advice, etc?"
Well, sort of.
My discovery is thus:
The average belt buckle makes a GREAT beer bottle opener.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
STEP FIVE: Exercise
It's inevitable that one step towards recovering from pregnancy must be exercise. This is depressing. I have to say that when I checked out fine at our 6 week postpartum appointment last Thursday, my heart felt equal amounts of "oh good" and "oohhhh DRAT." I so loved my medically-excused hiatus from working out. Now it's just one more thing to try to make time for... Here I am, though, conceding that it IS necessary, and yes, I WILL try to get around to it.
But who wants to hear about that when there's THIS little dumpling to focus on?? Josephine also checked out beautifully, weighing in an ounce shy of 12 pounds! Since her lowest weight was 7, 13 oz, she has put on over 4 pounds in just over 5 weeks. Our midwife didn't have a percentile chart to show us, so I don't know where she falls, but I get the impression she's a sizable baby. With her cloth diapers on, she wears some BIG clothes-- even the occasional 9 month size.
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But who wants to hear about that when there's THIS little dumpling to focus on?? Josephine also checked out beautifully, weighing in an ounce shy of 12 pounds! Since her lowest weight was 7, 13 oz, she has put on over 4 pounds in just over 5 weeks. Our midwife didn't have a percentile chart to show us, so I don't know where she falls, but I get the impression she's a sizable baby. With her cloth diapers on, she wears some BIG clothes-- even the occasional 9 month size.
Josephine? chubby? nooooo....
Tummy time is TOUGH business when you're carrying 90% of your weight in your face...
The cheeks do make for some pretty cute grins though. Here she is with my dad on their last trip down over Mother's Day weekend.
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I was trying to catch her smiling for her one-month snapshot-- it took a couple of tries to get a good one. Here are some pictures from my favorite little photo shoot. They're a bit squirrelly but we finally got a good one at the end.
And for your ultimate personal enjoyment, check out Bo Peep! Now do you blame me for being totally uninterested in exercise? Who wants to discuss [much less, do] exercise when you can turn your child into a personal comedy show?? Check out those little angel wings coming off the shoulder straps! And her expression is so trusting... like, "You're laughing WITH me, right, Mom? Right?" Poor little baby. I assured her I wouldn't do that to her again. At least not for a couple days.
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