Family Fun

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Peanut: 3 Months

Wow – today Peanut is three months old!  I can’t believe it; this is going by so quickly.  (Let’s play a game: how many cliches can I fit into this post?  Just kidding.)

So far, this month has been my favorite – probably because we’ve been home all month.  I haven’t gone to the NICU once this month, and that feels amazing.  Instead, we’ve been doing the things that I always imagined doing – going for walks, snuggling in the nursery, reading books and playing.

Peanut is wide-eyed and awake for chunks of the day now (even when she’s supposed to be napping…) and I’m in the process of figuring out when I should be encouraging her to nap (and grow) and when I should be engaging with her.  It’s a fine line to walk: I want her to get all the sleep she needs, but I also want her to get all the Mommy interaction she needs.  And since she can’t tell me where the cutoff is, it’s a process of trial and error for me to figure out how far she can go before she gets overtired and we ALL get cranky as a result.  Some days we’ve walked this line really well.  Other days…

Nana – a.k.a. my mom – asked me what I had done to annoy her.  The answer: sat down.  Peanut likes to be in motion.  Stroller, Mommy’s arms, whatever.  As long as we’re wearing out the carpet or the wheels on the BOB, she’s cool.  But when Mommy decides that it’s time to sit down after an hour of making circles around the dining room… chaos!  But I don’t mind, because… that face.

Oh, yes, Peanut’s gigantic personality comes out more and more each day.  She grins (hubby thinks it’s still just gas, and it probably is, but it’s still adorable), pouts, sticks out her tongue, and makes little gurgles and grunts all. day. long.  Sometimes when she’s really talkative I just call Nana and let them chat.  They’ve had whole conversations without me.

This month we finally got around to buying ourselves a babysitter swing.  At first, Peanut wasn’t sure what to think of it, but lately she’s been falling asleep in it.  Thank.  Goodness.  She spends most of the day snuggling in my arms, but sometimes I need to put her down for a few minutes and it’s good to have a place to set her where she’s safe and not screaming, now that she’s declared war on her crib.  It’s especially nice to have when we want to eat dinner and Peanut wants to hang with us.  And bonus, it makes rain noises, which we’ve discovered Peanut loooooooves.  Maybe she’ll grow up to be a meteorologist.

We also celebrated Peanut’s first Halloween this month!  She dressed up as a ballerina.  I wanted to get her a more elaborate costume, but it just didn’t work out.  By the time I made it out to the store, everything in mini-size was already sold.  I managed to find a newborn-sized tutu at Target and paired it with a t-shirt she already owned (which had a little bear ballerina on it) and called it good.  It worked; she charmed the trick-or-treaters and the grandparents melted at the ballerina photo.  Next year I’ll plan ahead more and find a “real” costume, not at the last minute.

Peanut at 3 Months:

Adjusted Age: 1 month
Weight: ~6.25 pounds or so (last weighed in at 5.5 pounds on 11/2)
Length: ~19.5 inches or so (last measured at 19.25 inches on 11/2)
Sleep: I don’t want to jinx anything, so I’m almost afraid to say this, but Peanut has been sleeping surprisingly well at night recently.  At first she was a little monster after her 9:00 p.m. feeding and I had a few nights where I stayed up with her the entire time until Daddy took over at 1:00 a.m., but lately she seems to have figured out the concept of “bedtime.”  The tradeoff is that she is violently anti-nap during the day.  But if the bargain is that I can’t get anything done during the day because I am cuddling her for hours on end, and then she sleeps at night… I’ll take that deal.  May it continue this way.
Likes: Walking in her stroller or being carried around by Mommy and Daddy; swinging in her new swing, but only when she’s in the mood; listening to rain sounds on her swing and her sleep sheep; being held sideways by Daddy (a technique from The Happiest Baby on the Block)
Dislikes: Baths (still!); when Mommy sits down after walking for awhile; tummy time; tutus
Milestones: Rolled over intentionally on 11/4 during tummy time with Daddy!  And Mommy thinks some of her smiles might have been real – not social smiles, but smiles of happiness, since they tend to come when she’s drifting off to sleep while being cuddled.  Lots of gurgles, starting to do a little bit of babbling.
Quirks: Major temper!  Lady lets you know when she’s not happy about something.

Next month, Peanut will celebrate her first Thanksgiving, and we hope to see more good growth and adorable smiles!

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A Special Someone, A Special Day

Today is hubby’s birthday.  Hurray!  He made it another year!

But seriously.  Today is hubby’s birthday.  Today is a day to celebrate my favorite guy, my partner, my traveling buddy, my dinner date, the greatest dad in the world, and my best friend.  And celebrate I will.

Happy birthday, handsome.  Peanut and I will both love you forever.

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Nursery Tales: Riddle Me This

Q: Who needs three trips to Home Depot in order to complete one simple, inexpensive dresser upgrade?

A: A NICU mom.

I wanted a little contrast in Peanut’s room – it was a lot of white and pastels – so I decided to bring in a touch of black here and there to ground things out.  I hung simple black curtain rods to contrast with the white curtains (Peanut loves to stare at the high contrast area between the curtain rod and the curtains – bonus) and decided that it would be a fun, easy upgrade if I switched the white wooden pulls on Peanut’s white dresser for matte black ones.  So I took myself off to Home Depot, thinking I’d pick up the pulls, install them in ten minutes or less, and have a cool “custom” dresser to show for my minimal efforts.

Ha.

Home Depot Trip #1: Scoped out the pulls, picked a design I liked and purchased six pulls – one for each of the six drawers.

Womp Womp: Realized that there are two pulls on each drawer, for a total of twelve, not six.

Home Depot Trip #2: Purchased six more pulls from the same bin.

Womp Womp: One of the pulls was mistakenly dropped into the wrong bin and didn’t match the rest.  Partly my fault (I didn’t check them closely enough when I was grabbing six more pulls to buy) and partly just unfortunate circumstances (the pull being in the wrong bin to begin with).

Home Depot Trip #3: Return the wrong pull and pick up the right one.

Win!

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Nursery Tales: Now Panic and Freak Out

You know that English World War II slogan “Keep Calm and Carry On”?  I love that slogan.  (I even have a bookmark with it.)  But I also like the silly adaptations that some artists and companies have come out with.  For instance, “Keep Calm and Put the Kettle On” or “Keep Calm and Bake On” – I’ve been considering adding a print with one of those slogans to my kitchen.  And recently in Kramerbooks I happened upon a journal with the slogan “Now Panic and Freak Out.”  It cracks me up.  Except for when it hits a little too close to home.

I was making steady progress on Peanut’s room.  I had…

  • Cleared the clutter from the baby’s room
  • Painted the walls a bright, happy yellow
  • Purchased some furniture (a dresser and crib, plus crib mattress)
  • Purchased Peanut’s bedding and a few art and decor items (not nearly everything, but a start)
  • Sent her big art piece off for framing

And then this happened…

I was getting kind of worried about getting everything done by my October 20th due date.  And then the universe threw me a gigantic curve ball, in the form of a baby who showed up two months early.  Suddenly, decorating the nursery wasn’t the top item on my agenda anymore.  Hubby and did what we could do in the evenings, but we were pretty drained after the long days in the NICU.

Here’s the blitz of activity starting just before Peanut’s arrival:

  • Hubby put the crib together (such a typical “Dad” thing to do, right?).  We ordered our crib, dresser, and most of the decorative elements from Land of Nod, the baby and kids’ arm of Crate & Barrel.  And… WOW.  They’re not paying or perking me to say this (like I’m important enough, ha) and we paid for everything we got from Land of Nod ourselves, so I really mean it when I tell you we’ve been insanely impressed with them.  Beautiful pieces, great quality, fast and professional delivery, AND they sent us an Aden + Anais muslin swaddling blanket as a “thank you” for buying our crib from them!  Well played, Land of Nod, well played.
  • Peanut’s rocking chair arrived from Pottery Barn Kids – it’s purrrrrrty.
  • I ordered curtains, book and toy storage, and various decorative elements and then piled them in the corner of the room.
  • We stocked up on diapers, wipes, baby bath products and first aid items so that we were ready to take care of Peanut when she came home from the hospital.
  • A couple of hubby’s very kind coworkers picked up Peanut’s big art piece from the frame shop, where it had languished for weeks because they called me to tell me it was ready on the day I was put on bed rest, four days before Peanut’s untimely arrival.
  • Washed Peanut’s linens and made her bed (and you’ll get pics soon – wait until you see her bedding, it’s so stinking cute I even wish it came in grown-up sizes).
  • Washed and put away all of Peanut’s adorable tiny little outfits – she wore a few of her preemie t-shirts in the hospital, but the rest (and newborn-sized clothes that people have bought for her to grow into) got laundered and put away to wait for her to come home.
  • Installed book ledges and put away toys.
  • Installed curtain rods and hung curtains.
  • Set up her toiletries and diapering station for easy middle-of-the-night access.
  • Hung Peanut’s big print between her windows, wall letters over her dresser and flower hooks on her doors, and slapped some decals above her crib (not my original plan, but let’s be honest, hardly anything has gone according to my original plan with this kid).

The first few weeks after she was born were a whirlwind of figuring out the NICU, and hubby and I were both completely wiped out at the end of each day.  We’ve got a better handle on things now – I think – and Peanut’s nursery ended up being very close to ready (only missing a couple of decorative items) in time for her homecoming.  And the fact that it’s not impeccably decorated to my exacting standards?  Meh.  I know that all babies need is food, shelter, clean diapers on their butts, and lots and lots of love – and Peanut has all of that in spades.  The rest is just gravy.  I have one small project to share with you, and then the final nursery tour to follow…

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Peanut: Two Months


Hey guys, whattup!  Peanut baby in the house!

Wow – we hit not one, but two milestones recently – Peanut turned two months old and she passed her due date.  She’s officially supposed to be here now – woohoo!

The best day of Peanut’s second month was October 11, 2012 – Homecoming Day!  We had some indication a few days prior that discharge was in the offing, so we were prepared with a stocked nursery and a packed diaper bag.  Still, it was a shock how quickly the discharge happened, once the day dawned.  From the doctor’s final once-over to signing the discharge papers and walking out of the hospital, it was about 90 minutes.  Even with all the congratulations and goodbye waves and we’ll-miss-yous and come-back-for-NICU-reunions, hubby and I still felt like we were getting away with something when we carried Peanut out the doors!  And it was eerily quiet once we got her home – we weren’t used to hanging with Peanut without the sound of monitors beeping.  But we settled in quickly and we like this new, wireless home model baby even better than the fully wired hospital model.

Photo: Emily takes her first walk in the great outdoors!

Since bringing Peanut home, we’ve enjoyed several walks both around our neighborhood and through Old Town Alexandria.  After all those weeks of dreaming about pushing Peanut in her stroller (I had to have something to look forward to during those long NICU days), I’m still giddy with excitement every time we get the BOB out.  I think Peanut enjoys the walks, too.  She doesn’t seem to mind her carseat (there are tears when we put her in, but as soon as she starts moving, she’s fine) and we love showing her off to the neighbors.  We’ve had two pediatrician appointments since coming home, and they’re thrilled with her so far.

We’ve also done a few baths at home.  Peanut always finds a way to make those exciting.  I’m going to leave it at that, and let you use your imaginations.

Peanut at two months old…

Adjusted Age: 1 day
Length: 18 3/4 inches
Weight: 4 lbs, 12 oz (as of last pediatrician appointment)
Milestones: holds up head briefly during tummy time; grips a finger (and Nana’s necklace, Mommy’s hair…); focuses on a face (especially likes Daddy’s eyebrows and hairline, and Mommy’s glasses) or on her baby art cards
Likes: swaying back and forth in Mommy’s arms; snuggling and watching Mythbusters with Daddy; walks through the neighborhood
Dislikes: baths (still!); diaper changes (still!); bibs
Quirks: drama queen (acts like every bottle she gets is the first after a long famine); does a great duck face; clasps her hands together while eating her bottle as if to say “This is so delicious!”; tucks her right hand up under her chin

As for me… I’m basically recovered from the having-a-baby part of motherhood – physically, that is.  The emotional part of it, especially the drama of having a baby at 31 weeks, is still interesting.  (I’m getting to the point where I think I might write a blog post reflecting on the whole experience, maybe in a few more months.)  Now I’m thinking about getting back my pre-baby body and starting to try to incorporate more activity into my days and to focus on eating more fresh, whole foods and fewer convenience foods.  Hubby is encouraging me to take one afternoon “off” each week to go to yoga and recharge my batteries (isn’t he the sweetest?), so I’ve started to give myself “Sunday afternoons for Mom” while Peanut bonds with her Daddy at home.  And I’m really getting excited for the upcoming holiday season now that I’ve got my baby home and I’m starting to get a handle on this whole motherhood thing.

Month three will include Peanut’s first major holiday (Halloween!) and Mommy has some fun treats planned (no tricks though).  We’re looking forward to our first full month at home as a family of three.

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Peanut’s Picks: BLUEBERRIES FOR SAL

Hiya, bloggies!  Peanut here!  Life at home is great.  I have Mommy and Daddy completely wrapped around my little finger – it didn’t take long.  Basically, I get whatever I want.  All I have to say is “Nyaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!” and they come running to feed me and change me from one cute outfit into another and rock me until I fall back asleep.  It’s a good system we have going on, if I do say so myself.  One of my favorite things is when Mommy and I sit together in the rocking chair in my room and Mommy reads to me.  We look at all kinds of books together – books with lots of pictures, books with cardboard pages, and even some big kid books with lots and lots and LOTS of words.  Mommy said I could use her blog to tell you about some of my favorite books, since I’m such a big girl now.  (Please note: I can neither confirm nor deny the rumors that this post was ghostwritten by Mommy.)

(Image Source)

For my first post, I’d like to discuss Blueberries for Sal, by Robert McCloskey.  Mommy was super excited to read this book with me, because it was one of her favorite books when she was very, very small (but not as small as me).  Some pretty scary stuff happens in this book.  Little Sal and her mother go out to pick blueberries so that Sal’s mama can preserve them for the winter.  But Sal is more interested in eating the blueberries (obviously) than in picking them and saving them.  Sal’s mama yells at Sal for taking blueberries out of her bucket and then Sal gets tired of being dragged all over the place, so she sits down and eats the blueberries.  Then she goes looking for her mama, but instead she finds herself following a mama bear!  And the mama bear’s little cub finds himself following Sal’s mama!  YIKES!

I’m not going to spoil the ending for you.  You’re just going to have to read it for yourself.  (Or get my mom to read it to you.  She likes reading out loud.)

But I do want to talk about the character of Sal.  I think she gets an unfairly bad rap here.  First of all, all that Sal wants to do is eat blueberries!  Who can blame her for that?  (I love blueberries.  Actually, I love all fruit.  I know what you’re thinking: how can a baby love fruit?  But you wouldn’t question me if you knew how much fruit I made Mommy eat when I was baking.  I think Daddy actually cried over the grocery bills once or twice.)  In fact, if you ask me, Sal has the right idea.  She just wants to eat the blueberries straight off the bush, when they’re freshest and yummiest.  It’s Sal’s mother who wants to take them home and mix them with sugar and turn them into jam.  (Well… hmmmm… I might be willing to concede that both sides have valid points here.)

But anyway, Blueberries for Sal is a great book with important lessons for mommies and daddies.  These are the lessons I take from the book:

1. Blueberries for everyone!
2. Jam too!
3. Don’t yell at your kids when they just want to eat fresh blueberries.  You could find yourself being stalked by a bear.

Stay tuned for more of my book reviews and thoughts on these important issues!

xoxo,
Peanut

P.S. Mommy says I should tell you where to get the book if you want.  You can buy it online here!  Also, Mommy says I should tell you that this is not an affiliate link.  I don’t know what that means, but I do know this: blueberries for everyone!

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Homecoming Day

Guess who’s home?!

That’s right, friends, we’ve got ourselves a baby in the house!  Peanut came home from the hospital on Thursday, October 11th, 2012, after spending 50 days, 20 hours and 29 minutes in the NICU (but who’s counting?).  She celebrated by partying (a.k.a. screaming) all night the first night she was home, but since then she’s settled into life at home and so have we.  Hubby and I have worked out a schedule that allows each of us to string together several hours of sleep every night, whether Peanut helps us out or not (but so far, knock wood, she seems to be a good sleeper – that first night notwithstanding).  We’ll see if we can make that work over the long haul, but so far, so good.  Peanut has gone for her first walk (to the playground and back), has made her first trip to the pediatrician, has had her first bath at home, and has been visited by one set of grandparents.  As for hubby and myself, we’re tired, but not exhausted.  (And it’s not adrenaline; we spent our new-parent adrenaline rush on long days in the NICU.  So far at home, we’ve just been lucky.)  We’re spending our days singing and reading to Peanut, feeding her bottles, laughing at her silly faces, and laying around doing tummy time.

Life is good.

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Peanut: One Month

Uhhhh… wow, where did this month go?  I’m writing this post on Peanut’s one month birthday (although it will post in October). Part of me can’t believe she’s already a month old.  But part of me is sort of expecting her to graduate from college soon, because this month has felt like an eternity.  Hubby and I have spent all day, every day, sitting in the NICU – holding Peanut, reading to her, singing to her (over the beeping monitors and blaring alarms), talking to her doctors, laughing at her funny facial expressions, crying when she’s sick, and waiting, waiting, waiting until the day when we can finally bring her home.  One month in, we still don’t know when that will be.

It’s been a rough month.  Long days, stressful moments, and noises so irritating and constant that our ears are ringing when we leave.  I’m told that one day I’ll look back on this fondly.  I sure hope so… but it hasn’t been all bad.  It’s hard for life to be all bad when I have this face to look at:

Okay, so I’m biased, but I’m sure you all agree with me: this kid is freaking adorable, yes?  I think she’s the cutest baby ever born.  Bar none.

I’ve gotten a lot of advice handed to me this month.  All new parents do, I know, but the advice I’m getting is a little different.  Sleep all night while you still can, take care of yourself, don’t sweat the diapers you’re not changing or the feedings you’re not doing because there will be plenty more to come… and one special piece of advice that I am really, really trying to follow.  Hubby and I met up with my boss’s wife for coffee one day – she kindly came to meet us at the hospital and shared her own experiences as a NICU alum, and she told me to make memories.

I’ve been feeling cheated, robbed of Peanut’s first weeks.  It’s hard, as a new mom, to have to ask permission to hold your own baby.  I didn’t get to give her first bath or change her first diaper, and even though I was able to hold her just a few hours after she was born, I still feel like I’ve missed out on so much with Peanut.  But I can still make memories with her – they’ll just be different memories.  When I bathe her through her isolette portals and she screams her little head off and throws her paci at me, that’s a memory.  I gave her her first bottle (she spat most of it out) and dressed her in her first little shirt from home.  Those are memories.  And every time I hold her in my arms and sing Jack Johnson’s “We’re Going To Be Friends” quietly into her little ear during Kangaroo Care, I’m making really special memories that I’ll cherish later.

Peanut at one month old…

Likes…

  • Snuggling with Mommy during Kangaroo Care
  • When Daddy holds her paci for her
  • Listening to Mommy sing Jack Johnson, Janis Joplin, John Lennon and the Cornell Alma Mater
  • Being cozy and warm in her swaddle
  • Having food in her tummy
  • When the nurses pick her up and sit her so she can see the world outside her isolette
  • Having her hands free so she can touch her face
  • Sucking her thumb (when she can find it)

Dislikes…

  • Baths!
  • Having her diaper changed
  • Having her temperature taken
  • Her bow hat (but she wears it anyway, because the grown-ups love it and we’re bigger)
  • When her feeds stop (generally only if she’s sick… but it makes her mad, and I don’t blame her for a minute)
  • The Canadian national anthem (she doesn’t mind the tune, since she will listen politely to Daddy sing as long as he changes the words, but she screams if we sing the actual lyrics… this is a problem, since she’s part Canadian)

Nicknames…

Obviously, we both call her “Peanut” – but Mommy and Daddy each have our own roster of nicknames for the kid, too.

Mommy: Angel Cake, Squishy Face, Beauty, Wiggles, Squirmy Worm

Daddy: Little E, Little Buddy, Princess, Squirmies, Honey Badger Kit

(And Daddy once tried out “Smemily” – it had been awhile since she had a bath – but Mommy froze him out and he won’t use that one again.)

It’s been quite a month.  There have been plenty of tears, but there’s been plenty of laughter too.  I can’t wait to see what the next month will bring – I hope it includes the magical Discharge Day!  But no matter what, I’m so grateful for every second that I’ve gotten to spend with this precious little girl this month… so in awe of the fact that hubby and I made someone this beautiful… so glad that I get the honor of being her mom.

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Where We Are

First things first: a gratuitous Peanut picture.

So… wow, where did September go?  Here it is, October 1st, and here I am, as promised.  And here’s where we are:

  • Still in the NICU.  Hubby and I get in around 8:00 each morning and typically stay there for eight or nine hours.  They’re full days – talking to the doctors and nurses, doing basic care tasks (taking Peanut’s temperature and changing her diapers, and giving her baths every few days), holding Peanut for Kangaroo Care and working with her on eating keeps us busy the entire time.  We’re not sure when we’ll be leaving, but we hope it won’t be too much longer.  We’re both starting to get NICU burn-out.
  • Still working on Peanut’s room.  We’re basically ready in case she comes home earlier than anticipated – we’ve got a crib and baby monitor, and we’re stocked with diapers and wipes and first-aid supplies and all those other baby incidentals.  It’s just little decorative items that we need to finish, and we’re doing a bit each evening when we come home.  Blog posts to come detailing the progress and (soon!) the finishing touches.
  • Still reading.  It’s been hard to squeeze book time in – my days of reading for hours straight are in the past, at least for now.  (Maybe there’s a Mommy-Daddy vacation in the cards a few years from now?)  But reading is an immensely comforting act for me, so I’m still doing it – and focusing on “comfort books” like Miss Read’s Fairacre series, and laugh-out-loud funny reads like Mark Helprin’s Freddy and Fredericka (about a hapless Prince and Princess of Wales who are sent to reconquer the former Colonies in order to prove their fitness for the throne).  My “Reading Round-Ups” are going to be a bit shorter than usual for awhile, but I will never stop reading.
  • Still adjusting.  I’m completely in love with Peanut, but it’s hard to feel 100% like a mom when you have to ask someone else’s permission to hold your own baby.  NICU alums have told me not to sweat that I’m not changing every diaper or waking up for 3:00 a.m. feedings yet, and that there are plenty of those moments in store for me in the future.  And I’ve eased up a lot on myself as a result of that excellent advice.  But it’s still hard to view myself as a mom when I have to walk away and leave her in the hospital, or when she’s crying and I can’t pick her up and soothe her immediately because she’s in an isolette.  I’m not saying this because I want people to feel sorry for me – I don’t.  We all have our different journeys, in parenthood and in life, and these are the cards that I’ve drawn.  And there are moments when Peanut is crying and someone hands her to me and she stops crying, when it’s as if a light goes on and I think “Oh, yes, I am her mom!”  But life as a NICU mom is very different from what I thought my new mommyhood would be, and I’m still learning to think of myself as Peanut’s mom and not simply as the lady who shows up to play with her and get in everyone’s way every day.  I’ll get there.

So it hasn’t been the easiest September, but I’d still rather have Peanut in my life than anything else.  I’m not sure how we all got along for so many years without this lovely little spirit.  And now I’m back here, too.  I’ve missed you guys and I’m ready to go back to posting three times per week (sticking to a M, W, F schedule).  Thank you for giving me the space I needed to get through September, and thank you for coming back here.  You are all a blessing!