an old post, finished.

I finally finished the story of the day Emma was born. It is l o n g. But if you want to read it, there it is.

Emma's Birth Day

a story

I am sunburned, from working outside all weekend in a strapless top. My back is worst, but the tops of my boobs are also burned. Emma has scratch little patting fingers. Ouch four times a day.

The End

its time

I am ready to start working out. Emma is five and a half months old, and so is all the extra weight I am carrying.

I have already decided that at six months I will stop nursing. (This will be best for us both because Emma has started to fight me at feedings. She twists and grunts, sucks then turns away to scream and turns back to suck again. Not every feeding, but most. We will both be happier when she is drinking formula. I may continue one or two feedings a day for a couple more months, we will see how that goes.)

Now it is time to decide to start working out. In the last three weeks I have lost six pounds, doing absolutely nothing and continuing to eat whatever I want, whenever I want. That's really encouraging. With the end of nursing in sight, I can begin to think about what I am eating again, and to work out consistently and not worry about my milk supply. (Previously, if I tried to eat healthy foods or work out a couple times a week, my milk fluctuated greatly. I couldn't risk it, and adopted my whatever, whenever policy along with Fenugreek when Ive needed it and have had ample milk supply.) The down side of these two decisions is that my nursing may finally be paying off and helping me to loose some weight just when Ive decided to quit. That is something I will just have to deal with, because I know its time.

I am making the internet my accountability partner. I will do this. So thats whats new at home.

---

I suppose I should also mention that Australia was wonderful. We had a great time, and Jason's already planning for the next trip. I think my favorite part was dipping Emma in the ocean. I have always loved the ocean. Jenn and I used to drive to Heceta just to stand for a few minutes and come back home. It was nice to first introduce Emma to the other side of the pacific with Jenn.

turtle

I am in Australia, with Jason, Emma, Simon, and Jenn. Jesse and Sarah are watching with my puppies, and Turtle.
Turtle is my pet African Dwarf Frog who I bought with my brother in the fall of 2000. He was supposed to live for one to two years, and has moved eight times with me (even surviving several rides between home and Oregon). Turtle was supposed to be about the size of a nickel, and grew to be closer to a fifty cent piece for several years. When i changed his tank just a couple days before we left, he was back to around a quarter size (his size changed, depending on how much he ate, and weather there was grass in his tank to munch on.) We thought he would live forever at this point. Jenn and simon and I were just talking about him earlier in the week.

Jesse found Turtle dead today. He was nine and a half years old. I am far away, and cant do anything about it but be sad.

back to belly, belly to back

Emma has rolled several times from her belly to her back, and did it for Jason once this weekend. It is good for him to get to see her do some new things once in a while. Friday and Saturday, Jason and I attended Laugh Your Way to a Better Marriage, and Emma was left with Jason's grandparents. I didn't tell them that sometimes she is a monster, or that sometimes she wont take the bottle. I thought it would be better if they could just go into the weekend confidently. :) Emma did great! It was her first real amount of time being babysat, and she napped well, ate well, everything. On Saturday morning, she also decided to show off a little for the great grandparents, and roll from her back to her belly, twice! Now I need to pay a little closer attention so she doesn't roll off of things, since I know she can!

hello

Hello footie pajamas.

Hello mash box set.

Hello sleepless night.

---

Today was a good, long day. My good, long day has now decided not to end. At ten thirty Jason was ready for bed, and by eleven I was in bed too. The problem is that I'm just not tired. After my first attempt at letting Aunty Google sing me to sleep I tried to sleep for another half hour. Then a long hot uninterrupted shower, followed by footie pajamas, and M*A*S*H season 7 disk 3 on Play All. I have a baby blanket to finish, and Alan Alda to keep me company. Hopefully I wont be paying for this tomorrow.

four month check up

I will quickly try to write about Emma's check up- it was yesterday, and she is extra fussy today because of her shots.

She is smaller than I expected her to be (because all the babies around me are enormous :) but doing well. She was 13lb, 11oz and 25.5 inches long. (That's 47.7%tile and 86.8%tile.)

And that's all you get for now, as she is screaming again. :) Wish me luck! And patience.


*EDIT*

Em is at the end of an extra long morning nap, but I thought I would use the last few minutes to finish this post. Besides weight and length, her head is getting more proportionate with her body, falling somewhere around the high thirties percentile. She had round three of shots and did well during the day following, but had a terrible day two.

After her shots, I drove home and put her down for a nap and eagerly checked my email three times a minute. I was waiting to hear back from a girl on craigslist about a fisher price, Rain Forest Jumperoo that she was giving away for FREE. I told her the night before I wold come pick it up any time after Emma's doctor apt. I finally heard back around two and drove out to someplace near garden city and got a new jumper! Emma was great the whole time. We stopped to see Jason at work too, and she was happy and chatty, and interrupted Randy (the PRESIDENT of iLevel) during a meeting... oops. (Did I mention that Jason is terrified of Randy? He is a Very nice guy, but has lots of power, and his corner office is just cubicles away from where Jason hides each day.)

All the jumper needed was to be washed, so I took care of that while Emma napped again. And as you can see on Facebook, she loves it.

But the next day... was terrible. Lots of crying and crying, and happy giggles followed by crying. She didn't have a fever, so I know she was just sore and not feeling great because of the shots, but it was awful.

At her appointment, I forgot to mention, I have limited permission to give her food. If she gets anything, Dr Freeman, who I very much like, and will therefore try to follow his directions, asked that she have rice cereal and things like carrots and peas. Steamed, and mushed. (Or, you know, out of the store bought baby food aisle.)

I still need to call his office and ask if he has any advice for our plane ride and what not- because I spaced it at her appointment. I thought it would be nice of me to let him know that we are taking her out of the country and let him have an opinion.

So that is how she is doing.

On another note, I am taking Emma to Jo Anne's today for some fabric, and I am going to make a pouch sling. I like the idea of the Maya sling, but don't know if I can find the rings for it, and don't want to order them. Besides, the pouch sling seems to work well (I saw LOTS of people using it in videos today) and folds up small. I want something that Emma can use for a while, and be able to sit up and look out in. Then, I will tackle the idea of a cart cover. :)

Emma is awake, sounds happy, and is probably hungry so I'm off to feed the baby and head to the store! (4/9/09 1:25pm)