Parky!

Elinor's first day at the park! And Papa walked from Powell's to meet us for a little visit. Look at those two sweeties, would ya?

She really seemed to like hanging out outdoors - she loves bustle. I loved seeing her on her little blanket in the grass. I loved looking around at all the other kids and picturing her at their ages....so much to look forward to. I wanted to dunk her in the swimming fountain, but she's too little and would get too cold. My little tiny baby! The best thing ever.

sitting around

I was looking over my other blog the other day and I noticed about where I had mentioned the upcoming baby. At that point, I knew what was coming, but I didn't really know what changes that might lead to. I imagine that one really doesn't know what is really coming when a baby is expected. You don't know how labor and the birth are going to go, you don't know how those early days in the hospital will be, you don't know what things will be like when you get home: how will your time be spent, more movies/fewer movies, how will it make you evaluate your lifestyle and your environment, will the baby sleep a lot/not a lot, cry/not cry, will she have health issues, will you be watchful/overly paranoid/relaxed/absent-minded, sleep no sleep? How will all of that affect your work, your social life? How will the people around react to the baby and how will that make you feel (could I have realized that my mother would refer to Elinor as "it" and never ask for a picture of her)?

I think that when you head into the hospital you need to realize that a lot of things will be much different and you need to not be too concerned about which aspects of life may change and just be prepared to accept and prosper under whatever changes may happen.

Speaking of that, there is the sleeping question. Three hours after that last post she woke up and was done with her sleeping spell. We have tried a number of solutions, these last six weeks, for getting the baby to sleep, especially at night. It has seemed that the best solution was to put the baby to sleep in bed with us. Of course that led to both Caitlin and Elinor sleeping sporadically though the night (though I would generally sleep straight through). I have tried giving Caitlin a break by keeping the baby with me the whole night through... Elinor doesn't really like that.

Well, I think we are learning that the former is better. There may be some days ahead where Midge makes such a fuss during the day that Caitlin needs a night off, but as a general rule, I think that we will save those for the rare occasions. The baby is just so much more at ease sleeping in the bed. It seems worth it, I think, for everyone to just keep her there.

But anyway, I know that you want pictures! I'm going to try and leave the ones that Caitlin takes for her to post (I've been stealing them), so all that I have for today is this one of Midge and I sitting around...

turning a corner?

Sometimes I just don't know what to say.

We've commented (complained?) for weeks about Elinor's lack of sleeping... 20 minutes here, 20 minutes there... The rare evening where she sleep 3 or 4 hours straight. Now though?

She slept fairly well last night but today? She has (literally) slept most of the day! She is currently in her basket sleeping, where she's been for probably three hours and earlier she slept in her swing chair for much longer than ever before and had another multi-hour sleep! Though the connection is dubious, Caitlin did buy, on Sunday, the most wondrous thing at Fred Meyer. Called the Kiddopotamus and it's like a swaddling blanket with a pocket to put the legs in and two big flaps that velcro shut. Man, after all of the hours that I've spent swaddling and re-swaddling, this is brilliant! And it's all cotton flannel too! Anyway, it probably doesn't have anything to do with her sleeping habit for today, but I guess I need to a straw to grasp at...

It feels so weird that in the last half hour, each of us has checked to make sure she is still breathing! Anyway, I don't know what it sounds like to everyone else out there, but in 5 weeks she has barely slept during the day and now it's 11 pm and she has spent probably half of the day asleep... Without even needing to be held! I must admit that when she has been awake, she seemed to me to be much fussier than normal.

Anyway, it is odd, but it's been rather easy though it does make me worry for the evening... But maybe she'll sleep all the way through?

I'll let you know.

In other excitement today. Grandma Ginny visited and I ended up taking a picture of her holding Midge below a painting of her mother (baby, G-ma and G-Gma)... So I'll put it up...



And also, in another fun spot, she seems to have taken to using the boppy for a chair. It's a good look for her, and I'm thinking that she is starting to enjoy the notion of sitting up...

Cutie cute and funny fun!

So it's weekend time now. I had been thinking that meant it would be safe for Elinor to have a fussy night last night... but I actually ended up getting her to sleep, in her basket even, for four hours straight! So that was a nice and restful surprise for the whole family!

And we've all had a very nice and relaxing day. We even went out for lunch and she was quite well behaved too! What a little angel we have!

Anyway, I thought I should put out some new pictures...

right, wrong? fair to middlin'?

There is so much to think about, some of which becomes very easy.

I was torn between the Digital Pictures? Real pictures? And then Caitlin took a CD of digital pictures of the baby to Fred Meyer's and for 19 cents each, got them printed. They look really good, nice colors, nice matte finish, nice white borders (for those old enough to remember white borders, nothing else looks right, it would be like a painting without a frame). So that makes it an easier decision.

And then? Cloth or disposable. Well, we wanted disposable and now, after 5 weeks of alternating back and forth (mainly cloth, disposable for convenience) we have decided to make the move away from Cloth. Honestly, we can't afford to do both and the baby really doesn't like the wetness of the cloth and she dirties her diaper covers very quickly. It's funny how all of these rules and notions can go away so easily.

Speaking of that. There is also this...

The television monster. First I must get this out of the way. I am not a TV person. I haven't been since I was a teenager... Over 20 long years ago. The computer and movies have long supplanted that device. In fact, the last time I lived alone, for the first year the TV was connect just to the DVD player, I never even once attempted to find out if I even could get a signal. Occasionally I would see a few minutes of television at one particular bar I went to. But no, no TV. It just doesn't seem odd to me. Shows? News? None of it means anything to me so... I'm just saying that I may have an inherent bias (I do), and it maybe also be easier for me to say, like someone who has never been a smoker condemning smoking (which is also the case)...

But now it hits a more personal note. I wonder, Is there something wrong with a persons first days/weeks/months on earth having daytime tv as the background to their everyday? The endless loud commercials and the show hosts who seems to exists in a realm of: yelling, interrupting, commanding (Dr. Phil), chastising... We don't play much music around her, so aside from us talking, it really is what she hears. I realize it probably doesn't have any effect, but like everything else, I feel the need to think it over.

What is also gnawing at me is... When Mom's talk to babies during, say, The View, can the baby discern the difference between what Rosie's voice is and what their mother's voice is? That one is a real person? I realize that they may be too young to make a difference, but I still find it hard not to ponder.

... is for Elinor

Well, it's been an interesting week! Disregard what I said last time about "sleeping better". Now she doesn't seem to sleep at all! Caitlin estimates maybe 2-3 hours during the day and maybe the same amount at night... Maybe.

Caitlin's been running a fever on and off the last couple of days, which makes the "always awake" baby even more evident. We did get a nice break yesterday though... Kurty came by with cute little Frances (you'll remember her from the Baby Shower post)! We brought them to Elinor's favorite coffee-shop and hung around the apartment, so that was nice. And for us, it's good to see a baby with another year under her belt. There is just so much to look forward to!

But these early days are good, in their own funny way... Just more overwhelming than we had expected. We knew the saying that being a mother is a full-time job, but we didn't realize that they meant the "24 hour a day" full-time... It seems that Caitlin is always either engaged in feeding the baby or is attemping to get a few moments of rest. And though Midge was adapting to sleeping in her basket, she is past that now. It's on the bed, or nothing. Her sleeping in the bed is what has enabled me to get sleep at night, but it certainly hasn't helped that for Caitlin.

Since I can't do much for feeding, most of my time home with the baby (the few hours that she isn't eating) I work to calm her down, and I've been getting daring! Though I cannot get her to calm down in the New Native Carrier anymore, I plopped her in her crib for a brief moment again, and actually managed to get her to sit calmly (yes, awake) in the electro-swingy chair for 20 minutes once! But normally I bounce on the ball with her (and sneak some minutes at the computer, while trying to get her to stop starting at the monitor), talk to her, sing to her, play with her hands and legs... Honestly, though Caitlin spends quite a bit more time with her than I do, I think that I get more fun face time with her... Which hardly seems fair.

Speaking of that... I cannot get enough of watching her arms and legs flail...

Big day for bonzo!

Saturday was a day filled with wonder for little Elinor. Well, maybe not, but she did do some interesting outings! First off, Midge had her first trip to the farmer's market! Sadly, she was not in the mood so the trip only lasted about 10 minutes, so she also missed out on seeing Paul and Robin there. Hopefully she'll come to like the place since her mother certainly likes to go!

Then after work we went across town to what must be the most child friendly restaurant around, Peanut Butter and Ellie's! Featuring a kid-oriented menu, chalkboard walls, a play area in the middle of the dining room, toys, games, and lots of kids... literally everyone there brings kids so there were certainly more little children than adults. We'd never been there before but what got us out there was a performance by the one and only Johnny Keener! It was quite enjoyable! He played a nice selection of some of our favorite folks songs and some other nice classics (even an Elvis tune!), so it was all around nice... We hadn't seen Johnny in probably a year and it was fun to go somewhere that half the patrons were under the ago of six.




Enjoying her first concert




Johnny!

Then, at home, after getting her to put up with Grandpa Bruce's rocking chair for while, I set her down for her first ever nap in her cradle! Luckily, it took a good 15 minutes for her to realize it...




Other news though... Lately she has made it a habit of getting upset whenever we get ready to go anywhere... Staying upset in the car and even when we arrive... But on the other hand, she is getting better at sleeping through the night (at least the last two) and last night she slept in her basket for 5 hours! So that's good. I'm feeling less rested than normal, but since it's been better on the sleep end, it must be due to the hotter weather.

And on a sad note, one of her beloved pets, Lox, passed away yesterday... Though the natural death of a Goldfish has a painless look to it, the lounging about on its side for hours certainly makes for a sad and pitiful event. We have tried to shield Elinor from it, so hopefully she'll be ok.

Nap time....

Here's something to chuckle about...
Before I had Midge, I thought that we would spend the days together quietly gazing at one another, reading, knitting and making things, and CERTAINLY not watching TV.
Were all of my mom friends just laughing on the inside when I said this crap to them? First, we would die without TV. Someday we do hope to make the transition to being a family without a television, but now? Not on your life!
Also, my hands are never free to do anything but hold her, feed her (that still takes hands sometimes, because I just don't have it down pat just yet...) and diaper her. I can barely make toast for myself, let alone knit. Geez!
But the gazing part? We do plenty of that! I could stare at that face all day, and sometimes I do.
We've made an effort to leave the house each day, which is good for both of us. She seems to love being out and I love anything she loves! As Ashley mentioned, I found a baby friendly coffee shop around the corner that I really like. We also have been to Powell's (pretty good), the farmer's market (definitely not good) and Mabel's (always a hit). I've nursed her all over town, because I figure I better just take the plunge. I'm super modest by nature, so I just had to do it, and you know? It ain't so bad.
The hardest part is still figuring out the whole sleeping thing. I'll take advice from anyone who has it! It's much better now that I stopped having coffee in the morning (why on earth did I think I could get away with that?) but it's a challenge, for sure. She's such a light sleeper....are all babies?
Other than that? It's pretty fantastic. Especially when we're all home at night together...what could be better than that?

Iladvisably taking adavantage...

Yes, I should be sleeping. I have found that my pre-baby bedtime of 2am or so, has switched to a time of maybe 10pm... Following the strategy of "as soon as she goes to sleep at night, I go to sleep." She has been so good and quiet tonight, that I have been taking advantage of it to do some much needed blog catching up and now it's sneaking up on midnight and if she gets wakey soon, I may regret this decision. But you know, I may be safe.

Wednesday was my first day back to work, and I don't think things went well here. I believe she was, as it is generally know, an unholy terror for the entire 10 hours I was gone. Since then though, she has generally been a little angel and has been sleeping nicely at night.

So in terms of updates, not much. Caitlin and Elinor have been attending a weekly New Mom's group at Providence, which I believe that they like, and they have a new coffee shop to go to. The coffee shop is very nearby and is super-duper baby and child friendly. That is really what Caitlin needs, something to do that is around other people and outside of the apartment. So both of those are good.

At her group today, learned a new swaddling technique that may be beneficial. And though the photos have died done, we did get a good one of her in her red square suit (it was hard, she kept waving her arms around...)