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Oi. Colic.

nobody@vox.com(margotinto) — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 17:54:43 -0500

so. Wow. This is Colic. It's one of those things you hope is just an urban myth. Then it moves in with your new baby, and wow, is it real. Our little lady currently has two modes: asleep and pissed. When she's asleep, all is well. When she is awake, she's crying almost all of the time. I'm trying to time her feedings to be at least 2.5-3 hours apart, so that I'm only feeding her when she's actually hungry, and not when she just needs to be pacified. When I overfeed her, predictably, it comes back up on my shoulder. The only time she sleeps for extended periods is when she is strapped to me in the most excellent sling my brother gave me (un porte-bebe de Maman Kangourou), at which time she can log three of four hours of sleep. Otherwise, she pretty much refuses to sleep in any sustained way. I saw the pediatrician earlier this week for a scheduled check-up, and she gave me some very helpful advice, which I had not heard anywhere else. Unlike all the books and devices that promise to help you get rid of colic (not that I've been reading, I've digressed to a pre-literate stage) she basically said that colic happens, and the best we can do is try to get her awake, and getting all her colicky needs to cry and scream met while I don't mind being awake, and then hopefully she will sleep during the night (not through the night, just during the night). We had had a few bad nights where she was up crying and inconsolable from 3am onward. One night I finally just strapped her into the sling and slept sitting up on the couch. She did sleep for three hours then, but the doctor and I agree this was both unsustainable and dangerous. We came up with a plan to shift this awake time to the day time, with the use of gentle means of keeping her awake, such as giving her a bath. The most difficult part of any plan, of course, is carrying it through, and I find myself letting her sleep just for the peace and quiet. I'm going to let her sleep another half an hour, and then wake her for a feed, and then give her a bath if she doesn't stay awake, and then let her do her crying and screaming while I indulge in some mindless TV.

Speaking of being pre-literate, I have found "Say Yes to the Dress" to be a perfect show for me - absolutely no plot or character development (shockingly, the flamboyant guy in the pink tie is a wedding dress designer) and just pretty pictures of pretty ladies in pretty dresses. Its like Teletubbies for adults.

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Quick knitting project update

nobody@vox.com(margotinto) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 12:29:13 -0400

Well, just because I haven't posted any knitting projects, doesn't mean I haven't been knitting. Here are a few projects I've completed lately (as in the last few months)

Two Noro Striped Scarves - this is an extremely easy and popular pattern (more than 5000 projects have been linked on Ravelry). The major reason is that Noro Silk Garden is such gorgeously coloured and textured yarn, that even with an extremely simple pattern, there is still a strong impact. And no two scarves are exactly the same. The reason I knit the second one was because I actually missed knitting the first one once it was finished. Too bad I wasn't knitting socks! The lingering question is, what do I do with the second scarf....

DSC_0912

MinO Sweater for my baby-to-be: this was also a super-quick knit, and super cute too. This only complaint I have is that the pattern said this size was for a one-year-old, but I think it may be my baby's coming home outfit, as I looks to me like it might only fit a newborn. I purchased this as a kit, but I think I I used less than half of the yarn (Fleece Artistic Organic Merino Wool) supplied, which meant that the kit could have included a lot less yarn, and cost a whole lot less. Anyway, it gives me the option of knitting matching pants.

Child's Lamb Costume: Now, this is the second time I have knit this. The first time was for ReRe's nativity concert last Christmas, and I donated that costume to his little school. But since I posted it on Ravelry, I've had over 1700 people look at it, and almost 500 people link it as a favourite project, and numerous requests for the pattern. It has taken me weeks and weeks to get the pattern written out, and it is now being edited before I will try to have it posted on Ravelry. I just wish I had done this months ago, so people could have knit it for Halloween...

I'm going to try to get started on those matching pants for our baby, but as we get closer to our due date, I have a whole lot of other stuff I need to get ready first.....

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Friday Forget-Me-Nots

nobody@vox.com(margotinto) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 07:47:03 -0400

How I woke up this morning:

"Mummy!"

"ReRe, stop talking, you'll wake up Daddy."

"I'm not talking, I'm whispering. Mummy! What are the germs in your mouth for?"

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Friday Forget-Me-Nots

nobody@vox.com(margotinto) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 12:16:24 -0400

ReRe told me yesterday that if the baby doesn't know how to dance, then we'll have to dance and just pick her up and show her how. I asked him if that was how he had learned how to dance, and he said, no, he just knows how to dance. Duh.

So, the pregnancy brain has set in completely - I have been trying very, VERY hard to not forget things, but still, things are falling through the cracks. With so many appointments with doctors and for other tests, I'm lucky if I can find the right requisition form for the right appointment, and end up at the right office at the right time. Yesterday, ReRe stayed home sick, and with the focus it took to try to figure out what was wrong with him, whether it was worth taking him to the doctor (did anyway), get him the right kind of medicine (had to be grape flavour) and also make it to my own doctor's appt with the right forms, etc., shook my brain like an Etch-a-Sketch, leaving it completely blank, cleared of all previous thoughts and plans. So once I got up this morning, checked ReRe over to make sure he was well enough to go to school (he was fine, which was great, since it was picture day) I got us both ready for the day, dropped him off at school and headed out to run all my errands that I had decided to do today. I was feeling great and efficient, until I got a call from my accountant, who had been sitting in my driveway waiting for me to come home for our appointment. Blurgh. I had completely forgotten. I apologised profusely, and told her we would need to reschedule, since I wouldn't be able to get home in time. I felt like the gum on the bottom of my shoe. She said she knows what it is like, being pregnant and with another child, but she did not sound pleased. This woman has been an invaluable help in me keeping my business in order, giving me the peace of mind that only a positive balance sheet can give you, and this is how I repay her. I'm hoping I can actually see her before the baby arrives, but because of my swiss cheese brain, I may have to schedule our financial update meeting to after the baby arrives, when my brain will more closely resemble fondue.

The pregnancy ankles and feet have also made a reappearance, although I am thankful that they waited this long to do so. The only shoes that fit are my runners (with the tongues bulging out and the laces barely tied) and my Mephistos, loosened to the last hole on the buckle. It is 4 degrees Celsius (39 Fahrenheit), and I'm wearing sandals. At least I don't feel the cold as much, but it does feel like I'm walking around with water wings on my feet.

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South Africa, by way of Mogadishu and Rexdale

nobody@vox.com(margotinto) — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 13:02:21 -0400

Hey, remember back in June when I said I couldn't stop listening to K'naan's new CD, Troubadour? Well, you are going to hear a whole lot more of one of the singles I mentioned, Waving Flag, because it is going to be remixed as the anthem for the 2010 World Cup of Soccer! Ya for K'naan!!!! It sounds like they are going to be re-writing the words, to make it more "uplifting", since the lyrics are pretty bleak, but either way, it is such an awesome song. I am so excited to hear it all over the World Cup next summer. Well, except as the theme song for Coca Cola ads, but I'll overlook that.

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Friday Forget-Me-Nots

nobody@vox.com(margotinto) — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 12:45:17 -0400

More proof I need to curtail my son's exposure to pop music: he asked yesterday if he could listen to the "Bubble-Raunchy" song. He meant "Paparazzi". He also told me that Madonna is like a really old Lady Gaga.

ReRe has decided that his job will be to carry the baby around. So are those play-slings actually built to hold a real baby? I'm just asking.

He still thinks we should call the baby "Ha-CHOO!".

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Nesting urge - initiated!

nobody@vox.com(margotinto) — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 14:25:13 -0400

Wow, I never knew what people were talking about, until now. I am now in my 35th week of pregnancy, and woke up with the urge to wash, fold, sort, and put away/give away every piece of clothing in the house. Given my cold/flu, and the inability to walk up and down stairs more than a couple times without a break, I managed to get all the bed linens changed, the bed rails taken off my son's bed, and finally remove the change pad from his dresser. His room is finally a little boy room. He practiced rolling off the bed, just to demonstrate 1) the prematurity of my actions, and 2) his need to make sleeping in our bed between us a permanent solution to nocturnal gravity.

I'm now trying to decide whether to try to get all the laundry downstairs on my own and risk injury, or worse, the danger of me making it down to the laundry room and just curling up for a nap on top of it. I think I'll opt for a long shower instead, and try to clear some of this congestion out of my head. We're going for dinner tonight with an old friend of Getalife's, and I want to try to make as nice an impression as I can, without mouth-breathing through dinner.

So speaking of my flu, I did go to the doctor's office and force them to make some attempt at checking to see whether I have H1N1, given the dangers for women in their 3rd trimester. The nurse said my lungs were fine, my ears and nose looked good, and while I was sneezing, there was no cough, so I'm probably just sick with some cold virus. I would have felt better if they had swabbed my nose and sent in the test, but they only do this with acute cases. I kinda felt like they really didn't seem to know what to do when I called, since I was told by the receptionist that they weren't testing anyone, but then got a call back from the nurse saying to come in right away. She checked me over pretty thoroughly, and told me what symptoms to watch out for. I'm glad that I don't have it, obviously, but it leaves me with some fear for the months to come.

Ok, now off for that shower. I may reorganize the bathroom while I'm in there.......

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Friday Forget-Me-Nots

nobody@vox.com(margotinto) — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 12:24:17 -0400

The other day I showed ReRe a picture in a magazine of a couple kids roasting hotdogs over a fire. He looked concerned, and said they shouldn't be camping without their parents.

I've been trying to prepare ReRe for the baby, including preparing him for what happens when I go into labour. He's heard it enough times that he can tell me the plan, with his own interpretation. According to him, this is the plan:

- when your belly starts to hurt, that means the baby wants to come out

- I will go across the street to Julie's (she's our neighbour) for a sleepover

- Gramma and Grampa may come, but I'll tell them I'm busy at the sleepover, and to come back later

- Daddy or I will call the ambulance to take you to the hospital, where they will put you in a boo-boo bed (he came up with the ambulance and the term 'boo-boo bed', I didn't mention either of these things)

- the nurse may come and see you, but you should wait for the doctor. Then the baby can come out.

The other day we were in the car and Madonna's new song "Celebration" came on the radio. ReRe wanted to hear it again, so I downloaded it onto my iPhone. He now wants to listen to this song to the exclusion of everything else, including watching TV. I know kids like repetition, and this song isn't the worst out there, but she does say "I didn't recognize you with your clothes on." I only realized that after the fact.

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Children with Knives

nobody@vox.com(margotinto) — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 09:45:50 -0400

Now, there are few consumer items in the world that I will plug, since I feel like we could all get along with a little less, but there is one purchase I made recently that I wanted to share. I was invited to a Pampered Chef party at my friends' place, with plans to only replace my cheese grater. I had ReRe with me, and he was getting a little bored, so the woman who was doing the demonstration invited him to help her cut up strawberries for the recipe she was making. I looked at her like she was crazy, giving a knife to a 3-year-old, until she pulled out a knife called My Safe Cutter, which is duller than a butter knife (literally, no cutting edge) but serrated in a way that cuts through many fruits, breads, and other softer foods that kids could cut themselves. ReRe cut up a whole slew of strawberries with it, which impressed me, and got me thinking about when his sous-chef training could start. The other thing is that it is only $5, well made and guaranteed, so if it breaks, Pampered Chef will replace it. ReRe knows exactly where it is kept in the kitchen, and uses his to cut his pancakes, bananas, toast, and whatever else he feels like trying.

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So what's my excuse now?

nobody@vox.com(margotinto) — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 21:58:23 -0400

There are so many things I haven't taken care of yet, and I'm at week 32 of this pregnancy. I haven't cleaned out my office to make room for the nursery, I haven't sorted out ReRe's baby clothes to see what to keep and what we won't likely use again (e.g. sleepers that were cute in the store, and almost impossible to put on a squirmy infant), and I haven't made a clear plan for how I'm going to get ReRe fed, dressed and off to school in the first little while after our new baby arrives. If I don't start making plans, this baby is wearing boys clothes, whether s/he likes it or not, starting off in Pull-Ups, and sleeping with ReRe.

So. Let's get this started with one of those decisions we are going to need to make PDQ: cloth or disposable diapers. When we lived downtown, cloth was near impossible: our apartment building's laundry facilities were inadequate, and I was recovering from a c-section, which made everything that much more difficult, and lugging laundry was not something I was dealing well with. Once we moved out to our own place, with our very own laundry room, ReRe was about to start daycare, and every centre we looked at required disposable diapers. With ReRe, we never made the switch.

However, now that our second child is coming along, we can actually consider cloth as a definite possibility. But thanks to Brittany's post about Pacing the Panic Room's offer of a set of Fuzzibunz cloth diapers, I am now putting some serious thought into making the switch. And hey, given how many decisions I need to make in the next (gulp) six weeks or so, it would be great for this decision (plus the system selection and the purchasing) made for me! Sweet x 3!!! Here's a link to Fuzzibunz if you want to check out the system. I know a lot of you moms out there have used different systems of cloth diapers, and I would love to hear your feedback and comparisons between them.

Thanks!!!

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