I love these photos of Joe and Phoebe.
Pops and Phoebe
March 3rd, 2012Nose Frida
March 2nd, 2012If you don’t have a Nose Frida yet and your baby has a lot of boogers, I highly recommend you get one. It’s really one of the best products I’ve discovered with Phoebe. You know those huge blue bulb syringes they send you home with when you leave the hospital? Worthless. They never work. I’ve tried using those things with both Chloe and Zoe, and they were completely unsatisfactory. You’d try to suck their noses because you could tell they had boogers, but you wouldn’t have anything to show for when you squeezed into the tissue. This time around, we got the Nose Frida, and it’s brilliant. It may seem gross to you to suck out your child’s boogers with your mouth, but there is a filter that supposedly traps the germs. Besides which, it’s your newborn baby, so you just don’t think about it being gross too much – they are already drinking from your boobs and have already spent the last 9 months peeing inside you. Here’s how we do it: first spray your baby’s nose with some Little Noses (or Simply Saline, whatever is pure salt water without preservatives). Then rub both nostrils gently. Then aim with the Nose Frida and hold down one nostril while you suck from the other one. It sometimes help to have someone else hold the baby or hold down one nostril (I’m not good with my left hand if I need to hold down the right nostril with my right hand). And then, Voila! It works every time.
It’s actually a crazy good feeling after you get the booger out and Phoebe’s breathing is smooth again. Here she is very happy.
I heart Nose Frida!
p.s. Nose Frida did not pay me to write this post. Nor did any of the other products that I have written about on this blog. I just like sharing cool finds.
Storytime with pops
March 1st, 2012Chloe and Zoe really look forward to story time every night. I didn’t think that it would happen so soon, but Phoebe is able to enjoy story time already! Here she is a little over 11 weeks old with her sisters.
They are listening to Frog and Toad. I love these stories, and Joe does a great job with made up Frog and Toad voices. Phoebe really does look like she is concentrating.
Copy cat
February 19th, 2012Not sure if this is for real, but today we taught Phoebe some new tricks. In the morning, when she woke up and stretched her arms above her head, I said “Streeeetch!” and stretched my arms over. I realized though that as I repeated myself, she was doing it over and over again. When I said “Stretch!” and put my hands over my head, she would do the same. I asked Chloe to come over and say “stretch” with her hands over her head, and Phoebe copied her too.
Then in the afternoon, I taught her another trick. I stuck my tongue out at her. After a few times, she stuck her tongue out too. At first I thought it was coincidence, but then she repeated it five times, every time after I would do it. Then, Chloe came home from the park, and I told Chloe to try it out. Phoebe responded and stuck her tongue out! And then 10 minutes later, after some time had passed, I asked Joe to try it out. And she stuck her tongue out too! Then, a couple of hours later, when the sitter came, I showed her the new trick. Stuck my tongue out at Phoebe, and she stuck her tongue out back at me! To which the sitter said, “wow, Phoebe, you’re a smart girl.”
Phoebe is two months and one week old today. I’ll be teaching her some new tricks in the coming weeks, like bringing me my socks. Stay tuned.
Chloe holding Phoebe
February 18th, 2012Chloe loves to hold Phoebe. She’s always asking to do it. She’s especially proud that she can hold Phoebe under the armpits and stand her up. It makes me slightly nervous when she does that though, so I don’t have any photos of that. The rule is that she has to be seated and her movements have to be slow and steady.
Ignore the hair clip in this photo, we were just messing around. Phoebe’s mohawk is still to thin for a clip.
Liquid Gold
February 8th, 2012For reasons I don’t want to get into, I have had to pump a lot with Phoebe. I started out by pumping ten times a day, and then decreasing it to eight times a day, and now six. It’s a lot of work – you pump, feed, and then wash the pumping apparatus and bottles. Six to ten times a day. Pump, feed, repeat. I’ve done the math and I’ve pumped about 420 times over the last 8.5 weeks. One of the great things I discovered is that the Medela pumping breast shield/valve fits into the bottles that I decided to use for Phoebe. It was just a coincidence, but it’s so much easier because I can just pump directly into the bottles that Phoebe will be drinking from, thus saving a transfer of the milk and also an extra washing of a bottle. These bottles are made by Lifefactory, and they are great glass bottles. There is a silicon sleeve on the outside, thus making it safer and easier to hold. I’ve dropped these bottles a couple of times on our hardwood floor, and they didn’t break. Also, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve pumped at 3AM and almost knocked over a bottle, but because of the silicon sleeve, it sort of “sticks” to the table and just wobbles a bit instead of getting knocked over entirely. Phoebe drinks well from them too, which of course is key. I should also mention that Chloe, Zoe, and I use them too. Chloe and Zoe use the taller glass ones with the sippy caps and I use the 22 ounce glass bottle. Here’s a line up of Lifefactory bottles with boob milk waiting for the onslaught of evening hunger:
In the early days, for one of the first pumping sessions I did, I was so proud of myself that I got 1 full ounce of liquid gold. But we found that the sterilizer that we had lent out to a friend was really gross – there was hair in it – and because of my insanity, we had to toss out the milk because the bottle that it was in had been sterilized by this hair-ball sterilizer (yes, someone did wash the sterilizer, but not well enough). I couldn’t even toss it, I had to get Joe to. And yes, I did cry. Pumping milk from your boobs for your newborn is one of the most tiring and stressful things to go through. I’m proud to say that since then, I have only knocked over one other bottle and spilled probably less than a half-ounce of milk. I cried that time too. I am guessing that is where the expression “don’t cry over spilled milk” comes from. But this milk really is like liquid gold. I was talking to a friend and we both commiserated over how we would tap the breast shields to get every last drop, and do that “flip and glide” on the valve to release the last drop out. Yes, it’s that crazy. But wouldn’t you do it if it was liquid gold?
Big sister sharing
February 7th, 2012
Zoe brought a collage of photos of Phoebe to school, for sharing. She was super excited about it, and when asked about it over dinner, here’s what was said:
ME: What did you say about it Zoe?
ZOE: I said, this is a photo of Phoebe, my new little sister. We are wearing matching dresses.
ME: That’s it?
ZOE: Yea. Then some kids asked me questions.
ME: Like what?
ZOE: Divya asked me where we keep the photo. I said you put it in the pumping room. Then Divya asked, “what is the pumping room?” And I said, it’s where my mom pumps her boobs. And then she said, “what’s pumping?” And then Ms. Roshan said it’s a way to get milk out for the baby.
Oh…if only they knew…for those who don’t know why you would keep a photo of the baby in your “pumping room” (really, it’s just the bedroom), it’s so that you can look at the photo and visualize your baby drinking milk, so that you can get more of it. Some say that you should keep the baby’s blanket and smell it while you pump, but that’s just a little too much work as I don’t have three hands.
Six year old love: Monkey Bars
February 6th, 2012I remember when I was six – I loved the monkey bars. And now Chloe has inherited this passion for it. After school, it’s always “I skipped a bar today,” or “Tori skipped a bar today,” or “Check out my blisters, I have three of them!” or “My hands were too sweaty today so I couldn’t skip a bar.” It’s pretty awesome. While I’m here worrying about having enough milk for Phoebe, and Joe’s worrying about the next Orbit product to build, Chloe’s biggest worry is about doing well on the monkey bars. I love it.
My old age
January 27th, 2012This time around, taking care of Phoebe felt harder than with Chloe and Zoe. I blame it on my old age. All the women out there who are totally scared about being pregnant, being in labor, or pushing the baby out, fear no more. The harder thing is the next one, two, four, eighteen (?!) years of being a parent. If you’re deciding if you should have a baby, here are some things to keep in mind. But keep in mind this is all based on my own personal experience, and, I’m still in the middle of it so might come off sounding a tad grumpy:
- Your child might eat a lot. If you’re breastfeeding, this is hard work. At day 10 Phoebe was taking in 4 ounces per feeding and I was pumping 10 times a day. At three weeks she was taking in 28 ounces per day. This is not normal. I don’t think Joe even drinks 28 ounces of water per day. I finally broke out my AAP book and it says “by the time your baby is four months old, she should be taking in 30 ounces a day.” If Phoebe keeps up at this rate, my boobs will be a size FFF. There’s no way I will be able to produce that much milk. I do believe she’s reached a steady state now. I still haven’t wanted to introduce formula yet, so hopefully she stays at the 30 ounce mark until 4 months.
- Your ass might hurt. There is a reason why the hospital sends you home with a donut. And I’m not talking about a Krispy Kreme. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, that’s okay. It’s probably better that way.
- You might get mastitis. If any of your girlfriends ever say to you, “I got mastitis,” you should look at them with tears in your eyes. Don’t give them a hug though, because you might squish their boob and they might kill you. The pain from mastitis was probably the most pain I have ever felt IN MY LIFE. WORSE THAN LABOR PAINS. The gist of it is that your boob gets infected. Some little f***er clogged a duct in there and then your boob becomes so swollen it’s like a rock. Even if you just brush your finger against our boob, you want to cry. I never got it with Chloe and Zoe (see, I told you I’m getting old) but this time I got it. Twice. The first time I dodged a bullet and didn’t need antibiotics but the second time I had a 103 degree fever, my legs and arms felt like Jell-o, and I had this cartoon image in my head of my boob with a firecracker inside bursting open and spraying blood and milk everywhere. Okay, that was gross.
- You might get a rat in your house. Okay, I know this one’s ridiculous. But it really happened. A rat ran into our house when the door was left opened (Chloe and Zoe take about 20 minutes to get off the car. Enough said). And let me tell you, this SUCKED. I actually saw the damn thing and hid in the bathroom for a good part of the night. This was absolutely the last thing I needed to deal with. So be sure to keep your door closed when you have a baby arrive. And if you think you have rats, hire an exterminator before the baby comes. Even though we caught it in a day, for weeks afterwards I was horrified that there might be another one, and was worried that the rat would hop into Phoebe’s crib and nibble her cheeks because the breast milk was just too delicious to resist. Yes, I am going insane.
Despite all of this, Phoebe is adorable. She has made me complete. When I look at her, I feel so blessed. Just yesterday, she smiled back at me when I came into the room. This makes all the boob aching worth it.
Some people have asked me, why do you want to have a third baby? The simple answer is that I just didn’t feel complete. I didn’t feel like I was done yet. But now I feel whole.
MLK
January 25th, 2012I love the fact that Chloe actually retains stuff at school, and that she really thinks about what she learns. Over lunch, a few days before the MLK holiday, she shared with me the following:
CHLOE: Martin Luther King was killed by someone. He said, “don’t fight with your fists, fight with your words…” That’s what he said. And he said, I have a dream. He dreamed that all children should be able to hold hands and walk together. And it doesn’t matter if you are dark skinned or light skinned, you should all be able to play together.
ME [surprised she learned all this]: That’s why we have a holiday coming up, to remember Martin Luther King, right?
CHLOE [still in thought]: It just doesn’t make any sense that just because your skin is a certain color, you can’t play together. That’s why everyone should play together. Even if your skin is a different color.
So awesome that she learned this in kindergarten, already. I had to stop myself from tearing up when she said this. Sometimes I still can’t believe that Chloe is a six-year-old. Now when I joke, “wish for WORLD PEACE!!!” when she tosses pennies into a fountain, she actually might start to understand what I mean.