This picture just cracked us up.
Also, look how BIG this new carseat is! There are inches above his head! Inches! It’s the Delta 88 of infant carseats. But even his feet don’t quite reach the bottom, and it is WAY easier to adjust the tightness of the straps than on the SnugRide.
Noah still hates being strapped in, but he was totally willing to hang out and be photographed.
A lot of us are passionate about a variety of political issues, most of which have some concrete thing we can look at, experience or have a grounded fear of experiencing — civil/human rights, environmental issues, animal cruelty, health & health care.
I want to ask you to take action on an issue that is more abstract, but that will affect communities like those of us who only know each other "in the blogosphere" if we don’t take action.
Internet Neutrality.
A breathtaking diversity of organizations have asked Congress to protect the neutrality of the Internet as a place where anyone can publish and connect with others who share their interests or concerns.
This is because owners of high-speed networks (mostly cable and telephone companies) are actively exploring ways that they can charge more for certain kinds of content or access, or ensure that their customers have privleged access — think of "in network" cell phone calls.
Some of the smartest people I have ever had the honor of meeting are speaking out — and asking others to speak out — in favor of Internet neutrality legislation. (So have plenty of others, but I’m listing only the folks I have met personally.)
Fair warning, this is hard!
You are a MASTER of the English language!
Huzzah. While your English is not exactly perfect, you are still more grammatically correct than just about every American. Others admire the way you speak and could learn a lot from listening to you. Still, there is always room for improvement…
Take this quiz!
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Thank you, everyone who offered advice on sleeping, eating, and bathing over the last few days!
On Tuesday, Noah called off his hunger strike. The teachers are working with him on learning to hold the bottle and practicing it with just a little help, instead of full on holding/not holding. He ate well, 14 oz at school, which is the high end of normal for him. He also had his first good nap at school, 2.5 hours! His previous school nap record was about 50 minutes, with 30 minutes being typical.
Then I messed with his schedule. Hopefully he won’t hate it.
Last night, Noah and I went to our first La Leche League meeting. I wanted to go both to meet some other new moms, and to get support and ideas for managing my elbow/thumb strain problem with holding him while he nurses.
I’m not sure exactly what I expected — all granola, all the time, formula is poison types, led by an aging hippie?
What I found was 15 very nice women, the majority of whom seemed like more grown up southern sorority girls. I mean that in the nicest way possible — they were friendly, cheerful, and had perfect makeup. A few were more granola, all were married, no one batted an eyelash when I talked about Jill and our adoption. There were 7 moms with babies (and 1 preschooler), and 7 pregnant women, all due between next week and September, and the leader with her almost-six year old daughter. The leader was in her early 40s and had on a Prince concert shirt that I’m sure she’s had for 20 years or more.
Noah was the size of the 8 month old. All the other babies were younger and much smaller. He loved the attention and grinned and cooed at everyone.
They had some useful ideas for me, including that I try nursing while lying down on my side, and that — just as Noah is old enough to learn to hold a bottle, he can also hold me while he nurses. They also recommended chairs/pillows for elbow support, and possibly digging up my old wrist/thumb braces.
A few other women had questions, concerns, or things they wanted help with, and similarly useful advice came from both the leader and the other moms.
On the whole, it was a good experience, and I’ll be going back again. And I recommend it to anyone looking for a little help or camaraderie.
Yesterday, Noah had a rough day at school.
They know that he can hold his bottle, but apparently, he prefers to have it held for him. Yesterday, every time they gave it to him, he agreed to hold it for a couple of minutes, but then would catch the eye of one of the teachers, and fling it away, refusing to eat again unless they were holding him.
As a result, he ate about 2/3 of his usual amount. At least, while he was at school. He also napped around half or 2/3 his usual amount at school, which is already only half what he should be napping and will nap on the weekend.
Hungry and exhausted, he ate like a maniac when I got home, and tried to fall asleep for the night at 6 pm. We let him nap for 20 minutes, but didn’t want him waking up at 3 am, so got him up and made him play with us until shortly after 7, when we mean mommies also bathed him.
Aside: We’re in a bath quandry. He’s outgrown his infant kitchen-sink tub. But the Ikea infant tub is too big; I don’t feel like I can hold him in it safely. The tub-seat also seems too big — he needs to be more able to sit himself before I think it will work. And unlike Mickey (more like Kat), I was unable to get the bumbo seat to suction in place in the tub. Yesterday we tried the kitchen sink, no frills, and he screamed and cried. I think the drain-stop must be uncomfortable on his little bottom. Do you have a bath solution you like?
Anyway, by 7:30 pm, Noah was pissed off, but clean, and he ate again like a starving boy. He also fell asleep long before he was done eating — we call it "sleating." He woke up hungry again at 10:40 pm, 2:20 am, and 3:30 am. Unsurprisingly, he wasn’t that hungry when he woke up for the day at 6:25 am.
I didn’t give him his usual "top off" feeding at 7:15-7:30 am, before taking him to school, on the hope that today he’ll agree to hold his bottle and eat. And Miss Lorraine asked us to try working with him to eat while holding the bottle, so I may start doing another pumping at home. He’s got to be able to eat from people besides me.
Wish us luck with all of this.
I had a great 8th grade math teacher. If only I could remember his name, I’m sure he would be very proud.
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You Passed 8th Grade Math |
Congratulations, you got 10/10 correct! |
Ok, I know that it’s probably getting boring, how often I post about poop. And every one of these posts makes the chances of Noah not speaking to me when he’s a teenager that much higher.
I’m sorry sweetie. I’m not doing to to humiliate you. I’m doing it because I can’t help it.
Poop plays a bigger role in my life than I ever imagined. And it is much funnier than I expected. Those are the magic ingredients for Mommy to talk about things, or as the case is now, record it for anyone on the entire Internet to read, from now into perpetuity.
This afternoon, Noah managed to poop all over his pack-n-play, onesie, two cloth diapers, a diaper changing pad cover, and my tee-shirt. There was poop all over his back, and half-way down his arms. His ARMS.
He even got the "emergency bath" towel, or rather, I did, because there
was a smear of poop I hadn’t seen on my arm, from holding his poop-covered body under the bathtub faucet. We only caught the poop on the towel because while trying to calm himself down from all the fuss his Mommies were making about poop being everywhere, Noah tried to chew on the towel.
It’s also been a rough day because I finally figured out that the only way Noah will go to sleep at home is if he’s nursing. So I’m trying to use The Sleep Lady’s "put him down sleepy and then comfort him" strategy.
So far, I’m a complete failure at it. For both naps, he’s worked himself into a state of hiccuping hysterics, in my arms. I’ve given up, taken him back downstairs, played for a couple of minutes, fed him, and he’s fallen asleep within seconds. Only to wake up again, shrieking, if I put him down right away.
I know he needs to learn how to comfort himself to sleep. And it would really be nice to be able to take turns with the bedtime routine. But maybe he doesn’t need to learn it yet. He’s a good sleeper, sleeping through the night most nights (8-ish to 6-ish).
Thoughts? Advice? Warnings?
