21

well, i don’t think she’s of legal drinking age yet, but jovie is 21 days old. 

don’t have much to report, but her belly button finally fell off yesterday.  now it’s looking kinda swirly.  so to celebrate, we put her in the real (baby) bathtub today.  she seemed to like it.  she had a fantastic day today (cross your fingers— day’s not over yet!).  sorry, no pic.  we just took some video.

we got to play with our playgym.  if you call lying there and staring aimlessly “playing”.  we even took a trip to our mailbox.  boy she was a busy girl!

just wanted to do an update. no matter how boring.

oh and a quick note of interest, she was very fussy last night when The Mr. went to play soccer.  once he left, it was a scream for all.  but when he came home, she settled down.   hmmmmm, do we have a daddy’s girl ALREADY????     watchout!

week 2

not a clever title, i know.  maybe this motherhood gig is zapping all of my creativity and wit away from me.  yeah. let’s blame it on that.

so… some antics around the house-

• as you may have noticed in The Mr.’s post earlier of “little bean” in the bathroom:  his method of soothing her is running the shower.  we discovered that by accident when jovie first got here and was fussy.  i took a shower and she immediately calmed.  The Mr. has spent many wee hours of the morning in the bathroom trying to calm a fussy/gassy girl!

and by the way- yes. the wallpaper IS garish, i know.  but what’s worse is the thought of picking out new and then re-wallpapering a somewhat large and odd shaped bathroom.

• dum-me told The Mr. that newborns don’t move very much.  oops.  you’d think w/ all my nieces & nephews i’da remembered, but i guess i just remembered wrong.  jovie is super-active.  surprising, since i never felt her a ton in my belly!!!  she managed to scoot to the bottom of her cradle (as she slept in the bathroom).  she does funny little poses in her sleep, & she even throws some gang signs when she’s REALLY mad!
• something else i never remembered or realized:  the noises!   oh my-the noises she makes.  bizarre little noises of all sorts.  chipmunk sounds, squeaks & squeals. i swear there’s a new one every night.  the first night we all slept in the bedroom, The Mr. was quite on edge w/ all the quirky sounds.               so- will she be talkative like her mommy?
• i have discovered “baby crack”.  simethicone (mylicon) is instantaneously a hit w/a crying girl.  sadly, mom & dad have to witness the screams & cries in pain, as she walks up our bellies to relieve her tummy troubles.  she has kicked my incision a few times; however nothing compares to hearing her raspy scream and knowing i cannot relieve her.

we look forward to more antics in & around the house—  will keep you posted on anything of interest.

one week

hard to believe it’s been a week.  all day yesterday, i was very aware of what was going on a week ago.  i even fed jovie this morning at 5:30; the same time as i was introduced to her last week.

not that last week was a picnic by any stretch of the imagination… but we still have our work cut out for us. (you veterans out there are saying HA. no duh!)    jovie is absolutely precious and sweet.  & we’re all trying to figure everyone out.  (meanwhile figuring out how to make a gassy baby happy)

i’m recovering from the c-section and The Mr. is recovering from my attempt at labor.  we’ve had a good opportunity to enjoy each other’s company while he’s been off of work.  tomorrow he goes back, but gramma will be here to help us.

i don’t envy him having to leave his precious little bean all day.  i know he’ll be excited to come home. 

one of these days, i’ll post about some antics around the house….

More Popular Than Brangelina’s Twins

…well, at least to me.

Anyways, we finally came home yesterday.  And she is certainly starting to learn a lot of things.   But there’s a lot she doesn’t know as well.

Things She Has Learned:

• Eating
• Sleeping
• Dirtying a Diaper
• The Pythagorean Theorem

Things She Is Still Having Trouble With:

• Knowing her hands and arms are actually connected to her
• Knowing the difference between daytime and nighttime
• Understanding that if a²+ b²< c², then the triangle is obtuse

Also, because we’ve gotten more requests for pictures than Brangelina’s new twins (at least to my knowledge), here are a few more pics.

All wrapped up in the hospital

The “old babies” meet the “new baby”

How’d she get there?

Finally sleeping

Not So Little Bean Any More

I have sired a whelp!

A baby girl that is.  All 9 lb 3.4 oz (4.16 kg) and 21 inches (53 cm) of her.

Born 09-Jul-2008 03:57 AM

Will post more commentary later.

good thing…..

…..i like surprises!!!!

so we go to the dr. today.  no big deal.  except surprise!!!!  i’m 3 cm & 50%!!!!

no big deal. i know. i can walk around like this for a week!  however, since i had NO inkling…. that came as a big shock.  no uncomfortableness. no pain. completely unexpected.  dr. fully expects me to have this baby this week (unlikely today)….

guess i should FINALLY finish packing my bags??

& let’s not forget…

i knew i’d remember more surprising pregnancy symptoms!!!!  

4.  hiccups.  hiccups? you ask… why, all babies hiccup. in fact, i’m sure all y’all out there were kept awake by all the hiccupping your baby would do.    but here’s the surprise:  it’s not Little Bean.  it’s ME.   not that i have them with any regularity or severity. and they certainly don’t keep me up at night.  but up until a few nights ago, mine were the only hiccups around.  but i think LB finally had hiccups. for about 2 min. once.

5.  movement.  i can’t have this list w/o adding all the times i’ve waited & wanted to feel little bean move around.  even from the beginning when i should feel movement.  even now when there’s less movement to feel and more “kicks”.   the surprise?  baby doesn’t kick me as much as just shift weight so i can feel a foot (?? i hope) .  my good little bean doesn’t kick me in the ribs or lungs or any other place that shouldn’t be kicked.         but surprise #2 is that there have been countlesstimes i didn’t feel any of bean’s movements at all.  so of course when i’m trying to do my kick counts or when i notice i hadn’t felt anything all day, The Mr. puts his ear to my belly, can hear it move and inevitably feels LB move.  what??? how could this be going on w/o my knowledge?   this happens way more often than you would imagine.  so then i’m comforted by the thought that at least someone felt the baby!

i’m sure in not too much longer, i’ll have more surprises along the way…..    good thing i like surprises!

surprising pregnancy symptoms

knowing that all of this can come to a halt at any minute (no, please…. one more week!) i decided to go ahead and write about the things that surprised me most.  the things that i don’t think i’ve read about or heard about.

first of all- i do want to admit that this WHOLE pregnancy has been a surprise for me!!!  i truly thought it would be hell. i’d blow up and be uncomf— & that would be after all the throwing up and constant bathroom trips.  wow. who’da thunk???  everyone kept/keeps warning or asking me about being terribly hot and uncomfortable in the summer. i really don’t think it’s affected me at all.  (but don’t tell The Mr. that!  we get to have the air on a “normal” temperature now!)

i truly truly know how lucky i’ve been!  i’ve seen people and heard stories of people not faring quite as well as i have/am.  i don’t even find myself particularly moody- which i know is a big one for one of my good friends who is pregnant and has had the “normal” symptoms i’ve described.   i feel just awful for them.  and i’m not gloating.  but, well, it has been a surprise.

but the symptoms nobody tells you about- or maybe i’m just weird:

1. what the hell is this stuff falling out of my mouth when i sleep???  it is nasty to roll over into. oh. wait. that’s drool!!!  what????  i don’t drool.  not since that picture of me when i was 7 at holden beach.
2. how come i can’t adjust one of my 6 pillows- especially the one between my legs?  why can’t i grab it at 2 a.m. and reposition it??  oh! right.  because my knuckles are numb and they don’t work!    what??? my hands work fine throughout the day.  but i literally cannot bend my hands easily once i’ve slept.  now- i did read about pregnancy carpal tunnel.  which for about 2 or 3 weeks early on, i did have—  another surprising thing is that the hand that you don’t sleep on and put pressure on is the one that gets numb (like it fell asleep).         that all went away.  only to have this develop (which dr. says is the same) a few months later.
3. oh, and all that swelling i’ve been plagued with since april?  gone.  for the past few days, my feet look normal again!!! AND i’ve even been on them.  is that why i lost a few pounds??  that’s one i’ll ask about. 

i swear there was something else…. i’m racking my brain and can’t remember. that, however, is a common pregnancy symptom. 

happy 4th, y’all.  hope i make it one more week!

t minus 10?

of course we can ‘t hold anything too firmly; but um, guys???—-  we’ve got 10 days left.

how’d that happen??     i remember the excitement of the last 10 days of school.  i remember saying to The Mr. there’s only 10 days until we get married!!!  (that was LOTSA 10 days ago!!!)  10 seems like a very quick number, no??

usually 10 days can fly by.  but i hope this won’t.  people ask me if it’s dragged on or gone quickly- and for once, i say that “it’s gone by appropriately”.  which is surprising.  The Mr & I talk a lot about “gosh: where’d the time go”…  yes. we’re already old fuddy-duddies.  but we were that way well before we decided to have a Little Bean. 

everything up to this point has been appropriately timed.  i hope LB will stay on schedule.  I really would be sad to miss out on my last 10 days of being w/ The Mr & by myself.  i want to enjoy my last 10 days just as i would before in the summers.  which is great.  b/c 2 weeks is about my limit for being in the house w/o going stir-crazy. 

i know i have been incredibly fortunate thru all this.  any complaint i can make is pretty minor.  i know there are lotsa women who want it to be over with by this point in their pregnancy.   they’re huge. uncomfortable. swollen. hot.  miserable… i consider myself very lucky.  i’m totally fine w/ carrying LB.  in fact, i may even miss it.  the bean has been very very good to me.

so— am i/are we ready?  sure. but that doesn’t mean we’re rushing it!!!