(I started writing this on Sunday - I fail at finishing posts)
Silver Lining: I'm finally below my pre-pregnancy weight! I've been within a couple pounds for a couple months (Christmas took some undoing), but I'm there. I've been running 3 or 4 miles three times a week, but haven't come all the way down until now. But, there is a downside as to how I got there.
First, our Subaru got hit by a 16 year old girl on Wednesday. Chris was parked at Phoebe's daycare lady's house. Apparently, the girl hadn't properly defrosted her windshield, turned the corner, and bam! smacked right into our car. Luckily, neither Chris nor Phoebe was in the car at the time, nor were the car seats damaged. But it was a pain, regardless. According to Chris, he kind of yelled at the girl (he saw it happen) and terrified her.
But, but, but! Chris, Phoebe, and I just spent Thursday until today (Sunday) recovering from norovirus or the stomach flu or whatever. It has seriously been awful.
It all started Thursday when I started feeling awful right after lunch. In fact, I think I hit publish on the last post and high-tailed it out of the office. Frankly, I'm not sure how I made it home from work without pulling over the side of the freeway. The next few hours were a blur of pain. I told Chris he had to pick up the girls and feed them dinner because I couldn't keep more than a few feet from the bathroom. I called the advice nurse who called in a prescription of Zofran, which stops vomiting. Because I could barely walk, I figured Chris would be the one to pick it up, but suddenly he started to get sick. Meanwhile, we knew something was starting with Phoebe, who flinched every time he tried to give her anything to eat, including Cheerios. This was a clear sign because this girl is normally a bottomless pit. So Chris got Phoebe to bed, and then we had to somehow get Charlotte in her pajamas and to bed. Charlotte was so disturbed by our behavior that she told us not to give her hugs and kisses because she didn't want to get sick.
Chris looked terrible, I felt terrible, but one of us needed to get the prescription before the pharmacy closed at 9 because we wouldn't have another chance until 9 the next morning. So I threw up a few more times, put on my coat, and drove the mile to the pharmacy. Thank goodness it was a drive thru because when I saw that pregnant pharmacy assistant, there was no way I wanted to give it to her. I also as thankful that all I had to do to take the Zofran was to dissolve it on my tongue. (Shh, and I gave one pill to Chris). It worked! I haven't thrown up since. Chris slept in the guest bedroom so we wouldn't bother each other during the night.
Unfortunately, as we suspected by Phoebe's lack of appetite, she also got the dreaded bug. We discovered this on Friday morning when we went into her room and saw that she had thrown up in her crib twice. Poor thing. She never cried out (Chris had left the door to the guest bedroom open, so he would have easily heard her cry). She also had really bad diarrhea and somehow had slept through that too. I can't believe it. I was practically crying from all the pain I had been in.
Charlotte, meanwhile, remained completely unscathed, thank goodness for small miracles. Chris was able to take her to daycare, so we could stay home and tend to Phoebe (and ourselves). While neither of us had symptoms, we both felt exhausted and pretty nauseated. Phoebe, however, has continued to have bad diarrhea and refuses to eat or drink much of anything. She clearly feels worse as the day continues because each night she has refused to nurse or take a bottle of formula. This has never happened. She pretty much goes crazy when she sees a bottle, and now she has actually batted it away if we try to give it to her. Chris bought Pedialyte yesterday morning after Phoebe threw up her breakfast. She seemed to like it at first, but has also stopped drinking that.
To add to everything, Phoebe is fighting her morning nap like it's the plague. She screams if we put her in her crib, unless it's well past noon. I don't think this is related to the stomach virus because she was doing this last weekend as well. It's just bad timing because we know she's exhausted and we're pretty much drained just getting through the weekend with Charlotte (who, by the way, has taken full advantage of our not eating by getting to eat all her favorite foods - quesadillas, mac and cheese, and waffles - she's pretty much been a bottomless pit).
Wednesday update: Phoebe is finally 100% better. She was still fighting liquids and food on Monday night, along with a couple blow-outs at daycare, but now she is back to nursing at night, sleeping through the night (yay!), and eating (almost normally). I took her to the pediatrician yesterday, and she weighs 21 pounds (what a chunk!). Also, I found out that last Friday, not a single kid went to Phoebe's daycare except the little girl who's only there two days a week. Every single child came down with the flu. Almost every parent got it as well (but not the babysitter), including the very pregnant mother of one of the little boys (it started off some pre-term labor). I still can't believe that Charlotte didn't get it. I'm convinced she was the carrier, little bucket of germs that she is, and she just spread it to everyone.
Final note: I do not recommend this as a weight-loss strategy.
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Thursday, February 21, 2013
The Beaver
We're in the one month countdown. In just three weeks our little chunky monkey will be one. In many ways, it feels like Phoebe's always been around; in others, it only feels like days since she was born.
And since we're not planning on having any more kids, it makes Phoebe's aging all the more bittersweet. I've rounded up dozens of itty bitty baby clothes that both Phoebe and Charlotte wore and either donated them to a women's shelter or shipped them down to my friend who just had her first baby. Over the weekend, I sold our smaller Pack N Play on Craigslist to a woman who is expecting her third child and needs a little bassinet in her room. Let me take a deep breath and try not to sob.
....
Okay. Back to the present.
This month brought about some firsts. For one, I dealt with Chris' first business trip since having two girls. He was supposed to be gone for four days, but it only ended up being two - he will have to go back again sometime soon, so we'll have to deal with this all over again. Here's how crazy it was though. He left for the airport at 4 in the morning. Charlotte, whose room is directly above the garage, woke up when she heard the garage door and came into my room asking if it was time to get up yet. I told her no, but that she could sleep in the bed with me. This was a treat for her, so she proceeded to giggle and laugh and kick me, as I tried to get back to sleep. I had told her that if she couldn't be quiet, she would have to go back to her room. After about twenty minutes she whispered "I can't sleep. I'm going back to my room." Of course, by this point, it was about 15 minutes before I needed to wake up.
Did I mention that I needed to drop Phoebe off at 7AM and then Charlotte so I could get downtown by 8 (a 45 minute drive)? Anyway, I got dressed, woke up Phoebe, dressed her and then fed her. I was catching up on emails, so imagine my horror (and pain) when I look down to see Phoebe biting me. In my rush and panic to get her off me, I physically recoiled, which only caused her to clamp down harder. Ouch. Meanwhile, I'm screaming in pain, so when I finally do get her to detach, Phoebe is so upset she bursts into tears.
Anyway, I try to shrug off the pain (it's only happened that one time, thank goodness!), and get the girls to their respective daycares. Then I drive downtown to attend a one day conference. I saw a lot of my former colleagues, which was great. However, in the early afternoon, I started feeling like I was getting sick - my throat was really scratchy, and I was feeling lousy. I decided to leave the conference early, around 3:30, instead of 4. I'm heading down the freeway when I get a call from Chris - apparently, Charlotte's daycare had tried calling me, but couldn't reach me (the reception in the convention center isn't great), so called Chris instead. Charlotte had spiked a fever and needed to be picked up. Great. The one time Chris isn't home and I'm incommunicado, Charlotte needs to be picked up.
Luckily, Phoebe wasn't sick, so I limped through dinner and bedtime and got the girls to bed okay. Later, I woke up in the middle of the night feeling like I was going to vomit. I must have been up most of the night either feeling feverish or nauseated. I dropped Phoebe off at daycare, and Charlotte and I spent the day watching movies on Netflix (it's so great that they have old Disney movies streaming now!). Charlotte, despite being sick, was thrilled at watching so much TV and asked if she could stay home with me everyday. Ha! So yeah, that was an exciting little adventure while Chris was out of town.
Moving on.
Phoebe is just a doll to be around. She still army crawls, clearly thinking there must be trip wires to crawl under at every turn. However, she easily gets up on her hands and knees to climb the stairs or pull up on anything. I don't understand why she hasn't figured out that crawling on her hands and knees is so much quicker. We did notice, however, that she has to crawl on her hands and knees if she wants to suck her thumb at the same time. Maybe that'll get her crawling!
Phoebe is much more adventurous than Charlotte. She uses Charlotte's little chair to climb up on the couch and she climbs up and over anything that's in her way. At the same time, she's much more content just cuddling. When she's tired, she'll come crawl in my lap and lay across me. It's very sweet.
No new words. She sometimes calls Chris "Dada" but she never calls me anything. Tandy is clearly the "t" sound as she reserves it for when Tandy's around. We've been trying to teach her baby signs, particularly the sign for "more, " but she'd rather make the most annoying sound in the world when she wants more food. Oh well, she'll get there.
And now to the subject of this post. Phoebe has two enormous front teeth - we call her Phoeber Beaver! In fact, the two teeth on either side of her front teeth look they might be coming in under her front teeth, since the front teeth are so big they're crowding them out. I'm taking her to the dentist in April when I take Charlotte, but I'm wondering if I need to do anything before then? This is uncharted territory for me, since my teeth and Charlotte's teeth are smaller than normal. Hmm.
Next month - her birthday party! I'm making it a small affair, mainly because I don't know what the weather is going to be like (it was pouring for four days straight while we were in the hospital).
And since we're not planning on having any more kids, it makes Phoebe's aging all the more bittersweet. I've rounded up dozens of itty bitty baby clothes that both Phoebe and Charlotte wore and either donated them to a women's shelter or shipped them down to my friend who just had her first baby. Over the weekend, I sold our smaller Pack N Play on Craigslist to a woman who is expecting her third child and needs a little bassinet in her room. Let me take a deep breath and try not to sob.
....
Okay. Back to the present.
This month brought about some firsts. For one, I dealt with Chris' first business trip since having two girls. He was supposed to be gone for four days, but it only ended up being two - he will have to go back again sometime soon, so we'll have to deal with this all over again. Here's how crazy it was though. He left for the airport at 4 in the morning. Charlotte, whose room is directly above the garage, woke up when she heard the garage door and came into my room asking if it was time to get up yet. I told her no, but that she could sleep in the bed with me. This was a treat for her, so she proceeded to giggle and laugh and kick me, as I tried to get back to sleep. I had told her that if she couldn't be quiet, she would have to go back to her room. After about twenty minutes she whispered "I can't sleep. I'm going back to my room." Of course, by this point, it was about 15 minutes before I needed to wake up.
Did I mention that I needed to drop Phoebe off at 7AM and then Charlotte so I could get downtown by 8 (a 45 minute drive)? Anyway, I got dressed, woke up Phoebe, dressed her and then fed her. I was catching up on emails, so imagine my horror (and pain) when I look down to see Phoebe biting me. In my rush and panic to get her off me, I physically recoiled, which only caused her to clamp down harder. Ouch. Meanwhile, I'm screaming in pain, so when I finally do get her to detach, Phoebe is so upset she bursts into tears.
Anyway, I try to shrug off the pain (it's only happened that one time, thank goodness!), and get the girls to their respective daycares. Then I drive downtown to attend a one day conference. I saw a lot of my former colleagues, which was great. However, in the early afternoon, I started feeling like I was getting sick - my throat was really scratchy, and I was feeling lousy. I decided to leave the conference early, around 3:30, instead of 4. I'm heading down the freeway when I get a call from Chris - apparently, Charlotte's daycare had tried calling me, but couldn't reach me (the reception in the convention center isn't great), so called Chris instead. Charlotte had spiked a fever and needed to be picked up. Great. The one time Chris isn't home and I'm incommunicado, Charlotte needs to be picked up.
Luckily, Phoebe wasn't sick, so I limped through dinner and bedtime and got the girls to bed okay. Later, I woke up in the middle of the night feeling like I was going to vomit. I must have been up most of the night either feeling feverish or nauseated. I dropped Phoebe off at daycare, and Charlotte and I spent the day watching movies on Netflix (it's so great that they have old Disney movies streaming now!). Charlotte, despite being sick, was thrilled at watching so much TV and asked if she could stay home with me everyday. Ha! So yeah, that was an exciting little adventure while Chris was out of town.
Moving on.
Phoebe is just a doll to be around. She still army crawls, clearly thinking there must be trip wires to crawl under at every turn. However, she easily gets up on her hands and knees to climb the stairs or pull up on anything. I don't understand why she hasn't figured out that crawling on her hands and knees is so much quicker. We did notice, however, that she has to crawl on her hands and knees if she wants to suck her thumb at the same time. Maybe that'll get her crawling!
Phoebe is much more adventurous than Charlotte. She uses Charlotte's little chair to climb up on the couch and she climbs up and over anything that's in her way. At the same time, she's much more content just cuddling. When she's tired, she'll come crawl in my lap and lay across me. It's very sweet.
No new words. She sometimes calls Chris "Dada" but she never calls me anything. Tandy is clearly the "t" sound as she reserves it for when Tandy's around. We've been trying to teach her baby signs, particularly the sign for "more, " but she'd rather make the most annoying sound in the world when she wants more food. Oh well, she'll get there.
And now to the subject of this post. Phoebe has two enormous front teeth - we call her Phoeber Beaver! In fact, the two teeth on either side of her front teeth look they might be coming in under her front teeth, since the front teeth are so big they're crowding them out. I'm taking her to the dentist in April when I take Charlotte, but I'm wondering if I need to do anything before then? This is uncharted territory for me, since my teeth and Charlotte's teeth are smaller than normal. Hmm.
Next month - her birthday party! I'm making it a small affair, mainly because I don't know what the weather is going to be like (it was pouring for four days straight while we were in the hospital).
Monday, February 11, 2013
Kid Logic
Last week, This American Life's theme was "Kid Logic." An example they used was when a little girl finally went on an airplane for the first time and then asked her mom "When do we get smaller?", because she was used to seeing airplanes take off and get smaller and smaller as they fly away.
Charlotte demonstrates crazy kid logic all the time. For example, she cannot fathom a time when she didn't exist. One day, she asked me about our old car, a 2003 Hyundai Elantra. We bought a new Camry a few months ago to replace the Hyundai because we needed a little more room and some creature comforts like remote locking (it made me increasingly uneasy to tell Charlotte to stand still while I run around to the other side of the car to unlock it, put Phoebe in her car seat, etc.). She asked me: "How old was I when you got your silver car?" Now, I got that car when Chris and I had just started dating, 9 and 1/2 years ago. I explained: "You weren't born yet." Charlotte thought about it, and said: "So I was in your tummy?" and I had to try and tell her, "No you weren't around yet." But she just couldn't get it and wouldn't let it rest, so I kind of left it at "Yes, you were in my tummy."
Yesterday's example of kid logic, however, made me snort.
I'm still nursing Phoebe in the morning and at night. I've never been shy about doing it in plain view of Charlotte, and she's never really cared or taken much notice. In the beginning, Charlotte would say that I was feeding her from my "tummy," and not wanting to get in an anatomy lesson with her, I quickly agreed. Well, since then she's learned the appropriate names for everything, but not the appropriate amount of, erm, discretion.
While we were eating dinner last night, Charlotte asked for some milk. She drank a little and then proceeded to demonstrate, by lifting up her shirt and pointing, how she believes that one you drink [cow's] milk it turns into milk that babies can drink. Chris burst out laughing, shaking his head in disbelief. Charlotte, seeing she had a captive audience, showed us a few more times to ensure that we really understood what she was saying. But yes, to a kid who knows milk only as what she drinks in a cup, it makes perfect sense that I would drink milk (despite the fact that I never just drink milk) and it would come out of my body.
This girl - she never ceases to crack us up (photo by our friends Angela and Brian).
*I apologize in advance for totally embarrassing Charlotte with this story 15 years from now.
Charlotte demonstrates crazy kid logic all the time. For example, she cannot fathom a time when she didn't exist. One day, she asked me about our old car, a 2003 Hyundai Elantra. We bought a new Camry a few months ago to replace the Hyundai because we needed a little more room and some creature comforts like remote locking (it made me increasingly uneasy to tell Charlotte to stand still while I run around to the other side of the car to unlock it, put Phoebe in her car seat, etc.). She asked me: "How old was I when you got your silver car?" Now, I got that car when Chris and I had just started dating, 9 and 1/2 years ago. I explained: "You weren't born yet." Charlotte thought about it, and said: "So I was in your tummy?" and I had to try and tell her, "No you weren't around yet." But she just couldn't get it and wouldn't let it rest, so I kind of left it at "Yes, you were in my tummy."
Yesterday's example of kid logic, however, made me snort.
I'm still nursing Phoebe in the morning and at night. I've never been shy about doing it in plain view of Charlotte, and she's never really cared or taken much notice. In the beginning, Charlotte would say that I was feeding her from my "tummy," and not wanting to get in an anatomy lesson with her, I quickly agreed. Well, since then she's learned the appropriate names for everything, but not the appropriate amount of, erm, discretion.
While we were eating dinner last night, Charlotte asked for some milk. She drank a little and then proceeded to demonstrate, by lifting up her shirt and pointing, how she believes that one you drink [cow's] milk it turns into milk that babies can drink. Chris burst out laughing, shaking his head in disbelief. Charlotte, seeing she had a captive audience, showed us a few more times to ensure that we really understood what she was saying. But yes, to a kid who knows milk only as what she drinks in a cup, it makes perfect sense that I would drink milk (despite the fact that I never just drink milk) and it would come out of my body.
*I apologize in advance for totally embarrassing Charlotte with this story 15 years from now.
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