divaquest

Much Ado

Conversation with friend about how Savanna is with her baby sister...

Me:  She gets jealous but hasn't tried to hit her yet.

Her:  She might.  She'll fake you out with "I'm hugging the baby mamma" Then "Bam!" bap her on the head!

Problem is - I can TOTALLY see Savanna doing that!

Thanks Bisous for that link!  I think I'll buy that!

I didn't even realize it was Friday. I thought it was Wednesday.  When I saw the date on the cable TV I SERIOUSLY thought they made a mistake, still thought it was a mistake when the weather reporter reported on Friday's weather.  I thought "well, what happened to the other days?"  I had to come to the internets to prove to myself that it was, in fact, FRIDAY.  Shit, time flies.  I am 2 days behind, and not sure I'm ready for another weekend with Savanna AND the newborn - takes alot out of you - it is kinda like running a daily marathon, you can get that tired, worn out, exhausted.  I need 10 days between weekends I think, but I find myself missing time with Savanna.  She is just so cute, but such a handful and strong-headed.

And for those of you with Toddlers, Leap Frog has a video about learning the alphabet - it's a GREAT video that teaches the letters and sounds.  It goes like this... "The A says 'ah', the A says 'ah'" (something else that I forgot) - and offers an object to show for the letter A, then goes through the whole alphabet that way in cartoons.  Savanna LOVES it.  She can sing, dance, and learn - now that is a perfect video.

I also offer up Kidsongs videos.  They are not so much about learning, but show real kids dancing and singing, as opposed to cartoon characters, which I think is good - Savanna loves this too and will dance along with them, trying to immitate the hand gestures and attempt to sing, making up her own language.  Gives you time to get something done, plus watching her is very cute.

Speaking of her own language, you'll hear "mmm ba ga ba mm ma ga book" or "ga ba aah bye bye".  She's also saying "mmmmmooommmmmyyyyyyy", which gets me straight in the heart!

Sisters

Good-ness

I had the baby by myself for the first time yesterday, husband went back to work.  The day was EASY - fingers crossed it stays this way.  In fact, I laid down with the baby from 12 to 3 - ha!  Blissful!

I felt ambitious enough to go get Savanna early from daycare, WITH THE BABY in tow.  I thought Savanna would walk to the car, but NO, she wanted me to hold her... so losing weight should be easy carrying a 9 lb baby filled car-seat with one arm, and a 25 lb toddler in the other while maintaining balance.  Savanna was very grumpy and I was thinking I had made a HUGE mistake but she went to sleep as soon as she got home.  The only scary part was hearing the baby start to wake up and cry just as Savanna was falling asleep.  The prayer went like this: "just 5 more minutes, God - please just keep the baby quiet for 5 more minutes until Savanna falls soundly asleep."  If Savanna hears the baby crying she sits up in the bed with big bright eyes, points and goes "ah, ah, ah".  She then wants to go take care of her baby sister.  Alas, God was with me, they were both asleep at the same time, my husband and I cherish those moments - now that is PRICELESS.

Last night we had a puke and pee accident, but we recovered - you get used to covering up pee and puke with towels and going back to sleep. 

Right now the baby is IN HER CRIB asleep - yes, that is a biggie for me, Savanna never once slept in her crib.  So I'm taking this time to figure out meal plans and I realize how far out of touch I am with healthy meal planning.  I said to myself, "Go to Skwigg".  So I did that, and then Body for Life.  Whew, this is going to be different.  I've practically been pregnant for 2 years so eating "right" for weight loss hasn't been something I've had to think about at all - I'm not really even supposed to "diet" while breast feeding, but I can start eating better instead of that chocolate malt I had yesterday for a snack with Savanna. 

But now, it is weight loss/get muscle back time - the look good naked time, back to Divaquest mission.  I need to lose 10 lbs to be to my pre-preggars weight, and then I need to lose 8 more to be where I want to be.  That is 18 lbs, people.  I am only 5'3", and now I have this poochy belly to deal with.  All in all, my belly isn't bad - there isn't a single stretch mark and it is not that bulging considering I gave birth 3 weeks ago.  It looks like an average person's belly - an average person who doesn't EVER work out, but who isn't necessarily over weight, just TOTALLY out of shape, my dr. says to cut myself some slack, but slack gets you into trouble.  I tell myself the reality is that I have been pregnant for awhile, so naturally I've lost muscle tone and body confidence.  But I'm kinda proud that I didn't blow up like a baboon, still, I am certainly squishy and have TONS of work to do, like more work than I've ever had to do.  Oh, and the boobs - very squishy.  They will never recover I'm afraid.  Oh well.  Time for the push-up bras, butterflies and bench presses. Could be worse, right?

Ok, my "me" time is up - Amber Addison is telling me so.  Next adventure = grocery store with 3 week old. 

Thanks!

Thank you to those whose posted comments about the harness!  I love the Walmart harness idea - will have to find that! Where in the store is it?

In other news.  I forgot to blog about my vaccination reaction - check this out.  In the hospital they told me that we all needed a pertussis vaccination - whooping cough.  So I got one.  No biggie.  This was on Saturday.  Sunday, my mom said "what is WRONG WITH YOUR ARM?"  The shot spot was bright glowing red, hugely swollen, itchy and sore.  Of course, it wasn't half of those things until my mom pointed it out.  It did get worse throughout the day, but the info sheet said swollen and red at injection site can be normal.  The spot was also hot, very hot and got bigger, like the size of a coaster.  We decided that this was not normal.  It hurt to even barely touch it.

On Monday, we took Amber to her first pediatrician appt., so I showed him my arm.  Both he and his resident said "No way, that is not normal.  Go to your family physician ASAP."  He couldn't treat me because he is a pediatrician.

So immediately after leaving Amber's dr. appt, I had to get into my family doctor ASAP.  Keep in mind, my milk is coming in so this means my boobs feel like they are going to explode and they are as big as flotation devices.  I am also only 3 days postpartum - so the other parts of me are very sore, on top of my arm being really swollen, red, feverish and sore.  Hence... not in a good mood.  Attempting to half jog into the dr.'s office to be on time does not work well for me, so I give up and decide "I'll get there when I fucking get there."

I rush to the family dr. When she sees the spot she takes two steps backwards and shakes her head.  Nope, that is NOT NORMAL.  She says "so, only 3 days postpartum?"  She felt my pain.  That's why I love women doctors - they actually know what a woman goes through.  A pretty bad reaction - one of the worst she's seen, and possibly a staph infection too.  Can you fucking believe that?  I have a baby - natural labor, all that goes fine - the problem is a damn infection and reaction from a VACCINATION!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Anyway, she puts me on strong antibiotics that, by the way, can cause breast milk jaundice - AND, I could always have a permanent knot on my arm.  Yay, fucking yay.  I had to go back in 2 days, and then a 3rd time.  And even with all of that, I haven't had crying spells like I did with my first pregnancy.  I wonder if it is safe to say that I'm not going to have postpartum crying craziness this time????

That was 2 weeks ago.  The damn injection site bothered me worse than the stitches in my tutu.  And there is still a small red spot, and it is still swollen some, the skin is all dry and scaly too.   So now my husband won't even get the vaccination, and I am banned from ever getting it again per my doctor.  So weird...  I'm not the "reaction-y" type.  I'm not allergic to anything other than Austin.

Babies are doing well.  This morning Savanna helped give her sister a bottle, and she did very well with it, she didn't try to shove it down her throat although she did seem to think that holding her head tightly in place would help with the sucking of the bottle...

Good, good, good

Check it.  BOTH babies are sleeping right now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Do you hear that?  It's SILENCE!  No, it's the turning of pages from a magazine, it's the typing of keys on the computer - it's mommy & daddy time!

Things are going very well - knock on wood.  Amber is an easy baby - she sleeps and eats, hardly ever cries.  She can sleep for 4 hours straight sometimes, which is great for me.  I haven't gotten 4 hours of sleep in a row in months.  I even got 5 hours the other night.  It was blissful.  Amazing.  I couldn't believe it.

Savanna keeps wanting to hug and kiss her. She is being more gentle, but she also has a cold or something, which scares the hell out of me.  You don't want your newborn getting sick.  It terrifies me.  The pediatrician said "keep them away from each other."  Ha.  You try that.  And besides, I don't want Savanna to feel like she can't even look at her sister.  I just don't think that would be good.

I'm thinking about getting a toddler harness.  Yes, a leash.  Oh, oh - it is very controversial.  But listen, my kid is a runner - a curious kid who doesn't like to hold hands - doesn't like confinement.  She wants to be down helping put stuff in the grocery cart, she wants to touch this and that.  You go after her, and she thinks you are playing chase.  It makes for a miserable trip if you try to make her stay in the cart.  I'd rather use a toddler harness than have her run off where I cannot see her.  Yes - she is that fast, and yes, she is that difficult to contain. Leave her in the cart you say?  Um, yeh... she'll twist & squirm right out of that onto her head.  She is difficult on outings these days.  So the choices are:

1) never go anywhere with her

2) have her run off to a stranger's kidnapping arms

3) get the toddler harness

Yes, when she is older, I will push the "stay right her, hold my hand" theories, but that simply does not work at this point.  Lord, if I feel like justifying this on my blog, I can only imagine how I'll feel if I get stares about having my kid on a leash.  It's still up for discussion in our house.  Apparently she does better for her daddy than she does for me.  Last week I took her out, she wouldn't follow me around the freezer, I had my eye on her the whole time, but some woman thought that she was a wondering toddler so I felt like a bad mom.  What to do... what to do...

I guess it is about time for me to start thinking about a nutrition/weight loss plan.  Today, I need to lose about 13 lbs to be back where I was, and then I'd like to lose another 8.  So, 21 lbs.  And whew, I've got lots of muscle to gain back.  I'm not going to start anything for another couple of weeks or so, but I do feel ready to exercise, but I'm not supposed to for 6 weeks.