Rainy Thursday

I believe I am going to come out of my maternity leave a smarter person.
I say this as the lack of quality programming on daytime TV has led me down a viewing path to the Discovery, History and National Geographic channels. Hell, I even watched some Iowa Public Television.
Now, I know there is a small section of you that are thinking, TV? Shouldn't you be doing stimulating, yet developmentally relevant things with your kid?
Sure, if you know what those are that don't include feeding him, changing him, napping with him and talking to him, just let me know.
And I am only talking to him in one language, so please don't suggest I take up another one to teach him right now.
So - its either those channels and all the learning I can do, or countless re-runs of Law & Order.
This also means that I am totally behind on anything related to current events, music, movies, books -- you get the idea. If it is an adult topic that doesn't include the pros and cons of Pampers vs. Huggies, then I got nuthin'.
I now understand why we thought our parents were so not relevant growing up. They didn't have time to keep up. Not for lack of wanting to, but sleep deprivation, keeping a house in running (notice I did not say clean or organized) order, and managing to take a shower every other day keeps me from spending too much time reading the paper.
I cringe to think what is going to happen when I tack a full time job back on to that heap.
I think that is the double-helix-upsidedown-loop-de-loop portion of the rollercoaster we call life.
Can't wait.

And breathe....

Moving on, Finn is doing awesome. Although, he has gotten into the habit of getting sorta fussy (read: pissy) at night. And doesn't do so well at 3 AM when it comes to going back to sleep after being fed, but for the most part -- good kid.
We had our one month check-up Tuesday.
The stats for those that care:
Weight: 10 lbs 5 oz (50th percentile for weight)
Length: 22 inches (75th percentile for height)
Which according to the doctor tracks him at 6' by adulthood. That Joe or I could make a tall kid is somewhat amazing. That he is not a super-chunk of a kid is equally amazing. I always thought we would make a short, round kid. We shall see what the future holds.
New pictures are posted, check the Flickr site for updates.
Ok - the little leprechaun is getting fussy. And as the only mom-cow in residence, that means that I am needed.

Now Watching: Operation Valkyrie: The Plot to Assassinate Hitler on History Channel -- see, I told you.

The new normal

So I promised to get better about posting while on leave. Seems I don't have as much to comment on as I am spending most of my days at home, talking to myself or a 3 week old that doesn't respond and thus, don't have much interaction with others to make snarky, bitchy, off-hand comments about.
Don't take this as a sign of going soft. Far from it -- motherhood hasn't robbed me entirely of my need to provide smart-ass color commentary on the world around me. Its just the fodder here at the house is pretty limited.
So how have I been filling my hours you ask?
Well lets see --
It goes a little something like this:
Get woken up by baby at roughly 6 AM -- feed baby.
Change baby diaper or hand off to Joe to do the deed.
Go back to sleep.
Wake up at roughly 8 AM when baby starts crying again
Feed baby.
Change diaper and outfit.
Move downstairs.
Try and get a few things done around the house while baby is sleeping.
Feed baby.
Change baby.
Change baby again as he really likes to wait and crap his pants only AFTER I have a clean diaper on him.
Stare at baby for a little bit.
Feed baby
Change baby
Maybe get a shower in....

You picking up on a theme here??
Now, don't get me wrong. He is awesome, and I love the living hell out of him, but when they say that you will be feeding a kid a lot, they are not lying.
I am a mom-cow.
Yep - one big feeding frenzy at my house these days. And not because Joe has decided to start cooking like a mad-man.

In other news we had our first family pictures/Finn's newborn pictures done yesterday. Paige Peterson did them -- same woman that did our maternity pictures (link to her site is on the left). She actually came to the house and took them -- which was a good thing. I have been telling everyone that Finn is a good baby, which he is. However, yesterday he decided to be a pain in the rear right at the same time that we were supposed to be smiling for the camera. But we made it through - Paige was a trooper and hung with us while we got his highness calmed down enough between pics. I am pretty excited to see the proofs. Should be 7-10 days.
Aside from that, nothing new to report.

Now Watching: Sesame Street - it seemed like a better background option for Finn, than say, Law & Order. However, I was bummed when I realized I only recognized two characters right away. I am old.

Good-bye Good Friend

Yesterday sucked.

Not post-partum. Not overwhelmed with my new responsibilities. Not hormones.

Nope, we had a shit day at the casa.

We had to put Bailey down yesterday.

This is Bailey.

He has been around for over 10 years. Through moves, new jobs, relationships -- he never complained. Ok -- maybe he did. I did take to calling him my "cranky old-man". And he was. But he was my cranky old man and I loved him. He was "my" first pet. We had animals at my parents house, but those were not mine.

The bottom line was he was getting old, somewhere between 13 - 15 years old. Had lost a bunch of weight -- which doesn't fly in the feline world at my house. All my cats are large -- 12lbs plus each. He was the big guy at 17 lbs when he was in good health.

And yesterday it was obvious that we had reached the end. So I did what I could to keep him comfortable. And Joe had to take him to the vet. I just couldn't do it. With the hormones on overload, the situation was just a little too much for me to handle.

So I said good bye to him and take solace that he isn't getting any worse.

He will be missed.

The good, the bad and the sleepless.

I am still here. Just been slightly distracted the last 10 days or so....
I feel like I should have SO much to report on to everyone. So lets start in no particular order

Hormones. Those whirling dervishes of goodness that were the bain of my existence during pregnancy are wielding their considerable power again. This time in the form of extreme emotional outbursts. Today it was those stupid ASPCA commericals with the sappy Sarah McLachlan song that goes with them. And they aren't stupid really. Its a great cause, but I was about to go over the edge this morning.

C-Sections. There was a number of reasons I wanted to avoid one. First of all, I have never had surgery. The closest I have gotten was getting my wisdom teeth extracted when I was a freshman in college. So, the unknown factor was kinda freaky in my mind. And then there is recovery. So you can't drive for 2 weeks following surgery -- which I broke the rules and drove yesterday a whole two days ahead of schedule. It was a 10 minute errand to the bank that would have taken 30 if we would have bundled Finn up and so on. Stairs are less of a bitch than they were a week ago -- but still can kick you in the ass. And I can't lift anything heavier than Finn for the next 4 weeks. Do the math, 9.5 lbs is not that much. I mean, I can't even lift a 12 pack of soda. Oh, and I now have a scar across my pelvis that I am not sure what it will look like when its all said and done. Not that my pelvis gets a lot of visibility, but still.
However, the reasons for it were legit -- the kids head was 13 cm in diameter and his torso was 14.
As a friendly reminder, the cervix only goes to about 10 cm. That means he had an extra 3-4 cms of baby to squeeze through. In my mind, that math doesn't add up.
And pants. Don't get me wrong, I have zero expectations around regaining my figure this quickly. I am not that naive. So wearing maternity pants a little longer isn't a big deal. However, with a incision right across your pelvis, it eliminates a good portion of the pants that I was wearing. So, I am down to like 2 pairs of pants to wear. And they were not the favorites when I was pregnant. Although I am not really leaving the house, so not sure why I would be so concerned about how I look.

Sleep. Everyone says that you should get used to not sleeping. Telling you that and the reality of it are two totally different things. Its funny, Joe and I used to be up to 0'dark thirty on a regular basis. Now we both will fall asleep on the couch at like 11. Of course, when we stayed up till all hours of the night, we would sleep in till noon or something insane like that. Those days are long gone, to say the least.

Cabin Fever. I have now been in this house for 2 weeks with very little outside entertainment. And by entertainment, I mean just leaving the house. The grocery store was a big deal on Thursday, just because I got out of the house. Not to mention that I miss my friends. Not that Joe hasn't been great -- he has. And we got a Wii -- so that has helped pass the time. I rock at bowling, which is very ironic given my checkered actual bowling past. And I need to work on my Iron Chef skills. Yes, there is an Iron Chef Wii game -- it was the first one that Joe bought.
But I need some girl time here pretty quickly.

My house. Since I am limited on what I can and can't do, the clutter factor has gotten pretty high pretty quickly. And baby stuff has taken over. Everyone told us this would happen and to just find a way to get over it. Most days I do, but every now and then, it does drive me loco and I have to de-clutter a little bit. Which lasts all of about 20 minutes, but it helps.

And on the good -- make that amazing - side, there is Finn.
I can stare at him for hours on end. He is a really good baby. Has a mini-meltdown about once a day, normally in the evening, but aside from that, awesome. He makes us laugh with his insane faces while he sleeps. The crazy positions that somehow he seems comfortable in. And of course, all the little noises. Its cliche, but after two weeks I cannot imagine my life without him in it.

I promise to get back on the blogging wagon with a little more regularity here in the upcoming days, weeks etc. We are still working on schedules and such. And by working on schedules, I mean that one day its feeding every hour, the next its every 3 -- so we don't really have a schedule.

Now Watching: Joe play Tiger Woods Golf on the Wii.