Stories for C

Entertaining my daughter has become my favorite past time. She listens intently to my stories with rapture. It makes me feel very interesting.

I tell her that she is Princess Caroline, daughter to Queen Momma and the King of Reis Ave. I explain to her that the King and Queen wanted her so badly, but had to wait years for the beautiful princess to be born. I tell her how special she is.

I also must tell her about her adopted siblings and the kingdoms from which they hail.

Prince Franklin used to reign over the kingdom of waterfalls. The waterfalls all dried up so Queen Momma and the King of Reis Ave adopted him. As you know, he loves to drink water. His favorite is drips from the sink. This is because he misses his kingdom and the plentiful free flowing fresh water, so we comfort him with drips. We try not to get mad when he knocks over all the water glasses...

Princess Sammy is from the land of Sunshine. In her native land, the sun always shines bright and the breeze is cool. Princess Sammy can usually be found laying in the sunshine, reminiscing about her home. She also likes to chase the reflection of her collar from the sun. She is always chasing the sunshine.

Then there are other characters that Miss C has come to know, like Jazzy Jay. Jazzy Jay is not the best influence, but he sure is entertaining. He is a lion that entertains princess Caroline before bed. His bad habits have left him with a raspy voice (too many cigarettes) and songs/stories about late nights in the club. He doesn't come around during the day because he's always too hungover. He told Caroline just last night that he drinks the Jack and smokes the crack!! Like I said, not a good influence, but she sure likes his stories. We might have to get him into rehab.

I have to remind the King of everyone's backstory on occasion - his memory isn't as good as the Queen Momma.

Do you have any interesting characters at your house that I should tell Caroline about?

Happiness

So I'm totally loving life right now. Every day I get the joy of being reunited with my smiling baby girl. Every day I have something to look forward to. I'm on a baby high right now. It MIGHT have something to do with the fact that she slept through the night till 6 AM last night! Or maybe this is just how great life is right now.

Maybe the craziness of going back to work and introducing the whole family to a new routine while rehabilitating an injured pet was so intense that I'm uber appreciative of status quo.

No matter what it is, I like it.

Some pictures from this weekend courtesy of Grandpa (padre)

Poor Poor Puppy

As if going back to work and leaving my new baby girl behind isn't hard enough on it's own, Sammy threw a wrench into the mix. Last Sunday she was playing in the back yard and hurt herself. We don't know what she was doing but she came hopping up to Hubs, weight dispursed among three of her four limbs. The fourth hind limp was hanging limply at her side. Hubs and I checked her up and down for surface injuries. There were none.

We took her to the vet to discover that she tore her ACL and needed surgery to regain the use of her leg

Wait. Hold on a second. Let me repeat that for you

She tore her ACL and needed surgery

Why did I need to repeat that? Because it cost so much effing money that I have to write it twice.

Life throws you curve balls  I guess. So the past week has been sheer craziness with Hubs and I tag-teaming the baby car and dog recovery. With all of Sammy's meds and strict instructions to keep her calm (DO YOU KNOW MY DOG?) she required exponentially more attention than Caroline.

Things I've learned about Sammy during recovery
1. The vet must be crazy for suggesting SHE remain inactive for 6 weeks. See 4 and 5

2. She HATES the cone that she must wear to ensure she doesn't lick her stitches

3. If you can get her in the cone, she will only move forward. Because she won't back up, she sometimes ends up stuck in the corner of the room. see number 4

4. She is strong and determined sometimes requiring both me and hubs to hold her down, pick her up, administer meds. There have been times when we have our hands full of Sammy's resistance and Caroline decides to start crying. Where are the extra hands I ordered from Amazon?

5. She is set in her ways. Even though we moved her food up to the level where she is quarantined, she still attempts to runs downstairs  to check where her food used to be.

6. She hates being iced down - see number 4

7. Peanut Butter is a Godsend for getting Sammy to take the myriad of pills prescribed. Now she knows the sound of the peanut butter jar being opened.

Luckily she is done with one of the 6 meds she is on and the stitches come out on Sat. The bruising is already looking better. Our only concern now is keeping her calm so she heals properly and doesn't injure the OTHER LEG!

Back to work

I had to leave my little girl this morning and trudge into work for my first day back. I only cried a little. She is spending these first few days with Dad.

I get to work and find that my access to email and such is still disabled. All I have to do is attend meetings and pine for the snugglepuss. *Sigh*

So here is a pictorial of what she's been up to. In the past month she...
Still hasn't outgrown the cat


Celebrated her first holiday


Practiced making faces




And played with her cousin

Time Flies

Wow, I can't believe it's been over a month since I last posted. I guess you can say I'm enjoying getting to know my baby girl. She has grown SO MUCH in the past month and each week brings new developments. I think I finally caught my breath around 7 weeks. She started sleeping longer at night and we were developing a routine. Since then, we've been on the social circuit, visiting friends for lunch, parading her around the office and even another trip to Cincinnati to see friends and Quinn.

This week, Hubs and I actually had a night out and saw the Black Keys in concert. Aunt Biscuit came over to babysit. We had a great time, but I drank a little too much. Baby and hangover don't really mix.

Caroline is starting to engage with her toys. She stares at her ducky with an intensity that is a little scary. We've been able to coax a few smiles, but she makes us work for it. She'll smile with her eyes before the corners of her mouth turn up. I'm torn between wishing she'd grow faster and wanting her to stay a snugglepuss forever. We discussed putting her down for the night in her big girl bed (the crib, not the cradle) last night and it just made me too sad. We'll get too it in the next couple weeks, but Momma's not ready yet.

Yesterday was a particularly good day, the sun shinning on an abnormally warm day we walked the park and spent the day running errands. All the while, I was haunted by the impending doom that I will soon have to return to work. The thought of work isn't what bothers me. It's the fact that I won't have Caroline by my side! She will grow and change every day and I won't be there to see it. I know this is the same struggle every working mother goes through, but it's my first experience with the challenge.

I also know that life will get harder once I'm back at work. There will be less time to sleep and get things done and more organization needed to keep on top of everything. I'm sure it will be hard in the beginning but we'll get through it. I have to stop focusing on that and enjoy that it is 11 am and I'm sipping my coffee, blogging while my baby girl sleeps only a foot away.

Pictures to follow...

C's First Photo Shoot

While I don't have the best equipment (camera) appropriate for the  the baby girls first photo shoot, I decided to do my best with the point and shoot on hand. One of these days I really will purchase the SLR of my dreams. Luckily she's pretty enough on her own that I didn't have to be too creative.

These with the cute hat from Angela!

All wrapped up in the blanket I made for her

Transition to Motherhood

So I think I left off describing the labor and delivery. The next couple days in the hospital were so surreal. I was EXHAUSTED, battered and bruised as I boarded the emotional roller coaster named hormones. All I wanted to do was admire my new baby girl, consumed by every fold of plump skin, each strand of her fine hair and the sound of every cry. I was AMAZED. That obsession, however only fed my fatigue. I didn't want to sleep.


Everything I read, every trusted advisor all instructed emphatically, "SLEEP while you are in the hospital". Take advantage of the nurses and focus on healing. But I didn't WANT TO. I was living on 10 months of anticipation becoming a reality. Don't get me wrong, there were times that I DID get some sleep, but I was consumed with guilt each time the nurses wheeled her away to the nursery.

We had one nurse that was so awesome we wanted to take her home with us. She introduced herself as "the breast whisper" and she really was. With all I was feeling, I had to take on the next challenge of learning to breastfeed. With everything I observed from watching my sister and the aid of the skilled hand of the 'breast whisper, we didn't have any major challenges to overcome.

Poor Hubs could not sleep very well on the stiff hospital cot so the last night I told Hubs to go home and sleep. It took a lot of insisting, but he finally agreed. It was also New Years Eve, so before he left to get some shut-eye, he brought in some sparkling wine and we rang in 2012 as a trio.

Sunday, New Years Day, we were both discharged and ready to go home. As we put Caroline in the car seat, I burst into tears. I could do this in the safety of the hospital. Our world consisted of a small hospital room and I'd mastered that. Now we were getting into the car and going home. It felt like we were opening the door to all the "what if's" that had haunted me. It took some hugs from Hubs, who was eager to get home, stocking up on supplies and reassurance from the Breast Whisperer before I was brave enough to take the next big step in this journey.

We made it home and it was only a couple more hours before Bubby showed up. (Momma T is Bubby if I haven't mentioned that already).

I'm still a little embarrassed at how the fatigue and hormones coupled with the amazement and endorphins of meeting my new baby girl stripped me down to a scared, tearful shell of myself. Hubs stepped up to reassure me and give hugs at every turn, but it was Bubby's deft hand and confidence that kept me from literally falling apart. The first 24 hours were painful. Caroline cried for what felt like 24 hours straight while we tried every soothing method we could Google. She even became hoarse from all the screaming. My heart was breaking. She was hungry and my milk hadn't come in yet. Once it did, she calmed down. Too bad I was still on the hormone, fatigue ride of my life.

For those of you that haven't been through this yet, this is evidently what they call the baby blues. According to Doctors and the books it's normal-HA! About once a day I'd have a crying spell. Sure didn't feel normal when I was so happy to also be so full of tears. I was so conflicted by why I felt this way, especially when the easy cure was to pick up and snuggle my baby girl! But like all hormonal waves, it just took some time for them to balance (or burst through my tearducts like a broken damn).

I heard/read somewhere that the first month is more about the Mom than the newborn . Once I satisfy her desire to eat and sleep (on a two hour rotation) she doesn't need much. SO TRUE. It's me that has the most to learn as we transition into our roles.

Lesson one: I needed need to learn to get some sleep. Take care of myself so I can take care of her.

A million more lessons to go....