23 August 2009

no one likes a boaster


Gonna start on a positive note - this is what I saw when I came out of the shower this morning - father and son indeed.

Noooow, next time you see me getting all cocky about how happy I am like that last post, kick me swiftly. Otherwise the universe will get me. It got me good yesterday by making Ben scream, cry, sob & wail most of yesterday with the shortest naps and very little eating all day. I'm taking him to the doctor tomorrow but most likely it's what the doctors call "normal baby behavior" and I call "what the hell has possessed this child." Oh well. He is fine this morning but he was also fine yesterday morning - I'm not holding my breath for an easy one today but at least we'll get our rocking chair today so we can curl up in that and rock our troubles away (if he allows me to sit down, which he often doesn't when he's upset).

Already trimmed boy's nails today - he rubs his face in his sleep and when he eats so he woke up this morning looking like he had a smack fight with an angry cat. Between all the scratches and the constant crying, someone is bound to call Child Services on me. Yikes.

Okay, someone is officially sick of his little rocking swing thing. Gotta run.

22 August 2009

hope & validation

This morning I danced to Bernard Fanning with my Aussie baby falling to sleep in my arms and a lemon lime & bitters in my hand, watching the sun on the waves outside my window. Never thought I would be at home here but I guess "home" follows you wherever you go because my life has never felt so full.

Don't tell my mom.

May we not grow weary

Lordy lordy, look who's 40. Or at least look who feels like she's aged 10 years in a couple of days. It's me. Ben is having some nursing issues - after feeding for a couple of minutes, he'll pull off and scream/cry like Freddy Krueger is winking at him from my chest. Then he won't go back on and he won't even get into a nursing position without crying. Sometimes I can fake him out by trying a different side or a different position but most of the time it just turns into d-r-a-m-a and I have to walk him around the apartment, narrating everything we see, which calms him down every time. I'm the David Attenborough of our apartment. Most of the time I handle his flipping out very well - I tend to keep my sense of humor through it and just talk to him and take it all with a grain of salt. Today I chose to cry instead but I'm recovering and have instead turned to the lovely Josh Pyke to bring calm to our home.

That section is in italics because it was the pre-meltdown paragraph but we've recovered. Danced slowly with Ben to Josh Pyke's Chimnies Afire album and he chilled out enough to feed while we danced and now is asleep across my lap. Thank you, Mr. Pyke. This is the first time I've played this one since having Ben - it came out right around the beginning of my pregnancy and I listened to it constantly so when I turned it on a few weeks ago nausea hit me immediately!! It's like my body remembered what it was up to last time I was in Chimnies Afire mode. Weird but I'm pushing through because I need my "douchebag with a guitar" romantic groovy music. Family Guy gave me that term and I use it affectionately and respectively, of course. Remind me to post a picture from when I followed Josh Pyke around a party but never worked up the nerve to talk to him - another priceless Ashley experience.

Anyhoo, now that my music infomercial is over (seriously, check the boy out), back to the baby. So walking, talking, dancing work and sometimes I make up silly songs for him so I guess that makes me the Weird Al of our apartment as well. While he does have his daytime/evening freakouts we have been lucky in one area SO FAR -- if I say "so far" I can't jinx myself, right? -- is nighty night time. He falls asleep anywhere from 6.30 to 8.30pm then sleeps until 3.30am for a quick snack where neither of us are fully awake and he just feeds while we're laying down, then right back to sleep. Then he wakes around 5 or 5.30am to go through his gassy routine and I change his diaper and we laugh & giggle & coo, then he goes back to sleep for another hour or two. Bless the boy. He sleeps with us, which is not frowned upon here (if you want to discuss this with me I'm a keen advocate of this co-sleeping business), so I wake up a few times just enough to make sure everyone's in a safe place and I usually don't sleep again after 5.30 or 6am but I'm a happy reasonably well-rested mama ... SO FAR. Anything could change at anytime.

Another major development today - we finally bought a rocker. Not the old-fashioned wooden ones like I thought about and not those hokey looking gliders but a big puffy rocker/recliner. It's a-m-a-z-i-n-g. Seriously, it feels like a cloud and a marshmallow fell madly in love and produced this chair. It looks just as comfy - the salesguy worded it right when he said it looked like the bottom of a cat's paw - I'll post a picture when it's delivered on Monday. We will ignore the fact that we have to rearrange the nursery to fit the Catnapper in and will just focus on the awesomeness of it. Marcel attempted to talk me into a handsome La-Z-Boy but I stood firm (which is rare - I'm easily persuaded). I feel like this chair will change our lives, it's THAT comfy. Ben actually fell asleep while we were just testing it out!

Okay, I could ramble on about other things but I think I need to get my some socks because his tootsies feel cold. Have a fabulous day in your corner of the world.

18 August 2009

Wowza and Yowza

I'm not going to attempt to go back and cover all the ground since the last time I wrote one of these updates because too much has happened. I had a baby but you probably already know that and chances are you know every painful detail anyway about the birth, first weeks, etc. so I'll just hit the ground running right where we are now. Grouchy baby that is way overtired and refuses to go to sleep.

Turns out I'm a bit of a hippy mom, which I never thought possible. Ben sleeps with us and I keep him on me at basically all times but I still refuse to call it attachment parenting because I do use a stroller when the boy is willing to stay in it and I just hate giving a title to anything I do. Anyhoo, recently Ben hasn't been getting enough sleep during the day and he is currently in the stage of overtiredness. He is jerky, fidgety and a bit manic. I'm worried that because most of his naps take place on me that he's picking up on my wakeful/wanting to take a shower vibes and not sleeping as long as he should. So yesterday I finally put his butt in his bassinet and he put himself directly to sleep like an angel. 10 minutes later I knocked something over and he woke up crankier than ever. Today he's not putting himself to sleep, he's just fussing and kicking and probably calling me whatever terrible names that baby call their mothers behind our backs. Please sleep child.

He's a fantastic baby - the past week or two is the first of him actually crying regularly. He has a lot of gas and painful poop issues that wake him up in a terrible way apparently. And he's discovered that he can whine with his cry as well and that's just a joy for us all, let me tell you. Two instant solutions for him are walking him around (but the second you stop or dare to put him down, the crying starts back immediately) or changing his diaper. He doesn't seem to actually care that there's stuff in his diaper but he loves getting it changed - I'm convinced he enjoys the one on one time that you have to give him.

And just a quick note that I keep using the American words for things like diaper (nappy), stroller (pram) and pacifier (dummy)(not that Ben is willing to try one). I feel like a jackass using the Australian version, like a bit of try-hard. And the word pacifier is so darn formal it's hilarious and in the case of nappy, it has a totally different meaning in America that I'm not 100% comfortable throwing around. So that's that.

Wish my first post back was more exciting but I'm off to rescue Benjamin from what could be a nice peaceful sleep if he would just let it happen.