Monday, October 31, 2005

Sickies

Last night Jonathan made up for the disappointment of DST. He is a little bit sick, and evidently decided to sleep it off. Yesterday he went down for a nap at 4pm, like usual. But instead of waking up at 4:45 or so, he slept until 6:30pm, at which point I woke the poor protesting child up. I kept him up until 8pm, then he went down for the night and slept until 4pm, when Gabe woke him up to make sure he was ok and feed him (since it had been nine hours since his last feeding!) And then he went back to sleep at 6am and slept until 8am.

The wonderful thing about this is that it has given his sick mommy time to recover, too!

Daylight Savings Time

I used to really look forward to the end of Daylight Savings Time in the fall. It meant an extra hour of sleep - or sometimes an extra hour of studying - but it was always a nice change that made the night feel so much longer. So I was waiting for the great day this year with my normal anticipation. An extra hour of sleep - Joy!

Somehow, it wasn't such a great occasion. See, babies don't pay any attention to DST. So Jonathan, who usually wakes up at about 5am or so, woke up right on schedule. And the fact that the clock said it was 4am just didn't add much to the morning. :)

Wednesday, October 26, 2005

Jelly legs

I went for a walk today. It was a nice idea. Exercise, you know. Lose those last irritating 8 pounds. But it turned out to be a 2.5 hour walk. This was not the best idea I've ever had.

The trouble with me and walking is that I find sane 45 minute walks around the neighborhood to be unbelievably boring. So, in the search for exercise I decide to go for a walk that will MATTER. A walk with a PURPOSE. A walk to a store that has to be 3+ miles away.

Costco is pretty cool. I think we might switch our membership there. But I think that next time I go, I'll drive.

Tuesday, October 25, 2005

Sleep - or the lack thereof

This morning's conversation (at 5:45am)

Emily: "Honey, I must have a huge sleep debt. Last night I got lots of sleep and I still feel exhausted!"

Gabe: "You only got seven hours minus interruptions. "

Oh.

Maybe that's why I'm exhausted. When a GOOD night is seven hours and two nursings, you know your perspective has changed. Unfortunately, I don't think my body has changed!

Prayer would be appreciated, friends. I'm functioning, and I suppose on the outside look pretty together...but I don't feel very together.

Thursday, October 13, 2005

You know you're really tired

when you're singing a lullaby to your baby…and then wake up.

Yes, friends, it can be done – I actually sang myself to sleep.

Excitement

Jonathan expresses excitement by waving his arms violently up and down. It's simultaneously very cute and very funny.

Wednesday, October 12, 2005

Smiles

Jonathan has this darling trick of playing happily with his toys, and then when I call his name he'll look up at me with an inquiring look that slowly blossoms into an open-mouthed grin.

It make me wish I had a video camera. Of course, I doubt the camera would inspire said grins. Oh well. It's one of those things that I'm trying really hard to file away in my "never forget" memory banks.

Musical genius

Well, that's the way I see it, anyway. :)

Our little musician continues to amaze me. I put on Les Miserables this morning, and Jonathan is absolutely fascinated. He’s sitting staring at the cd player, occasionally grinning and breathing fast and waving his arms (which all means “I’m really excited!”) We’re already to Jean Valjean being the mayor and the introduction of Fantine, and he’s showing no signs of being bored. He has toys in front of him, within easy reach, but so far he’s completely ignoring them. The music is so much more interesting!

In fact, now that I'm actually posting, he's still happily listening, and we just got to the "If I speak, I am condemned; if I stay silent..." part. Wow!

Monday, October 10, 2005

More on music

Sarah tagged me with this one, and it's rather appropriate given my last post!

Instructions: List five songs that you are currently enjoying. It doesn't matter what genre they are from, whether they have words, or even if they're any good, but they must be songs you're really enjoying right now.

Post these instructions, the artist and the song in your blog along with your five songs. Then tag five other people to see what they're listening to.

So, without further ado, here are five of the bits of music that Jonathan and I have been enjoying lately:

1) Jane Eyre, the musical - all of it. It's one of the only cds that I can listen to multiple times a day for a week and still not be tired of it. That's what we were listening to when I took the previous picture of Jonathan.

2) Summertime by Lonestar (yes, I admit, it's country - but it's such good country!)

3) The Marvelous Toy and I Have A Song to Sing, O! by Peter, Paul, and Mommy (Mary)

4) Mr. Pinstripe Suit by Big Bad Voodoo Daddy

5) Souvenir de Florence, Op. 70 by Tchaikovsky

I'd like to know what Jessica, Amber, Elena, Libby, and Jennifer are enjoying!

Saturday, October 08, 2005

Personality and playing

In the past week or so, Jonathan has suddenly developed this amazingly fun and individual personality. And it has absolutely revolutionized my days at home with him. Instead of just taking care of a baby, now I'm interacting and playing with this little person! He really plays! There are games he likes and games he doesn't like. (He makes his preferences known pretty clearly, too.) He responds differently to my differing moods: returns cuddles (when he's tired) when I cuddle him, giggles when I tickle him, laughs when I toss him up in the air, smiles when we read books or play with toys. He's an amazingly happy child, and I am truly enjoying playing with a tiny person rather than just caring for one.

Six months old

Today is Jonathan's half-birthday. We didn't really do anything special - just said "yay, you're six months old!" and left it at that. I suppose that's ok, since he really doesn't know or care that today was any different than yesterday.

According to pediatricians and "how to raise happy, healthy, successful children" books, you're supposed to start babies on solid foods between 4 and 6 months. Since he's six months old now, I suppose that means that I oughtn't to put it off any longer. Only, I don't really want to start him on solids. And it's not just feeling ambivalent...I have a rather strong dislike for the idea. This is weird.

After all, I'm excited and pleased whenever he reaches fun milestones like sitting up or smiling or holding onto things with his hands...so why not be excited about being old enough for solids?

I think that my dislike stems from two things. One is that I really like nursing. In fact, I would really prefer that he nursed more than he does, rather than less. When he rejects nursing, as he has done more often lately, it makes me cry. And I'm afraid that by introducing solids he will not only reduce how much he's nursing, but decide to stop entirely. I'm definitely not ready for that.

The second is that I feel this incredible weight of incompetance every time I try to think about feeding him solids. The mental conversation with myself runs something like this:

"Jonathan is six months old, and he should be starting solids."
"Do I have to?"
"Everyone says you should."
"Well...ok...but what should he start with?"
"Rice cereal is standard and you already bought it."
"But how much? When? How often? What if he skips nursing? What if he stops entirely? What if he wants to nurse occasionally but my milk dries up?"
"Emily, it's just rice cereal. Try it once a day."
"But if I give him cereal, then in a few days I have to give him carrots, or peas, or bananas, or or or. How do I know how much to give him? What if I forget what I gave him yesterday and he ends up with a completely unbalanced diet? What if he develops some bizarre allergy to everything? What if he decides he likes bananas more than milk and stops nursing?"

At about this point I give up and go nurse him because it makes me feel better.

I have a feeling that this is a little bit dysfunctional. So I actually am making the attempt to start giving him rice cereal once a day. Maybe someday soon I'll get brave and give him bananas too.