Apparently the usual locus of worry for parents of newborns is whether the baby is gaining enough weight. They track feeding times and diaper changes like the latest stock quotes, all in hopes of going to checkups and finding out that their child is fattening sufficiently.
The other day, after casting a critical eye on our roly-poly baby, Sydney dared to suggest that it might be possible to overfeed Katherine. After all my hard work keeping her fed! Coulda smacked him.
Erin
Although I still spend most of my days on the couch, yesterday I gained a whole new level of freedom (and things will only get better when I’m really up and about). I got a baby backpack. Or, more accurately, a front-pack. With a belt around my waist and straps on both shoulders, Katherine is snuggled in right against my stomach (where she promptly falls asleep). Which meant that yesterday I was free to take a walk with her, bake banana bread with her, and in general just be able to get up and move about my house. Incredible freedom. Just incredible.
And I had a mommy moment today. I ran into the store for a couple of groceries while Sydney waited in the car with Katherine, and as I filled up my basket and stood in line to pay I realized I was, ever so slightly, swinging the basket and swaying back and forth as I stood. I’m sure my yogurt container really appreciated being rocked to sleep!
Erin
Since Erin is still too busy gloating to type a post, let me just note that Katherine weighs 10 lbs and 8 ozs today. As in, she’s gaining 2 ozs per day, which apparently is twice the average rate. Anybody care to guess when she’ll reach 400 lbs?
. . . with how wonderful people are.
Since we came home from the hospital friends have been dropping by to bring us dinner three times a week. If you’re keeping track, we came home from the hospital three weeks ago! And I learned today that we have another week of food coming! The friend coordinating these drop-ins said she hasn’t been out recruiting; she’s been getting calls asking when we might want food. And as I walked out the door of a get-together today another friend slipped me a quart of black bean chili.
It’s not that Sydney and I can’t cook or provide for ourselves (he did, after all, just do a mega-grocery run so as not to leave me starving). But it’s wonderful that friends have ensured that we don’t have to cook, allowing us to focus on Katherine’s needs and rest and recovery. And there’s something about food: definitely a sign that we are loved and cared for. I feel very, very fortunate. Thank you, everyone!!!
Erin
If I stay up into the wee hours with you, you should feel loved. I don’t mean out and about, laughing and riding a people-high. I mean one-on-one time in those cold, dark, pre-dawn hours.
I certainly spent those hours with Sydney when we were dating, arguing about everything with our nth cups of tea between us, wondering how it got to be 4am when we hadn’t even resolved the fate of the world yet.
But in general, I’m a morning and day person. By 10pm I’m usually mentally wandering toward bed.
Which is why I’m surprised to find myself alert at 4am every day now, quietly cooing to someone that it’s a lovely morning and that the first birds have begun singing. Amazing, simply amazing to me.
Erin
Tomorrow afternoon I will drop Sydney off on campus so that he can catch a ride to a weekend conference on Augustine in Massachusetts. It will be quite a different world for him from the baby-filled schedule he’s been leading in recent weeks!
To make things easier for me while he’s gone, he picked up a ton of delicious, no-cook food at the grocery store today. Lots of fruit and veggies and other things I can eat with one hand! I also made a chicken salad with almonds and grapes this afternoon. And a friend is bringing over dinner tomorrow night (the latest in a regular supply of dinners from nice people at church). So it seems pretty clear that I’m not going to starve! Now, just wish me luck on staying upbeat with Miss Likes To Be Held At All Times.
Erin
Since keeping Katherine fed is currently an all-day, every day affair, Sydney and I thought we might have a bit of fun with this whole breastfeeding thing. Apparently some kids turn up their noses at milk if the mother had spicy food for dinner. Last night’s dish certainly qualified as spicy, and Katherine seemed to do just fine. We’ll keep trying out spices on her, though; after nine months of heartburn I’m ready for some spice again and we want Katherine to get used to our diet.
Today Sydney made a wonderful lunch of spiced apples, herbed mashed potatoes . . . and roasted beets. His goal? He wants to see if the beet juice affects the color of Katherine’s diapers. I, no lover of beets, agreed to eat them–and to hand off diaper duty so that he would get to see the results first-hand. Anyone know of anything else you can do to make breastfeeding a bit more interesting?
Erin
Last night I decided to test my stamina by whipping up dinner. First time I tried doing any real cooking after Katherine was born, and perhaps not best tackled after our night of no sleep.
I started early and was prepared to take breaks if Katherine needed feeding or if I needed to lie down. I did really well, getting through 3/4 of a delicious chickpea curry recipe before I needed to take a break. Sydney offered to keep the dish going and add the last several ingredients, which I had set out on the counter. One of the coolest ingredients is a cup of steeped tea. I heard Sydney ask, “Is the tea already measured?” and had answered in the affirmative before my brain followed up with the thought, “That’s why it’s in a measuring cup . . .”
In another second I was off the couch, looking with dismay at the pot on the stove. “That’s not the tea.”
“Oh? What is it?”
“That’s the comfrey I’m supposed to put in my bath after dinner.”
Mmmm, comfrey chickpeas.
We started over.
Erin
Is that why you ate all night long and then tried to eat the blanket when Daddy picked you up?
Erin
Alan Schmierer
