Volume 4, Issue 3, March 24, 2000
My life: I'm going to have to write a separate story about the birth. I just want to say how delighted I am that I had the baby at home! It was a really neat and satisfying experience. Hubby came up to me TWICE the next day to say, "I am so glad we had the baby at home." How cool is that? There is no way I could have had the baby naturally in the hospital. Yuck. I'm still in total shock that I was able to say "something feels wrong" and that the midwife believed me right away. Of course, nothing fascinates me like my own life, so now I want to become the world's leading expert on Face Presentation. Tim has a friend who is a dula (like a labor assistant) who says they call babies that come out face first 'angel faced babies' because they come out facing the heavens. (Usually babies arrive facing downward and then rotate sideways for the shoulders.) The biggest pain about the whole thing was getting Twinkle's damn PKU test at the hospital.Well, I always said I wanted 3 kids, and now I have 3 kids. So I'll have to live with the consequences!
Things would be almost manageable if I could get some sleep at night. Twinkle is very similar to Precious, and wants to be held ALL of the time - especially at night. So he only sleeps 2 hours at a time - 2 and a half at most - and wants to be touching me. I don't sleep so well with kids on my stomach, or else he is beside me. And I don't sleep well with little kids beside me (not when they are so young). However, he violently protests being placed elsewhere! If I try to put him in a bassinet he wakes himself up within 10 minutes and begins screaming; then I'm up for an hour calming him down. So I get in bed at nine and get up at nine (Either Hubby or my mom takes the kids in the morning) and manage only 6 hours of sleep in 1 and a half hour increments. That's what you get with a 10 pound kid! But I'm really really grouchy in the mornings and not up to dealing with normal things. He seems to sleep a bit longer during the day then he does at night. Sigh!
The first Friday after I had the baby I was just dying to go swimming. Well, Hubby is NOT a swim type o' guy, but I didn't feel up to going on my own - there was no way I could really! Anyway, he's a gem and put on a suit and all and came with. My main fear is that I'll have PUMPKIN and Precious in the pool and Twinkle will begin screaming to eat - what am I going to do? Anyway, I've been going to toddler swim just for ages now, and all the women knew I was due any day. Heck, they had all seen me the Friday before. Anyway, I'm already in the water and Hubby is off to the side with Twinkle - so all these women kept coming up to me and saying there was shocked I hadn't had the baby yet - so boy was I proud to show off Twinkle (and Hubby). Everyone was totally amazed that I was swimming already.
Oh yeah, I went to the Midwives on Tuesday for a 2 week check up. Can you believe I've lost 25 pounds already? Another 10 to go - which is the 10 I will NEVER lose! The 3 stitches they put in to make sure Precious doesn't cause me any harm have already dissolved, so I'm good to go. The midwives are very funny - they ask, "And how is your bottom?" which I just think is hysterical. My bottom is fine, thank you very much. Another neat thing about the midwives - after the birth they come and see you for the next two days! On Sun. Leslie, my birth attendant, came to see me and make sure everything was going well, that I had help with the baby, and that the family was adjusting to it's newest addition. She had a post partdum worksheet that she filled out. She told me that on Sat. morning when she made it back to her house (after NO sleep the night before) she was so excited that she had seen a face presentation that she got out all her midwife books and read all about it. She also kindly sent me some "breastcream" so that Twinkle doesn't make me so sore. Let me say again how much I love this.
So then on Monday after the birth Kate, the midwife who 'caught' (as they call it) Twinkle, came over to 'check on my bottom'. She brought HER midwife books and showed me diagrams of what Twinkle looked like in the womb with his neck flexed and face thrown back - very scary looking diagrams! It really looks like their neck should break on the way out! And it had different diagrams of the way "Angel-faced babies" come out from chin presentation (like Twinkle) and brow presentation, and which way the chin is facing and stuff. It was really neat, and I was impressed that she took the time to bring these books and show me the different positions. Of course, none of the books had actual photos of what it looks like, so I still have no idea. Hubby is not very descriptive about what it was like, but both Leslie and Kate were excited and thought it was really neat.
Twinkle
, The new Baby: Things are totally hectic, as you may imagine. The Man is a load and needs a ton of attention (and nurses constantly!). He's got JET black hair and a very dark complexion. I guess he has Theresa's coloring - also Hubby's dad is 100% Italian, so he may look quite a bit (coloring) like Hubby's dad. Of course he has the amazing round Kenkel face -- and I mean seriously round! He also has my nose. It looks like Twinkle has Hubby's chin. So there is this desert plate shaped/sized face with a chin on it. Twinkle also has long wonderful fingers and fingernails.He's a VERY alert baby. It just seems like he's really "here" if you know what I mean. Twinkle loves being talked to - and his eyes are very expressive. He has quite a bit of awake time for someone that's only two weeks old. He can pick his head up, and "Grandma" says he rolls over already. But as he's only 14 days old I'm not sure if that is true - but he certainly is trying already. Every time you change his diaper he attempts to escape and gets way up on his side. While he doesn't like diaper changes, he does seem to enjoy getting his hair washed (??). Isn't that odd? All my kids have this thing with water.
Twinkle just loves Hubby. With me, all he wants to do is nurse - it's like he can smell milk and that's all he wants to do. Sometimes he doesn't even suck and he's fully awake, but he just lies there looking at me with a nipple in his mouth. But with Hubby he's really awake and alert and follows Hubby's face around with his eyes. If he here's Hubby's voice Twinkle turns his head and looks for him. PS, he sleeps with his eyes open sometimes! I know he is sleeping because his pupils dilate. He has lots and lots of gas smiles.
Twinkle already has colic. He got his first bout on Wed. the 15 - at 3 days old. Hubby and I were outside with the kids on Thursday and Shirley Ross next door came over (she had 5 kids) so I asked her if infants could get colic so young, and she said sure, so I haven't worried about it. He gets colic usually after the 5 pm and 7 pm feedings, and then usually really early in the morning like 5:30. Joy. The Mylicon (a gas medicine) doesn't seem to work and Twinkle screams himself hoarse. It's really sad, and very hard on my nerves.
Pumpkin
's life. He is adjusting pretty well to the new baby. He woke up on the morning of the birth and ran into the bedroom; and there I was in bed with the new baby. So he came up into the bed with me and checked Twinkle out and we talked about that this was his new brother Twinkle. It was so cute, we called Aunt J. to tell her about Twinkle's birth and (after she had a total fit that I had the baby at home) after talking to her I let her talk to PUMPKIN. Well, he was SO excited about the baby and grabs the phone and says "The baby is finally out of mommy's tummy!" Oh it was so cute. He is acting out a little bit more, and has regressed to some degree. He has begun seriously whining again (argh) and really needs a lot of extra attention.PUMPKIN now plays on the computer by himself, which is a real blessing. So when things are totally crazy we can ask if he wants to play on the computer and leave him in there. We went out the other day and got a new "Jumpstart PreSchool" and PUMPKIN really seems to enjoy it. He really moves the mouse around well, and knows where the CD goes and everything.
PUMPKIN continues to swim like a champ. It is SO neat watching him at his swim class. The teacher really challenges him. He was supposed to be in the level I class at 10. Well that class had too many people in it so Ms. Ellie decided to move some kids to the 10:30 class. She mentioned this to me before class started. I was like, well, 10am really works much better for us (because Precious likes to nap around 11:30). Well, as the class actually started she gathered all the parents together and said, this class is too full, so some of the kids will have to be moved to 10:30. Other parents (like me ) said, oh, '10 works best for me' or 'we'll move to 10:30' and Ms. Ellie says, "It will be the 3 kids that swim the best that move up." So, as class ends - remember I'm spending the whole time in the pool with Precious as this is going on - the kids all swim up the ramp Precious and I are playing in. As Ms. Ellie walks by I smile at her and say, "So, I guess we're moving to the 10:30 class." And she smiles at me and says, "Clearly he's the best swimmer I've got." So that was cool.
As we left swim class today she smiled at me and said, "Boy, he's really swimming." He swims (a little) completely unassisted now. Ms. Ellie just gives him a shove toward the side of the pool and he's gotta sink or swim. And swim he does. Then he climbs out with a triumphant smile!
Precious
's life. Precious continues to explore the depths of being a terrible toddler. So it's hard to tell what is her reacting to Twinkle and what is normal "I'm approaching 2" behavior. She really seems fascinated by the 'Baby' and says things like 'baby sleeping'. Now, her jealousy does appears in some small ways. For instance, whenever Twinkle is on my lap nursing, she wants to get up on my lap too, and she usually tries to uncover my other breast and lay her head on it. Happily she has not started nursing again! But I end up half way naked a lot of the time. If I try to cover up the breast she get really mad and screams. (She screams whenever she doesn't get her way, actually.)On Saturday March 18 Precious said 'yes' for the first time and it is adorable. She says it like 'Yessssssss', and is obviously delighted that she can say it. Hubby is concerned about Precious's verbal skills . . . I have to laugh because she is so much ahead of where PUMPKIN was at this age it's not even funny. She 'talks' constantly, mainly nonsensical things. However, in some cases her pronunciation is better than Pumpkin's! She has quite a repertoire of songs - "Are you sleeping", "ABCs", "Ba Ba Barbra-ann", "Twinkle twinkle" It's really amazing. Now, she doesn't actually know the words to most of them, only the tune and then she just makes it up as she goes along. Today she said her first sentence. "I shared the water." She says a new word every day. She even says 'dinosaurs' and she calls ducks "quack quack"s. She is addicted to Barney and Teletubies, both of which she asks for by name. She gets irritated when I say no, since I don't like them watching TV, so she'll grab a random VCR tape and try to push it into the VCR.
She is also very interested in PUMPKIN now. She wants to know where he is at all times, and it quite upset when separated from him. "Where PUMPKIN?" she says constantly. When we are swimming and PUMPKIN is in his class she wants to be in the deep water near him, or at least looking at him.
W
hat has happened since last we talked: Hubby took the first week off for the baby. Boy was he a CHAMP! I mean, It went so much better than I could have planned. Hubby was great - he took the kids to play gym every day, did the cooking, and really tried to keep them out of my hair so that I could get some sleep. I guess I didn't know what to expect, since he's not really used to have 2 kids 24 hours a day. But he was fabulous, and I'm still delighted with my husband. We're not so good with dishes, so we've switched to paper plates, cups and spoons. The only tension is in the mornings. He is Such NOT the morning person. So he's pretty grouchy in the mornings even if he gets up at 9. Meanwhile I am totally dying, going to bed at 9 and struggling to get any sleep at all! So I get a little pissed in the mornings that he staggers to bed at 1 and then is irritated when the kids get up at 7. So that is our only problem.All of our neighbors have been fabulous too. The kids stayed asleep when I had Twinkle, and of course I was up most of the night, as was Hubby. I think we sent him to sleep on the couch around 5:30. Anyway, our neighbors Sharon and Bill took PUMPKIN all day on Saturday - like from 10 till 5, and then they had Kentucky Fried Chicken sent to us for dinner that night. Sharon took both Precious and PUMPKIN from 9:30 to 1 on that Thursday too! We just love them. Our neighbors across the street - the woman bakes wedding cakes and such for a living. Well, they brought over a simply fabulous birthday cake for Twinkle. Wonderful amazing cake! Wow was it GOOD! The Ross's brought us some pie too.
Of course, Kathleen has been up twice to help out. The one day I told PUMPKIN she was coming up and asked what he wanted to do special. Well, he said he wanted to bake cookies (oh great) so that is what Kathleen helped him do - bake chocolate chip cookies. Lord did they make a mess, but it made PUMPKIN and Precious very happy to help and I got to Just Sit. Kathleen also brought us a bunch of infant winter clothes that her son wore, that we can borrow for Twinkle. I've been going out of my mind wondering where all Pumpkin's warm infant clothes are. Some of Kathleen's clothes (the sleeper things) are family hand me downs and very old with the funky snaps. Well, this jogged my memory, because I have Photos (!) of PUMPKIN in similar old sleepers. Then I remembered that MaryPat Stewart (the wife of a friend of Hubby's) lent us all her infant clothes when PUMPKIN was born. So that was what I used for him!
My mom is here now and is quite keen that I finish this letter. J She has been having a blast with the kids. Monday we tried to go to the 11 am Mass, but I messed up where it was -- so we ended up going to McDonalds for 2 hours instead. The kids had a blast. PUMPKIN helps Precious up the tower - and she basically is happy as a clam to stay on top the tower there and not actually do anything. She did venture down a few of the tubes, but she refuses to go down the slide. So we have to convince PUMPKIN to help her down. Tues. Mom took the kids to play gym without me and I just slept. On Wed. and Thurs. I went to play gym with her. Today (Fri.) we went swimming. I LOVE swimming! We left the house at 9:30 and were in the pool by 10 of 10. PUMPKIN has class from 10:30 - 11, and then we stay late because PUMPKIN has a girl buddy there (Irish as they come, so cute, with red hair and freckles and a serious Irish accent) and they like to swim together. Then we all go back for warm showers. Mom then watched the terrorist while I fed Twinkle back in a secluded corner. Hubby said he would take next Friday off as well to help - and then I have to think about how this is going to work. I don't know how I am going to feed Twinkle and watch the kids at the same time. Hmmmm. Anyway, after swimming the kids always take power naps! They didn't get up until like 2:45!
On Saturday (as usual this has taken several days to write and I jump around remembering stuff) we went to the zoo for several hours which was wonderful. The kids are totally in love with the tigers. Our tiger had 3 cubs last spring and they are very playful and fun to watch. Precious also loves the tiger - and also anything with water. They have a wet land exhibit, so Precious went bananas over the 'quack quacks' and 'Look!! Water! Water!" with a joyous smile on her face. We were in time to see the Seals get an physical exam and their teeth brushed. PUMPKIN loved that. The zoo is too fabulous for words, except Twinkle hated being in the seat on the way home and screamed his head off.