Pacified (slightly)

I came home from work yesterday to Lucy and Matthew having an afternoon snack; she was so friggin happy it made my heart hurt. Here's her happy face with my blurry BBerry camera: arms wide, eyes squinched up, smile with goofy tongue front and center.

Thanks for all your wishes and advice from the other day; I'm off to the bookstore today to pick up a few sleep books (although that's kind of the problem -- so much conflicting advice! Let her cry, never let an adopted baby cry, give her what she wants, never give milk in bed, pick her up, sooth while she's in bed, co-sleep, don't...oy.). (That said, though -- keep the advice coming. Something's gotta work!) We tried something new that has helped, somewhat, to alleviate one of our two big nighttime problems. To recap, those problems are:

1. Waking up ridiculously often, and
2. Not being willing to go back to sleep without a bottle.

Some improvement with regard to the second one. In the past she's refused a pacifier, but Matthew "the mesmerizer" managed to work his magic and on Tuesday night, she was willing to use the pacifier and didn't need any bottles at all. She still woke up as often, but was willing to take the pacifier instead and in general fall asleep pretty quickly. Last night, though, it didn't work as well...lots of wake-ups, as is now usual, and for some of them she'd fall asleep on her own after we popped in the pacifier. But for two of them -- 2:30 and 4:30 -- not good. About 20 to 30 minutes of crying, with us repeatedly insisting that she consider, please, just think about maybe possibly keeping it in her mouth. And she quite certain that no, that was definitely not within the realm of possibility.

Until it was. Many many long loud minutes later.

Matthew's going to buy her a mobile; maybe that'll help her self-sooth herself to sleep. That, or maybe we'll hook up a TV and let her watch hours of C-span and bore herself to sleep.

In other news, I'm back at work and am very happy to be here. I love my job and love using my brain for purposes other than memorizing "Is Your Mama A Llama?" (although that's by far my favorite kids' book -- do you know it? Great meter and rhymes...Julia, is that from you?). I miss her; one of her happiest times of day is right after she wakes in the morning and just wants to lay on a bed with us and smile and giggle and roll around, and I leave before she's up. But Matthew sends me little pictures sometimes, which is great, and I get to come home to a happy baby, as evidenced above, and that's pretty damn awesome, too.

Every. Two. Hours.

The other day I was talking to a co-worker about how things are going with Lucy, and I said something like "she never used to refuse to eat, but..." And then I had to catch myself and do some quick math (not my forte, so it wasn't pretty -- counting on fingers, vacant stare, probably a little drool...). This is the 9th week of our lives with Lucy. There's no "used to," we have pretty much no history except what we're currently building together. So I have to remind myself that when things get tough -- we're all still just figuring each other out.

But first things first: see how cute! This is my favorite Lucy outfit so far; she's a total cutie in brown, with that surprisingly light hair and light brown eyes which, sadly, you can't see in the blurry photos I took on my little Blackberry friend but trust me when I say: adorable! And in both of the pictures she's sucking in her bottom lip: the lip so precious, so special, so stunningly gorgeous that apparently (in her opinion) it can only be seen on rare occasions by privileged and special people, and is not suitable for everyday use.

And a good thing she's so damn cute and sweet and happy during the days, because the nights are bad and getting worse. A good night would be three wake-ups, all requiring a diaper change and small bottle of formula to get back to sleep. Ah, those were the days.

For the past three nights, she's been waking about every 2 hours, and last night was the worst yet -- every 1.5 or even one hour. That was not so fun. Each wake-up isn't long -- 10 minutes tops, long enough to suck down an ounce or two. But if we try to skip the bottle, the crying escalates pretty quickly, and we haven't tried to let it go on and see where it ends up -- I'm afraid of doing that because I fear "missing the window of opportunity" and letting it go so long that she won't go back to sleep at all, even with a bottle. Last night, I was able to skip the bottle during one of the many wake-ups, but for the most part she needs it even if only for a minute or two.

What to do? She doesn't seem sleepy in the daytime; she seems well-rested and happy and takes hour-long naps (on average -- sometimes longer, rarely shorter) twice during the day. But she sleeps so lightly -- that can't be good for her, don't you think? We really don't know.

This, though, is her take on the situation:

"Please allow this raspberry to demonstrate my deep and significant scorn for your sleep worries. Get off my back. So I have a fondness for milk-in-the-night -- sue me."

Lucy's friends Frances & Frances

Right now, Lucy has two baby friends and they are both named Frances. That has got to be a statistical anomaly, though not so much as if she had 50 baby friends and they were all named Frances.
This little Frances came from Vietnam, adopted by our friends Frank & Crystal. Happy almost-birthday, Frances (Aug 22, 1 year old!). Their blog.

And this little Frances came from our friends Kurt and Sarah, as some kind of combination of their DNA -- not adopted but rather created biologically by her parents (weird, huh?). Here they are, getting some early practice going through daddy's wallet. Kurt's blog.

On an unrelated topic, today we switched from regular diapers to G-diapers. If you are not familiar with these, they are mostly flushable (the linings), partially reusable (the outside). So far they seem quite easy to use and effective. We'll certainly feel better about not sending a huge bulk of disposable diapers to the landfill.

And on a further unrelated topic, we just picked up a CD of The Cure songs arranged as lullabies. Too cute!

She Pooped On Me

Seriously. ON me. Not a "whoops, diaper change got a little wild and crazy there" kind of thing. Here's the scene:

Music: light and happy -- "Prelude to an Afternoon with a Fawn" perhaps.

Ms. Merry Sunshine Lucy wakes happy from a nap. Her outfit's kind of wet; diaper malfunction. So Matthew changes her, and puts her in a new dress too.

Music: "The Sorcerer's Apprentice"

Crazy baby has fun playing with me on the rug -- rattling things that rattle, banging on things that bang, putting everything in the mouth just for a little taste.

And then: odd straining. That weird right-arm-out-and-quivering-in-disturbing-Nazi-salute thing she does that indicates poop's a'coming.

Good! She's been a little stingy in that department recently, we're glad to see she's getting back on track. I take her on my lap to...lighten the pressure on the nether regions, shall we say, as she does what needs to be done.

Music: ominous introductory measures to Beethoven's 5th.

She's done, she's happy, mission accomplished. I put her back on the rug to play more, and realize that we'd forgotten to put a diaper on her. And she's just pooped a neat little pile right in the lap of my skirt. Delightful! Matthew took pictures, of course, but for your sake we'll skip those. Who could believe that this sweet innocent angel could lead to such a disgusting incident?

Man, I really love this kid.

baby in a box

Lets get in the plastic tub for our bottle tonight! Yay!

No babies were harmed in the making of this blog post!

messy eater

Hey! We asked for the news, not the weather. (Partly cloudy with a significant chance of oatmeal showers).

A life measured in coffee spoons

I took a book quiz to find out my literary likeness (thanks, Julia!). I love my result -- TS Eliot is a very flattering comparison. One of my favorite movies of all time is Woody Allen's "Love and Death," and in that movie there's a part where Woody is trying to become a poet, and writes the line

"I should have been a pair of ragged claws
Scuttling across the floors of silent seas."

And then discards it as silly. It took me a long time to figure out the reference for that one, and ever since, I've been a fan of J. Alfred Prufrock. And seriously, enough about the Michaelangelo, already!




You're Prufrock and Other Observations!

by T.S. Eliot

Though you are very short and often overshadowed, your voice is poetic and lyrical. Dark and brooding, you see the world as a hopeless effort of people trying to impress other people. Though you make reference to almost everything, you've really heard enough about Michelangelo. You measure out your life with coffee spoons.

Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

What's your match? Do you like it?

The things she does

Lucy is 11 months old today. We've known her for about 7 weeks (wow! Just 7 weeks...can't believe that). Here's what we know about her so far; like others do, I'll try to keep some regular records of where she is and what she's doing so that we don't forget.

• She's a huge drama queen. Diaper changing at night is the WORST TIHNG EVER. The last sip of the bottle signals the END OF THE WORLD. Being about to fall asleep in the carseat JUST MIGHT KILL HER. And then, after a second or two of hollerin', she's done.
• She doesn't have a laugh-out-loud sound, but when she's happy enough to laugh, she makes this funny hissing sound through her smile.
• She smiles (and it's the BEST THING EVER).
• She sticks her tongue out a lot, through her smile. Matthew got pictures of it on his last post. So adorable.
• No words yet (at least not in English; she could be reciting poetry in Veitnamese but we wouldn't know). But she's extremely verbal, babblilng all day long.
• My favorite cries: the one where she just kind of yells "Yap!" and the one where she has a long, drawn-out "Ay yi yi yi yi..." She is kind of fussy...especially in the mornings, between wake-up and first nap.
• She's a serious Cheerio hound. Can't quite maniuplate them with finger and thumb as we hope she will soon, but she manages to get them into that mouth, never fear.
• Shows little inclination to crawl. When she's on her belly she manages to scoot around (mostly backwards), but not by crawling.
• She can stand -- strong meaty little legs -- but needs balance assistance. She doesn't pull herself up on her own.
• She can be "walked"...we hold her hands and kind of propel her forward, and she's getting the hang of picking up her feet and advancing them.
• She likes big girls -- she met Sarah and Abby and was fascinated by them; smiles like crazy.
• She looks great in black -- although it's so hard to find black baby clothes. Any ideas?
• Still needs bottles to go to sleep and during the night -- anywhere from 2 to 4 per night. She sleeps about 12 hours per night, and takes two naps/day.
• Completely entranced by Baby Einstein DVDs. Oh my god, we love those things. Especially the puppet parts -- the live action bits are tolerable, but the puppets are the best.
• She's seriously cute. We're so lucky.

M&M

Grandma Marks

Melissa's mom has been here for most of a week. We're SO grateful for her help while we've finished up the move. We're finally out of both our old houses & now we just need to finish unpacking, furnishing, etc. Anyhow... here are a couple pix of Bobbi having fun with Lucy. Lucy loves her grandma! Right now, they're laying on a quilt working on Lucy-eating-cheerios-on-her-own. While her dexterity is improving every day, it is mostly a boon for Simon, who has gotten to eat a lot of rogue cheerios.


And here is Lucy having her afternoon nap. Too much fun with Grandma... has to get some sleep!

3 for the road

3 photos that is...

Punk's no dead... check out these baby legs! Babies see Lucy comin' they better run!

Coppin' an attitude... yeah, she's a bad ass in her pink do-rag, too. That happy kitty on the front isn't hugging the pretty flowers, it is destroying them!

B.B.D... and if the punk leg-warmers and flower-kitty do-rag don't strike enough fear into the hearts of all those who gaze upon her, one might want to take it up with her pal Gus, the Big Black Dog. He'll be all up in one's grill like... uh... a juicy hamburger (?)... or like something else that is extremely all up in one's grill.

Now that I've found my camera & cable, I see there is also a gripping MPEG of Lucy eating that was on my memory card. I clearly need to post that soon, too. Hope all is well with you, my friends. Best, MCH

mooving

My camera / connector cable are still packed up somewhere in our endless boxes of disorganized stuff so it is another photo-free post. I just put Lucy down for her morning nap here at the new house while Melissa is at the old house with the movers... I should be trucking boxes around but my body just aches from days of trucking boxes around (and getting Lucy in-and-out of the car seat is an amazing source of lower back pain) so I'm going to sit for a few & update the blog.

Today is the big furniture moving day (Moov is the company doing it... how cute! Like a cow is helping us. Cows are known for their intelligence, grace, strength, and endurance... aren't they? They started off by being an hour late so we'll see how it goes). Bobbi (Grandma Bobbi, Melissa's mom) is coming to Portland tonight to stay for about a week and help us get moved, unpacked, set up, etc. Mostly, I think she wants to cuddle with Lucy while M & I get moved, unpacked, etc. But nothing wrong w/ that... it'll be a win / win / win scenario: we'll be able to get the rest of this unpleasant moving business taken care of, Bobbi will get to spend time with lovable little Lucy, and Lucy will get to spend time with her adoring grandma. Good times all 'round.

Oh, and I should mention that Lucy is well again... she was miserable for a couple days. We took her to see the Dr. who thought at first she might have an ear infection. She didn't. But, suspecting another infection somewhere, they prescribed a 9-day course of antibiotics. After 2 days, her fever was gone, her appetite and sleep schedule got back on track, and she became less mucus-filled than she had been any time since we'd first met her. Seems like she may have been harboring some upper respiratory tract infection for weeks or months. Now it is kicked and she can get back to the business of being a healthy, happy, learning-and-growing baby. Thank goodness!

Sick baby, begone!

Whew. I'm probably jinxing this by writing it, but I'm SO FRIGGIN' RELIEVED that Lucy's illness seems to have passed or at least diminished that I can't restrain myself. For the past few days she's been just miserable...some undiagnosed combination of teething, fever, pukiness (see prior "Tiny Puker" song...and sing it at the top of your lungs for about 16 hours to get a general idea of how it's been) and just a general malaise that has made her feel like crap -- and us, too. But today, she's back...smiling, flirting with the shoppers at the grocery store, eating and keeping it all in.

Sorry, no pictures...Matthew took a few good ones but they're locked away in his computer and it's at the new house (the new house!). Lucy and Gus-the-dog had some good snuggle time and we got that on "film," so there's a preview of coming attractions: a dog'n'baby show!

M