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Whee!

The flowers sent from Central Square Florist were amazing and lasted forever. The flowers from 1-800-flowers were not.

Baby S now weighs 9 lbs 14 ounces. So she's gained 11 ounces in the past seven days. We must be doing something right. (Yes, she was down to 9 lbs 2 ounces when she left the hospital, and then she was up an ounce the next day.)

Now I get summoned for jury duty, not sometime in the past 10 years when I had nothing better to do with my days? Sigh.

It’s a good thing that Margaret is so darn sweet, or at least has me so thoroughly mind-controlled, because I fear that she is two before her time.

We have (and have had for several months) tantrums. They aren’t frequent, but there is the back-arching refusal to get into the stroller when she would prefer to walk. Normally I am willing to let her walk, but we do live in a city with some “interesting” driving on the part of many motorists, and there are times when her normal walking speed just won’t get us where we need to be on time. I’m not sure how Warren and Jomkwan manage when she puts all her strength into resisting being put in the stroller, but I use the brute-force method, and let me tell you, you’d be amazed at how difficult it is to get an actively resisting 23 pound toddler into an umbrella stroller.

There is also the no thing. She’s been saying it more and more often now, probably because we do respond to it. Normally when she says no, we honor that choice. Sometimes, though, she says it when “no” is not an option. I feel bad, especially because she is so cute when she says it. It sounds like “nu”, and is accompanied by head shaking and a tone of deep regret. It’s as if she’s saying, “I’m terribly sorry Mommy, but I’m afraid you simply can not change me out of my pajamas.” Unfortunately for her she gets changed anyway when the pajamas in question are covered in yogurt and I need to get her dressed before I head off to work.

I’m really enjoying this part of her childhood more than I expected I would. She is asserting her independence and making her will known, but she is also more actively showing us signs of affection. I get spontaneous hugs and kisses and cuddles, and it is just wonderful. She may well be entering into the phase where she expects the world to bend to her every whim, but at least she seems to be using charm to make it easier on the rest of us. I’m guessing world domination is just around the corner.

I took a loooong shower last night, and had plenty of time before and after it. And I think there was no cluster feeding yesterday.

Hey - I'm not pregnant any more! I have a waist-ish, and my feet fit into my shoes. My body is pretty darn amazing. Also, 20 lbs lighter than when I got pregnant. (Wow was my body ready to be pregnant.) I'm looking forward to getting abdominal muscles back, but I know that takes time.

Anyone able to do a grocery run for me today or tomorrow? Not a huge pile of stuff, and I'm very good at making specific lists (and even sorting them in the order of the aisles of your chosen grocery store, because I am that sort of housewife.)

Edit:Thanks, many volunteers, we're set for this load!

Poor substitutes for REM sleep:
- sugar
- television
- computer use (especially internet browsing and WoW))

Mediocre substitutes for REM sleep:
- newborn baby smell
- walking outside on a lovely day
- nutritive food
- shower

Substitutes for REM sleep:
- None. But sometimes there is sleep, and it's all good.

In other news, my feet fit into my sneakers again. And I walked to/from Porter yesterday. I'm feeling good, just stupid and irritable from sleep deprivation.

Yesterday afternoon I had the urge to do something as a family after Margaret's nap. Warren and I dithered for a bit, then settled on driving to the Burlington mall to do some shopping for Margaret. (We share a passion for spoiling our little girl, in case that wasn't obvious.) As we start loading her into my car, our neighbor comes out on her porch and yells at me that I have a flat tire.

My first reaction was confusion. I check the tires on the curb side of the car, because the only way I can think that I may have gotten a flat on a car that is only two months old is that I hit the curb when parking and damaged one that way, though I am pretty sure I didn't do that. The tires next to the curb are fine. Then we check the other side and see it... the front drivers side tire is completely flat.

?????!!!

So we examine the tire, confused as to how this may have happened. We discover a clean sidewall cut in the exact center of the sidewall, at exactly the twelve o'clock position on the tire. We both come to what I think is the obvious conclusion pretty rapidly. Hey, it's not like it was the first time I've had a car vandalized while is was peacefully parked in front of my house.

Obviously I trip to the mall never happened. I am angry. We get to spend today, and probably tomorrow dealing with replacing a tire on a vehicle that is only two months old. I'm pretty sure that it will be expensive, though probably less than $300, so no point in calling the insurance company and offering yet more proof the a car of mine is clearly in more danger when it is parked than when I am driving it. I am also pissed because here I am six months pregnant with a toddler; I might need my minivan on short notice. Of course the sort of person who thinks sticking a knife in someone's tire is some sort of cool Halloween prank is not the sort of person who thinks about the fact that they are disabling the only vehicle a family has that is capable of transporting a sick youngster in. Luckily for us everyone's favorite pink antibiotic seems to have worked wonders for Margaret.

I took Margaret to the doctor’s office this morning. She’s been sick for a solid week, appeared to be getting better on Monday & Tuesday, but crashed Tuesday night and has been feverish and obviously not feeling well ever since. When her fever was actually higher last night than it had been the previous night by a whole degree I decided that it was time to take her in, so in we went.

Our regular doctor wasn’t available on account of being an infectious disease specialist on the side and assigned to coordinating the H1N1 response. I liked the sub a lot, an older l woman who clearly knew her stuff. Margaret was still feverish and had spent the morning alternatively screaming at me and clinging sadly to my chest, so it was nice to have a doctor readily agree that something was clearly up, even after her ears proved to be uninfected and her throat swab came back negative for strep. The doctor suspected a brewing case of bronchitis and proscribed that pink stuff, but also wanted to rule out a urinary track infection. This meant getting a urine sample, which in a baby means a teeny tiny catheter.

I don’t have problems subjecting my teeny tiny baby to mildly unpleasant medical procedures if they are called for. I want my child well, and frankly a minute or two of discomfort is a small price to pay for peace of mind. The nurses (note the plural) came in, and the senior one did the catheter while the junior one held Margaret’s legs and I held her arms and tried to say soothing things. Margaret not only resisted mightily, she held her urine until after the catheter was removed, at which point she promptly peed all over the table and the two nurses.

In one of those amusing coincidences of blogland, once I did my lunch time blog reading I read this post at Flotsam. It’s especially funny in light of my morning experience, in that I think anyone expecting an unsedated toddler to lie perfectly still for half an hour with a catheter in place is unclear on the concept of “toddler”. I mean, I absolutely would not want Margaret to be sedated unless it were absolutely necessary, but on the other hand there is no way she’s going to stay still while awake under the best of circumstances. I’m just glad my pediatric practice has more reasonable expectations when it comes to how small children behave. For example, they recognized that restraining a 23 pound girl long enough to get a catheter in was a three person job, and the nurses responded to being peed on after they’d been given up on getting a sample in the tube by pouring what few drops they could get off the pad on the table into a sample container as quickly as humanly possible. In short, these guys are great. Now go read the post I linked so you can chuckles at instructions like “Be sure to share your child’s wishes with the staff.” Yeah. I think Margaret expressed her wishes quite clearly this morning without any help from me.

I'm really enjoying myself. Yes, getting what I want does make me happy :)

I'm recovering well, but driving is cars is bad. Happily I don't have to get in any cars for several days at least.

We went to her first pediatrician appointment this morning, and so many people stopped to comment on the baby; It was like I had the best toy ever and I got to share her with everyone. ringrose is sooo good with her, and will go to great lengths to try to help her not suffer (like keeping his finger in her mouth for the whole pediatrician appointment, so she wouldn't cry.)

She's gained an ounce since her recorded low, so I'm happy. Her eating schedule is odd, but as long as the poopy diapers keep coming I think she's doing ok.

The boy can now make his presence felt on the outside. His personality is different than Margaret's; she always quit kicking the second Warren touched my belly, the boy will continue to kick. I'm looking forward to another third trimester of amusing myself during dull moments by looking down and watching my dress move.

This may be the silliest credit card offer I've ever seen. It's for an exclusive Visa Black Card--but this one isn't "just another piece of plastic." Because it's made with carbon!

Oh, and the annual fee is only $495. How can I resist?

We'll be heading for home Wednesday, so we're not up for hospital visitors tomorrow. Thursday we're mostly not interested in visitors either, (beyond the standard sort of people swinging by our house that always happens who won't be disappointed if there's no baby to oogle after they let themselves in.)

We're looking forward to having a little bit more control of our schedule until we can manage to get baby more dayshifted; right now her longest stretch of sleep coincides with the morning hours when all medical stuff happens around here. We have this hope that we'll be able to get a three hour stretch of sleep sometime in the next few days.

Susan Aldora Ringrose, 10lbs 1 ounce, was born Saturday night at 9:31pm.

Will post contact info when I have it and we decide when we're ready for visitors.

More details to follow after sleep, but everyone is doing great.

I've been in denial for a few weeks, but it is now unmistakable that Margaret uses "no" in context, complete with emphatic head shaking. While this is ultimately a useful language development, it's a tad frustrating when it happens when I am trying to feed her the yogurt that she demanded not five minutes ago and suddenly decides that she does not want once it's in the bowl in front of her.