Monthly Archives: May 2006

Happy Mother’s Day!

On this, my first mother’s day as an actual mom, I must say I have new-found appreciation for the meaning of the day. So this mother’s day, I thought I’d share some of my best mommy memories. These are the things I’ll try to live up to as a mom myself.

1. Singing us German lullabies at bedtime, and teaching us how to sing them, too.

2. Reading aloud to us, endlessly, until your voice was tired.

3. Making us homemade paper dolls, designed to order.

4. Inventing all manner of car games for road trips, including teaching us a million different rounds.

5. Always making our birthday cakes from scratch, complete with roses, scrollwork and crazy-good decorations.

6. Taking us to opera, ballet, orchestra and theatre performances and getting us hooked before we knew it wasn’t “cool.”

7. Being the most enthusiastic audience member for every recital, pageant, spelling bee, presentation, or “A” paper.

8. Encouraging us to pursue our ambitions and strike out on our own.

9. Keeping an open house for us and all our friends whenever we needed a refuge.

10. Making sure we know you love us, no matter what.

What are your favorite mommy memories?

… everyone tells you “sleep when the baby sleeps” but then when are you supposed to
eat
take a shower
get dressed
check email
blog
do laundry
etc
?

And also, what if the baby only sleeps in 1/2 hour increments? What then, if you’re so smart? Huh?

(We are having a trying day today. But the Hatchling is still so damn cute when she sleeps, even at thirty minutes a pop, that I kind of want to eat her up.)

See, when you’ve just had a baby and bought a house, and you mother-effing hizz-ate your job, and you live in one of the most expensive states in the country for childcare, and you’d do just about anything to not have to go back to work when your maternity leave is up, only you’re not sure how you’d afford to eat and stuff without your salary coming in, then reading something like this pisses you off. I mean, Jesus. According to the mom salary wizard, I should be pulling in over 150k per annum. And, you know, damn right I should! Only I don’t. And won’t. Ergo, pissed. Q.E.D.

So. Today was Mr. Squab’s first day back at work, leaving me and the hatchling on our own for the day. Navigating the evening feeding schedule – well, I say “schedule” but that implies a level of order that’s completely nonexistent at this point – is now more complex since only one of us will have the opportunity for catching up on sleep with naps during the day. We’re trying to figure out how to arrange it so I don’t feel like I’m doing all the work in the middle of the night, but Mr. Squab gets enough sleep that he’s able to operate heavy machinery (read: the car) in the morning. Of course, since it’s now 2:45 and this is the first time the Hatchling has gone to sleep long enough for me to do anything but make myself a cup of coffee (that’s make the cup of coffee, not actually drink it), the sleep-deprivation issue may be a wash. Nonetheless, I know *I’d* hate to have to go to work all day on 3 hours of interrupted sleep, so it would be nice if we could spell each other during the night enough that Mr. Squab could get a little more rest. But, good progressive daddy that he is, Mr. Squab also doesn’t want to shirk his share of the middle-of-the-night duties. Such are the navigations of new parenthood. Perhaps once the Hatchling gets her days and nights sorted out a little better it will be easier. Any other parents out there want to chime in on how you sorted sleep requirements between the working and stay-at-home parent? Anything we should be considering?

At long last, I have two moments to post some more recent pictures of the Hatchling. Here are three of my favorites from the last two weeks:

First Bath:

The Squab Women: Sisterquab, the Hatchling, and the Squab herself:

For more baby goodness, you can also check out this photoset or this one. Enjoy!

8.2 pounds! Up past the birthweight, which is delightful. Only drawback is that this is the direct result of a somewhat wearying schedule of breastfeeding, supplementing with formula, and pumping. The Hatchling got her poor little tongue snipped at the doctor’s on Thursday, and that has made it a little easier for her to nurse, but she’s still struggling to get enough just from the boobs. Meanwhile, I’m a little worried about how this is all going to work once Mr. Squab goes back to work next Monday. Right now feeding the Hatchling is definitely a two-person job, and I don’t quite know how I’ll manage it when I’m at home by myself with her. We’re supposed to hear back from the lactation consultant later today, so hopefully she’ll have some ideas.

BUT – let’s focus on the positive: she’s full and happy and getting chubbier by the minute. And I know, I know I need to post some more pictures, and I promise I will soon – hopefully tonight. It’s just we have this small person who’s living with us now, and she wants all this attention all the time, and when I try to explain to her that I have this blog and I need to frickin’ POST on it, she just frowns and waves her fingers in a highly dismissive manner. So until I can work out some sort of arrangement with this little tyrant the blogging may remain somewhat sporadic.