Friday, April 20, 2012

Ketchup

Oh my, blogger has a new interface just as I'm trying to do a really quick post.

I have a lot I want to say and very little time to blog. I’ve been on twitter though where I can use my kindle to post at 4 am such insightful things as “moo”.


I wanted to say that we got a set of those “girl” Legos. We got Lego Friends Olivia’s Inventor’s Workshop. Chuckles picked it out himself and paid for it with his own money. He wanted more purple Legos and he wanted tools and an inventor’s workshop. He did not necessarily want a girl figurine but he said he didn’t have many girls so it would be a good addition to his collection. He (and Bobo) played with the set quite a bit and built a floor and walls for the workshop. It’s too bad these things are branded “girl” or “boy” because having one big Lego aisle with all neutrally colored Legos would be great (and buckets of random pieces too…garage sales are great for classic Legos). Chuckles doesn’t care about boy/girl stuff right now but in a few years, he might not want “girl” Legos and that’s a shame. (His pants mostly come from the girls clothes section because of his taste for track pants and his slimness, he wears girl shoes because of his narrow feet, and he just got his birthday party set in the girl birthday aisle…how a dog-themed party is “girl”, I will never know.)

I also wanted to tell you why I found our short NICU stay so stressful…I wanted to breastfeed. The hardcore breastfeeders would be appalled at how much formula I “let” them feed Trip and also that I didn’t put him to breast for two days. Then, when the neonatologists found out I wanted to nurse, they put us on a feeding schedule that was nearly impossible…every two hours he had to eat 25 mL (and increasing with each feeding). So, we would weigh Trip, I would nurse him, weigh him again, top him off with formula for the rest. Except he was a neonate and sleepy and babies don’t usually eat much in the beginning (and there isn’t much milk there), so I then had to go back to my room to pump so up my supply and so that the pumped milk could replace some of the formula at the next feeding. So, I was feeding on the even-numbered hours. It took about an hour (weigh him, wake him, get him to latch, keep him awake, burp him, flip to the other side, nurse there, burp, weigh)…then someone had to bottle feed him and it wasn’t going to be me. I’d go back to my room and pump. So, now it’s only about 45 minutes until the next feeding and I need to eat, sleep, wash pump parts, go to the bathroom (and do peri-care), get my vitals checked, etc. 24 hours a day. 12 times a day. For two days, I slept in 20 minute increments. I felt like the neonatologists didn’t want me to succeed (but I knew I could because this was not my first rodeo). If I had been a first-time mom, I don’t know if I would have made it. Since we’ve been home, there has not been a single bottle nor a single drop of formula into Trip and he’s fine and growing (9 lbs 6 ounces, 21.5” at his 1-month visit). I don’t measure the input nor the output and it’s working just fine. I doubt I was giving him 40 mL per feeding when we came home (what was “required” for discharge), but that’s just stupid and someone should teach medical personnel about how newborns don’t really need to eat for the first several days (though I realize Trip needed the fluids and nourishment so he could use all his energy to clear his lungs, but a little understanding would’ve gone a long way).

Oh, and when I came home from the hospital, I went to bed and stayed there for a couple of days…seriously. I was up to nurse and eat and that’s about it until I felt that my sleep deficit was at least somewhat diminished…of course, I am running quite the deficit right now…thanks to Bobo. Thanks Bobo, seriously…you want to snack at 3 am, you damn well better eat what I bring you. And BObo, the thing were you intentionally pee on the floor while in a time-out to protest is not only gross (and effective) but so totally wrong. On so many levels.

It’s been 4.5 weeks and I want to go and do and run and lose this weight and I just can’t. Trip likes to sleep. A lot. But in my arms. He’s snuggled into his car seat right now so I had a chance but normally I would be holding him right now and that is not conducive to posting. I want to get him on a nap schedule (or a routine since that’s really all I want). I want to eastablish regular bed time and wake up time and I cannot remember how I did that with the other kids. I know I did but I don’t know how. In the morning, I open the blinds and start the day, but at night, I don’t know what happens but eventually we get Trip to bed (and he does sleep between feedings) but going to bed at 11, being up overnight, and then getting up at 7 am with the big kids is wearing thin. Very thin. I will actually take advice on how to move Trip’s bedtime earlier (9 pm would be good and after the big boys go to bed).

I’m sure I have more to say but someone is stirring and I would actually like to eat a vegetable today before he’s fully awake (and hungry).

5 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. It's too bad that NICU stays (where people are theoretically trained in all things baby) are made worse by silly guidelines and restrictions. I cringe when any healthy baby gets brought there (which happens plenty). So glad Trip is doing well!

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  3. Go Chuckles for picking the Inventor's Workshop! We like it here, too, and we also have a lot of the "boy" Legos. Boo on the gender specific marketing and the silly grown ups who make it a profitable thing- perhaps even a necessary thing- for companies to do. We bought one of Pumpkin's little friends a Lego Friends set for her birthday, and our thank you note said that this was her first Lego set. Which shocked us- the girl doesn't have a younger sibling to worry about swallowing things, so why in the world didn't she get Lego before she was 5??? (Of course, we're weird, so maybe that is totally normal.)

    Anyhow... I'm sorry the NICU stay was so stressful. I'm glad Trip is doing great. If I remember right, regular schedules are a pipe dream until about 3 months at the earliest.

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  4. They just stay up late in the begining.. I remember going to bed at midnight and it slow drifting down to 8pm over the course of 3 months. I think it's just a natural thing as their sleep consolidates into nighttime hours and they become more alert during the day.
    I tried to go to sleep for those evening naps or sleep later after the first of the morning feed but it's impossible.. so it forcing a schedule change on a newborn.
    You will both be all new people in 4 weeks time, and then again in another 4 weeks. You know this stuff ;-) BEST OF LUCK!

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  5. The Lego Friends. I can't decide if they realized it would be such a battle.

    Julia loves them because she loves that the girls look like girls and they have animals. She could give a crap about the colors or what they are supposed to build. So she takes what she likes and then tosses the extra bricks to her brother. He's unperturbed about the colors.

    It makes me feel like the whole thing is overmarketed. They could toss a boy or two in there, tone down the box color, and increase their potential buying base by double.

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