Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Up at odd hours

Having a newborn totally throws off one's sleep schedule. When I was pregnant, everyone said "sleep when the baby sleeps." This is the best advice I received. I try to catch the winks whenever the Sprout is out cold. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.
Its 4am and I'm up because he's up, and we are both pretty happy right now. We had a good day.
My dad came and took us down to his office this morning so he could meet the ladies. Joss, like his father, is quite the ladies' man. He slept through the visit, but he did get to meet Margaret, Christine, Mary and Kathy (all of whom were quite charmed.) He was so worn out from all that sleeping that he took a nap with his daddy when we got back to the house. I chose not to crash with them, I instead used the time to throw in some laundry, load photos onto the computer, and straighten up the living room a bit. When Matt went to work I fed the Sprout and put him down again. (It really is amazing what I consider getting things done these days.)
I had some computer work to do, a bit of research for beer school. When that was finished it was time to go to the staff meeting at BbH. I dropped the Sprout off with Mom and headed out baby-free for the first time. The meeting was uneventful, I picked up a few shifts next month. Sprout was very good for Mom and Dad. I got a couple hours of sleep after we got home. I'm doing surprisingly well with the whole "taking two hour naps throughout the day and night" thing. When Matt called at 2:30 needing to be picked up from work, I was awake enough to go get him.
On the way to pick him up, I was listening to KDHX, as I am wont to do in the wee hours of Wednesday mornings. My girl Ashley has her show from 2-4am. This week is pledge drive, so on the way home Matt and I decided that we needed to stop by the station and help our girl out. We signed the Sprout up for his first KDHX membership and Trashley played him a Cramps song and said all of our names on the radio. As of today, my little philanthropist has donated his cord blood for stem cell therapy and contributed to keeping community radio alive in St. Louis.
Tomorrow he' going to solve the whole global warming fiasco.

Friday, April 20, 2007

It's my birthday, and I'll eat cake for breakfast if I want too.

So that's just what I'm doing. Shawna dropped off a piece of Limoncello cake from Cheesecake Factory yesterday and I am now having it for breakfast. With strawberries. Cause that makes it healthy.
My sister is in town this weekend. She says she's here for my birthday, but I know the real reason she came was to meet her nephew. I really can't blame her. He's the best. They hit it off right away.
Annie is usually the one with her hand in front of her face refusing to be photographed, but as you can see, Sprout was the camera-shy one last night. I guess Annie was too overcome with Aunterly love.
We are going to the Bottleworks for lunch, and then I am going out to purchase new shoes with Mom and Annie.
When I get back, I will post new shoe pictures and pictures of my new yarn. Yay! Yarn!

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

This is what I wake up to.


Why bother getting out of bed, when this is what is in with you? My two boys, snoozing in the morning. Too bad I have errands and housework that will drive me crazy if I don't get it done.
Sprout is two weeks old today. I can hardly believe how much he has changed. I was looking at his "just birthed" pictures this morning and he looks like a completely different kid to me. For one thing, he is not all squished anymore. Yesterday he was two ounces shy of his birth weight, but considering how much he ate yesterday, I'm sure he's back up there today. He also grew three-quarters of an inch. In two weeks. That is very impressive, in my humble opinion.
I just sigh every time I look at him. It is a bit embarrassing how quickly I go from intelligent conversationalist to blithering idiot when he is around. I just cannot stop staring at him, he's so cute! And cuddly!
Okay, enough. I'm off to take care of business in the real world. I will not sit and stare at the cute baby all day when there are bank deposits to be made an coldcuts to be purchased.

Thursday, April 12, 2007

The First Week is the Hardest

Or so they say. I certainly hope they are right.
Sprout left the hospital with us on April 6th. He was jaundiced and they sent us home with this thing called a bili-bed. It's basically a tanning bed for phototherapy. The blue light it emits helps break up the bilirubin in his system, to flush it out and kickstart his liver. If the weather had been better we could have just taken him naked sunbathing, but it was cold and cloudy all week, so he had to use the bili-bed.
Here is the sprout in the bili-bed. Gypsy gave him that fancy pacifier.
The doctor said he needed to be in the bili-bed whenever he was not nursing. So I'd nurse for a while, then lay him in the bed and he'd stay there til it was snacktime again. Easy, right? Yeah. No. Let me just say, I hate the damn bili-bed. Every time I put him in it he screamed and cried, then I screamed and cried, then I picked him up and we rocked eachother to calmness. Then I felt guilty for depriving him of his medical treatment because I was so selfish and needed to hold him. I could not leave him in the bed at night. I would feed him, lay him in the bed with me and Matt, and then get up once he fell asleep and put him in the tanning bed. He'd usually wake up after half an hour and then we'd repeat the process.
This continued for three days, until I was a quivering mess. He was still a little yellow and we had to go to the hospital every morning so they could poke his tiny precious foot and bleed him for a bilirubin level test. I was starting to doubt my suitability as a mother. My folks and Matt's folks were all very supportive. All my friends came over and kept us company. Shawna and V. basically never left. On the 10th his levels were down and they came and took the stupid tanning bed away.
So that was most of the first week.
The second week hasn't been as bad. Sprout sleeps for three hour stretches and is much more alert when his is awake. He notices his surroundings now. He has grown a bit and gained some weight. He went to his Uncle Zach's for a crawfish boil on Saturday, to Duff's for brunch on Sunday and on Monday we visited the kids at BbH. He slept through most of these events, but he was admired by everyone who saw him.
Here he is with his Nonna. Sprout just adores my mom. She is an amazing Grandparent.
We are going to the doctor today for his two week check up.
I am looking for a pattern for some knitted pants for him. It seems that all the babies in the knitblogoverse have cute knitted pants, and I don't want Sprout to feel all left out. There are several I am considering, I just don't have the energy to link to them all right now.
In other knitting news, I am suffering from second sock syndrome on two pairs. I may have to go to Knitorious tomorrow to finally pick up all that yarn I have held there and start some new footwear. Or babywear. Who knows.

Saturday, April 07, 2007

SURPRISE, IT'S A BOY!!!


Joss Mathais Sprout
arrived Wednesday night around 10pm
7lbs, 12oz.
21 inches long
tons of dark hair, daddy's nose, long fingers and toes. I think his upper lip looks like mine.
absolutely perfect.
More pictures and details later. Yes, I made that hat he's wearing.

Tuesday, April 03, 2007

Last Tease

Induction 9:30am tomorrow, per Dr.'s orders. Hell or High Water, we will have a baby by tomorrow night.

Sunday, April 01, 2007

sigh

On Thursday the OB said that if Sprout isn't here by Monday, he is going to recommend an induction.
On Friday his office called and said they have no open spaces on the hospital schedule for me, but not to worry, they'll figure something out. Kate and I went to St. Pius for fishfry friday.
On Saturday I went to Duff's and saw Margaret, Nuni, and Karen. They all want Sprout out too.
It is now officially Sunday. I do not want to be induced, but I really do not want to be pregnant either. I am torn between my ideas about childbirth and my desire to be able to move about in a normal fashion.
I missed an awesome ARRG fundraiser this morning and a really cool party tonight because I can hardly walk.
My dad wants an April 1st baby, since it is Opening Day for the Cardinals. I would really like to help him out. REALLY.
I can't sleep.
I can't knit.
I can't believe all of you haven't given up on this blog. Thank you for your supportive comments, suggestions and threats. All of them have made this eaiser. I'm not going to post again until I have pictures of an actual Sprout to share.
Let's hope it's not too long.