Outnumbered

Sometimes it seems that babies and young children are set up such that they drive their parents to the brink of going crazy, but no farther. It's so we don't give up entirely and run screaming from the house, leaving them to fend for themselves.

Essentially, while Elise is sleeping worse at night than she ever did her first week, Kalina's been rocketed into the terrible two's. The pair wears us out some days. And yet in such a cute way that I know we'll get nostalgic about this in a good 30 years.

And with that sentiment, here's a rundown of yesterday, my first day flying solo:

12 a.m.: Elise and I have been asleep a little more than an hour, despite having been giving it our best shot since 8:30.
1 a.m.: Up feeding Elise.
2 a.m.: I'd promised myself I'd be back to sleep by now, but I'm clearly not. So now I promise myself it can't be much longer.
3 a.m.: After being awake for 2 full hours, I've informed Matt that it's "Mommy's turn to sleep now" and hand him a baby who's all set to conquer the world while I head to bed.
4 a.m.: I'm almost glad to be awoken by Elise's hunger cries from my dream that I'm set to have yet another baby in a few weeks. For a second I'm simply grateful to have just one newborn.
5 a.m.: Elise is pretending to sleep. I fall for it and also sleep.
6 a.m.: Elise is with her daddy, having woken back up. We've agreed that Matt will probably be late to work.
7 a.m.: Matt decides he can make it to work in time. I find my zombie self left with two kids and a rainy day. Kalina senses my overcast mood and decides her favorite word for the day is "no."
8 a.m.: Those of us who can have solid food are finishing breakfast (score 1 for me: I ate breakfast!). The other one is not happy in her swing. Why are my kids never happy in their swing?
9 a.m.: The baby is hungry and there's a soggy toddler refusing to get out of the bathtub. However, I've had a lightning-fast shower and am dressed for success, following my rule of "the worse you feel, the better you should attempt to look." The fickle toddler eventually asks to be gotten out of the tub (after I decide I really don't care if she stays in there), and she reads me Daddy's bug book while Elise eats. She knows more bugs than I do.
10 a.m.: Grandpa is here to take Kalina to storytime! I have given up on getting Kalina completely ready to go (crying baby and "no"-ing toddler having frustrated me beyond what my sleep-deprived state can endure) and instead am reading her "Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer." I hustle through the rest of the preparations with Grandpa around to distract the toddler (who doesn't yet misbehave much for him) and take a deep, cleansing breath as I smile and wave goodbye.
11 a.m.: I'm pretending to be human again. Elise has had a bath and a calm, relaxed feeding with no threat of being slightly squashed by her sister. I feel like a better mommy already.
12 p.m.: Kalina has finished a healthy lunch, Elise is sleeping in her swing and I find myself magically able to put Kalina down for her nap in a relatively normal fashion. Normal nowadays requiring far too many "no's" on both our parts. (Kalina: "No, I won't get down from the toilet." Me: "No, I won't read you 37 naptime stories, or even that one book 37 times.")
1 p.m.: I'm eating lunch while feeding Elise while learning from Google that it'll be at least 6 weeks, probably more, before Kalina might even begin to return to her old sweet self.*
2 p.m.: I'm trying to nap while Elise lays next to me and spits her pacifier out every five seconds (but that's not to say she doesn't want it back, immediately, under threat of waking up Kalina).
3 p.m.: I try to convince Kalina to go outside with me and splash in puddles, knowing that if I don't get some fresh air I may not survive they rest of the day. She finally agrees. It's raining harder than I thought so I bring an umbrella and try to at least keep the baby dry. I pretend I'm having fun, but I'm really not, as I have to keep Kalina from throwing important things into the sewer drains or running into the street without holding my hand, and she's tired of taking "no" for an answer (as am I).
4 p.m.: Aunt Nancy arrives. Kalina seems suspicious that Aunt Nancy is going to try to take her away from Mommy (lots of people have been trying to take her away from Mommy lately), but warms up quite well when she sees that Aunt Nancy is really only here for a visit and to empty the dishwasher and pop the pacifier back into Elise's mouth. Having told Kalina "no" as many times as she's told me "no" today (so, a lot), I try to do whatever Kalina wants for playtime, and we end up chasing each other around the house. Aunt Nancy follows with a chicken puppet, at Kalina's request.
5 p.m.: A yummy dinner arrives shortly (courtesy of a friend), and soon after, Matt appears. He's tried to bring me flowers, but the flower shop was closed. Then he tried for chocolate, but the grocery store only had "yucky" ones. So we instead all dig into a bag of some of my favorite cookies that he's managed to secure. Things are looking up!

And I've made it!

*Actually, she's back today! I'm sure we're not out of the woods, but at least they're pretty woods.

Photos:
1. Kalina noticed Elise was wearing her cat sleeper and decided she wanted to wear her long-sleeved cat shirt. Then she was more than happy to pose for a picture with her sister. Aw!
2. Uncle Tom holding Elise for the first time!
3. Elise's first bath! Her umbilical cord stump fell off at 4 days--yikes! But it looked fine according to the doctor and so we're cleared for tub baths. Elise liked it!
4. A nice warm towel.

The new baby balance (and Pediatrician visit!)

Elise is 1 week old. And so is our family of 4. Here are our observations:

1. Elise is so easy! We realize it's early. Kalina slept a lot at this stage, too. But we're thrilled to see she can be happy even when not being held, she sleeps well and long, and even the nightly screamfest seems to have disappeared. We will be keeping her for sure.

2. It's easier to take care of a newborn than a toddler, but possibly more fun to take care of a toddler depending on whether the toddler is in one of her "moods." For instance, you can go out for ice cream with the toddler, but the newborn isn't allowed to leave the house yet. However, the newborn can only make bathtime a tiny bit miserable, whereas a toddler can adeptly turn it into a very wet battle in the blink of an eye.

3. A pediatrician appointment for the newborn that both parents attend can be considered a "date," since the newborn sleeps during the 20-minute drive and the toddler is at home with her Grandpa.

4. When you're short on attention from your parents, and have maybe regressed a little bit, and you yell "potty!" everyone jumps into action. Even if you don't really have to go. Especially if you're already in your crib for naptime.

5. There's basically nothing in this whole new arrangement for the toddler. "You guys have a new baby? Congrats. Now I'd like my snack and a story, pronto," she seems to say. It could be several decades before she thanks us, or at least quits resenting us for this upheaval.

6. When they're cute, they're soooooo cute! Nothing's better than a sweet little newborn, dressed in sweet little newborn clothes that she's still swimming in. And nothing's better than a jubilantly happy toddler at the end of another tough day, even if she's eating dinner off a cutting board on the counter (no knife in sight), and gleefully wallowing in the packing material that the baby's gifts were packed in. And of course, the rare moments when Kalina's busily throwing imaginary hot dogs for Elise to eat are nothing short of precious (I think she got the idea from throwing bread to the ducks at the park, and then one-upped the bread).

7. We have much less adrenaline than we did last time. We could both really use some adrenaline right now.

8. Yes, there is enough love to go around.

Pediatrician visit!

Elise had her 1-week appointment yesterday afternoon. Matt and I both went while Kalina stayed home and, fortunately, napped (a rare occurrence nowadays). It was fun!

The appointment was at the north end of the city--for some reason they're making us trek up to that location for her first two visits. Elise slept the whole way, and then some.

The visit was rather routine--we were grilled on safety and feedings before we had to wake our poor child and subject her to the exam.

Everything looked good. The doctor said her heart sounded different than it did at the previous visit, which could mean the hole is on its way to closing up. She reassured us that there's a good chance when we see the cardiologist everything will be completely closed, and even if not, the problem will be so minor they'll simply send us on our way.

That appointment, by the way, is scheduled for October 21. We won't know much more before then.

And then we went off to weigh the baby. I couldn't help but cheer as the scale noted 6 lbs. 3 oz.--Elise is back at her birth weight at only 6 days old! Being experienced parents, Matt and I both know that means we don't have to wake her at night to eat anymore. We might just survive this after all.

The doctor had us schedule Elise's next appointment for 1 month. While Kalina had an extra weight check and then a 2-week checkup since she was growing a bit more slowly, Elise has done so well there's no need for them to see us before then. Poor Kalina, no wonder she's always hated the doctor's office scale.

As a final note, I'd like to brag that I think I got close to 7 hours of sleep last night, in 3 stretches (and by the way, I did end up waking Elise for them--she was making noises at optimal feeding intervals and I figured if I wasn't sleeping I might as well be feeding the baby)! Thanks, Elise! Even if it doesn't last, it's been nice. Post-baby sleep is officially better than late pregnancy sleep.

Pictures! Pediatrician!

I'm having so much fun with little Elise. Matt's taking the week off of work, and so he's wrangling Kalina while I wrangle Elise--who's turned out to only be a handful between the hours of 12 and 3 a.m. so far (although she's still so new that all she does is sleep, except between the hours of 12 and 3 a.m.). She's tiny and cute and it's nice that as a second-time mommy, I'm less freaked about every single cry and more able to enjoy even the frustrating moments since I know she'll grow so fast.


I could do without the poopy diapers, though.

Elise and Kalina could almost be twins, except for the fact that they were born more than 2 years apart. Nevertheless, I thought you all might like to see some more pictures, especially since there are so many cute ones.

They say that a hallmark of a second child is that they don't have as many pictures taken of them as the first child. Elise is making sure that's not a problem here, though, by being as adorable as she possibly can. These pictures are all a couple days old--there are lots more from the last few days that I'll post eventually, I promise.



At the pediatrician:

Elise had her first pediatrician visit today. The whole family piled into the car, and Mommy and Elise went to the appointment while Daddy and Kalina had much more fun at the museum nearby.

First, we talked about Elise and her habits. The doctor assured me that her rather common sneezes don't signify a cat allergy. Better yet, she told me that the middle-of-the-night screamfests Matt and I have been enduring (and Kalina, too, although she thankfully has never complained) should soon shift to daytime hours as Elise's clock syncs up a bit better with ours. Not that we enjoy Elise's screaming, but we'd much rather deal with it when the sun's up. Poor girl.

And then we weighed the baby. It was novel for me to weigh a child who didn't scream through the entire 2-second process (she saves that for between 12 and 3 a.m.). And better yet, Elise is doing great with gaining weight--she's up to 6 lbs., 1/2 an ounce, and the doctor was sure she'd be back to her birthweight soon. I think at that point we don't have to wake her for night feedings anymore, but she'll likely save us the trouble regardless.



Then we discussed the heart murmur. The doctor could hear it, but said it's very localized--she can only hear it if she has her stethoscope right over it. She's going to schedule us an appointment with the cardiologist, so we'll know more then. The biggest piece of news was that there was a section of the heart they didn't get a very good look at that could have an atrial septal defect as well. According to Matt, this isn't very serious. Overall, the doctor seemed unconcerned, especially since Elise is looking so healthy.

And that was it! We go back on Friday, mostly for another weight check.

And onto the pictures:

Photo 1: Sweetness. Doesn't she look like Kalina did?
Photo 2: Daddy and Baby in a moment of wakefulness.
Photo 3: Mommy savoring the same wakefulness.
Photo 4: Kalina gently touching her baby sister. Kalina is excellent at gentleness.
Photo 5: More cute wakefulness.
Photo 6: Aunt Nancy visiting.
Photo 7: I'm ready to go home!
Photo 8: Home at last! Mommy clearly chose her clothes for comfort this morning.
Photo 9: Family pic!
Photo 10: Grandpa holding Elise.
Photo 11: Kalina: "Put the baby in the crib." So we did. She yawned and stretched and was happy for a few minutes.

The Little Sister we've all been waiting for...

Elise Jane Odegaard is here, and we couldn't be happier to welcome her! Here's how she made her entrance:

On Friday evening after dinner two contractions stopped me in my tracks. So we went to the park with Kalina and played in a giant sandpit. The contractions stopped, but we nevertheless warned Kalina that sometime soon, she might wake up in the morning to find Grandpa or Aunt Nancy greeting her instead of Mommy and Daddy.

"And Grandpa will talk to Camel and Skunk and Chicken," said Kalina of some of her favorite puppets. Eager to ease the girl's mind, we heartily agreed.

The contractions began again around 9:00. How convenient! The very beginning of a weekend, Kalina forewarned, and a whole evening to figure out whether or not to go to the hospital, without having to smile through the pain so the toddler wouldn't get upset. I hoped this was it.

After finishing packing, we headed off to bed, where I surprised myself by falling asleep for half an hour.

The contractions intensified enough that by 3:00, we were blinking sleepily at the night staff at the hospital, who were blinking back at us. Having a second baby is a lot less exhilarating than having a first baby (but fortunately, much calmer and more enjoyable in general).

Labor and Delivery was quite full, but we were settled into a room by a very nice nurse.

When my water broke at 4:00, I was a mere 1 centimeter along. I asked the doctor offhand at what point I could get the epidural, remembering last time how long I'd labored on pitocin without one thanks to a certain nurse, and how I'd sworn, and made Matt swear, that I'd never be doing that again. My contractions subsided on their own a bit when the doctor cheerfully told me I could get one at any time since there was no doubt I'd be having a baby today. My humor improved remarkably, and I may have even smiled.

Not one to be a complete baby myself (only 95%, really), I decided to walk the halls first, knowing I wouldn't be able to after I was hooked up. After 30 minutes, I gave in and requested the epidural, which was finally administered 1 hour and 45 minutes later. Good thing I asked when I did.

And as the anesthesiologist was finishing up, the nurses changed shifts, and in walked the exact same nurse I'd endured last time. Seriously?!?!?! She was famous (in my mind) for her complete lack of sympathy to pain and for delaying my epidural last time far beyond my comfort zone.

"Hah!" I thought triumphantly. The epidural is in! And you can't do anything about it!" She did, however, remark to my comment about "I can still feel some contractions," that "early epidurals" sometimes don't do as well as blocking out pain. Fine, I will happily accept the fact that I'm an "early epidural" type, now that the needle is happily planted in my back.

I couldn't wait to be one of those people I hear about, who relax, take it easy, laugh and even nap while their bodies prepare for delivery without so much as a hiccup to make them uncomfortable. Call it nurses revenge, but I was only allowed to lay on my side, a position that got old after about 15 minutes. Additionally, the epidural never fully "took" on my left side, while my right side maintained an annoying tingly feeling for hours even after delivery. Yuck. Still, I was able to relax for a short time.

A very short time, in fact. An hour and a half later, I noticed the contractions I was feeling with my not-completely-numb left side were starting to get worse. I casually asked for a nurse. And then they got even worse. I demanded Matt simultaneously stay by my side and run to the nurse's station between contractions and insist, not taking no for an answer, that they "turn up" the epidural. (Is that even possible?)

And then they got even worse, as my nurse finally walked in the door. As we were flipping me to my left side in an attempt to solve the problem, she completely and totally redeemed all her prior shortcomings by getting the bright idea to check on the baby.

Who she immediately determined was now completely ready to be pushed out. It was only 9:00 a.m.--I'd figured I had until at least noon, second pregnancy notwithstanding. Matt had only recently walked back in the door after having breakfast in the cafeteria.

The nurse scurried around the room, readying the equipment and calling a doctor while Matt did his utmost to help me relax through the contractions--a mighty task in the panic that ensued from hearing point-blank from the nurse that not only was my epidural wasn't working correctly, but that there was nothing that could be done for the pain at this point. And then in a flood of relief and only a few pushes, with the doctor barely arriving in time (I almost had to beg the nurse to deliver the baby instead), little Elise popped out, crying happily (to her Mommy, anyway) and was plopped onto my tummy. And just like that, I was no longer in pain and was instead entranced with my new little baby girl.

Baby Elise was born at 9:31 a.m., weighing 6 lbs, 3.8 oz and 19.5 inches in length. She's spunky and sweet. Her dark, dark hair is soft and plentiful, and her little mouth is a perfect deep pink and nicely shaped. Her eyes are dark blue. Her skin is clear and rosy, and she's just beautiful. After lots of examination, I believe of all of us, she looks most like Kalina. Go figure. She smells nice, too.

Except for some serious napping yesterday afternoon, Elise has been quite alert--a little too alert for our determination that "this one just has to sleep better than Kalina." However, it's cute to see her little eyes looking around.

I haven't had nearly enough time to play with her (she's sleeping in my arms right now), and am itching to learn her little personality, having discovered that that's the fun part of having kids.

And the heart murmur? It's left doctors, residents and nurses all a bit confused--no one can really hear it! Has it already closed? An echocardiogram tomorrow will tell.

We couldn't help but comment on how similar (relatively) my two deliveries have been. With each, labor started as we were winding down on a Friday evening. Contractions were always predictable and 4-5 minutes apart to begin. My water broke at 4:00 a.m.-ish in both cases. I progressed quite quickly once I got started, and pushing was no big deal either time. Kalina was delivered at 39 weeks 1 day, whereas Elise was at 39 weeks even.

Kalina visited (along with Grandpa and Aunt Nancy) in the afternoon. Scared of the IV tube still in my arm, she wouldn't let me hold or hug her, preferring instead to smile and wave and lightly touch my hand. She also waved many times at her little sister, gestures of peace and goodwill that I hope will last them at least through the first few months, if not their lifetimes. Elise, for her part, slept through most of the visit and only cried a tiny bit, thus not traumatizing her older sister too much.

Second-time motherhood has so far been calm and nice. Why is it that now getting a "break" is eating hospital cafeteria food while only caring for a newborn, whereas last time it really took my and Matt's full-time attention to keep our household running? I'm sure there will be a whole blog dedicated to this idea in the future.

Meanwhile, it hasn't taken Elise long to wrap us both around her little finger--she's quite endearing, as I'm sure you can imagine. We're so proud and grateful to God for our two wonderful little girls, and we can't wait to see how our little family takes shape.

More pictures to come--and we promise that Kalina was smiling just before the shutter clicked in our family picture!

The nursery! Doctor visit!

Little Sister's nursery was supposed to look almost exactly like Big Sister's nursery, except with a white crib instead of brown (since we were buying a new one anyway, we figured we might as well switch it up).

As you may remember from a previous blog post, however, Mommy is never satisfied with status quo (for better or worse), and so there's very little in this room that's reminiscent of Kalina, save for the changing table, which you can only see the very corner of since it's not too exciting. However, thanks to sales and especially to some kind gifts, I managed not to go any more overboard than is fitting for a mommy who's just really excited about her second-born.

This nursery is girlier than Kalina's was--I discovered with her that I really like girly stuff, and especially pink. Perhaps as a result of all the pink I pulled over her head from ages 3 months to 23 months, Kalina's favorite color is now very firmly blue, so Little Sister will have to give me my pink fix for now, at least before she's old enough to complain about it in words I can't pretend not to understand.

On the shelves, you can see some of the lovely hand-made gifts Little Sister has received, as well as the newborn-to-toddler diaper bag I made for the girls to share (Kalina's "leakproof" sippy cups having leaked milk all over my giant purse one too many times).

Kalina is intensely proud of the room, by the way, having had a hand in almost all of it. She helped Daddy set up the crib and the nightstand (we might owe Daddy more kudos than Kalina for that feat, but don't tell the girl that!), and she helped me sort clothes and diapers, find a place for everything and generally tidy up. She's overjoyed to show "the baby's room" to anyone who demonstrates the least bit of interest. I find her interest in where the baby will "sleep" quite ironic.

The room is slightly bigger than Kalina's (but don't tell Kalina that), and the room-darkening curtain really works. We plan to get Kalina one to replace the awful blanket we've had draped over her curtain ever since we started to get smart about her early sleep issues.

Of course, Kalina's room has been slightly redone, too, with the addition of a toy cabinet my grandpa made decades ago, in hopes that maybe someday Kalina would actually play in her room, and a bean-bag chair that Kalina loves diving into and has readily adopted for storytime.

Matt and I find it ironic that you'd never know each of these rooms had once housed his creepiest hobbies (I'm sure he won't mind my using that word). We're completely and thoroughly out of space in our house, but chances are our next one will have room for Daddy's critters once again. Fortunately, as Kalina is always willing to go fishing, look for lizards and spiders, and even hang empty cicada shells from her shirt (much to Mommy's horror), he's more than content with his trade.

Until then, he's seconds away from bringing home a nice, fluffy bunny for his girls if one of them so much as points a particularly cute one out in a pet store. It would only take the tiniest nudge. The only question is, whose room would the bunny live in?

Doctor visit:

Wednesday's doctor appointment was quite routine, including the long wait for a five-minute chat. The baby's heartrate was about 120 (which seemed low to me, but fine to the doctor), and I'm measuring at 35 weeks, same as last week. I think at this point I was measuring at 33 weeks with Kalina, so I'm certainly not worried; however, the doctor mentioned that I also measured at 35 weeks last week, which could either mean the baby has dropped a bit (a good sign that labor may actually happen sometime!) or that her growth has slowed quite a bit. We'll check next week and if the measurement is the same, I'll get another ultrasound to make sure everything's okay.

I asked the doctor if I'm likely to deliver earlier than I did with Kalina, and she agreed with the doctor I'd asked previously in saying that that's just an old wives' tale. However, she did mention that usually they're around the same time.

To give you some perspective, with Kalina I went into labor at 39 weeks, 0 days, and Kalina was born at 39 weeks, 1 day. Tomorrow I'll be 39 weeks. You do the math...

As long as we're talking about delivery timing, if the baby is born on her due date, the 25th, our whole family will have been born on Saturdays in successive months in the 20s. Cool, huh? And yet still, I'm hoping not to have to wait that long.

Talk, talk, talk!

Lately, one of Kalina's most adamant requests of us has been "Talk, talk, talk!" She wants us to talk. Usually as the voice of one of her myriad animal friends, and she can hardly be satiated even after hours of really repetitive scenarios and conversations ("Oh yay, hot dogs for everyone again!").

We, of course, run out of interesting things to say to the animals within a few sentences, but our gigs are saved by the fact that our audience things jokes get even funnier each time you tell them. That's not to say Kalina's not a critic--she keeps the animals firmly in line--but at least we know some sure-fire ways to get a laugh.

We can't help but be annoyed by this near-constant demand (she never sweetens it with a "please"), but it's also quite cute. She shows off for them, takes care of them, laughs with/at them, chides them and more.

She doesn't even seem to mind when Daddy uses Camel puppet to talk to Mommy about his day. "Today at work..." he says in his wise, old camel voice, and Kalina accepts this at least for a short time, until she starts distributing hot dogs out of thin air once again for everyone to munch on because Camel's conversation, in her opinion, has gotten a bit dull and needs to be livened up a bit.

I've also noticed that Kalina's much more likely to obey our hedgehog puppet than Mommy herself. I save this knowledge for dire situations, but I do occasionally adopt Harriet as an accessory until Kalina's willing to be a bit more cooperative.

In a moment of clarity, we realized that with all our talk, we've become Kalina's television. In this way, it's possibly to the detriment of our own sanity that we don't let her watch, but we still press on with our "no TV until Kalina's a teenager or the baby arrives, whichever comes first," rule.

And we put Kalina to work talking, as well. Two of our newest hobbies include asking Kalina to say complex, multi-syllable words, and asking her opinion on things that she couldn't possibly have an opinion on just to hear what absurd things she'll reply. Both give us a good laugh:

Us: Kalina, say "infrastructure!"
Kalina: Intrfasturca!
Us: Hahahaha! Say it again, Kalina, say "infrastructure!"
And so forth. Poor girl. Fortunately, she's usually laughing too.

Or,

Us, as Daddy's leaving for work: Kalina, doesn't Daddy's outfit look sharp today?
Kalina: No.
Us: Well, does it look nice? (already cracking up)
Kalina: No. (straight-faced)
Us: Does it look nerdy?
Kalina: No.
Us: Oh good, does it just look okay?
Kalina: Yes.
Us: Full-out hilarity.

Fortunately, Kalina is quite good-natured in each of these instances and so far doesn't seem to mind when we all have a good chuckle at her expense. All the parenting books would probably tell us that we're terrible parents for doing this, and that studies show our child will neither make it into Harvard or out of therapy, but we're enjoying ourselves too much to pay attention.

Kalina's definitely off to the races with her chatter, by the way. Although most of you will never hear it (she clams up around anyone who's not a blood relative or an animal), Kalina can keep up with conversations with astonishing ease. And if the conversations aren't about cats or fishing, for example, she simply changes the subject.

She doesn't even let punctuation get in the way entertaining us with lengthy monologues about:

"The white-tailed deer ate the big dirt pile and went into the sewer drain and the spiders got the white-tailed deer back out and it went to Grandma's house on an airplane and came back home," for instance. (This was in reference to what happened to the big dirt pile that was a popular landmark along our route out of our neighborhood for months. I saw a solitary digger truck cart it away, but Kalina wasn't in the car at the time and this is what she believes happened to it.)

In the end, we both love conversing with our toddler (even through puppets) and finally getting some glimpses into what goes on in that mind of hers. We're almost always pleasantly surprised. And at the very least, we can all have a good laugh together.

Doctor visit!

Does it sometimes seem like I go to the doctor all the time? It does for me.

However, I do always enjoy my visits, especially since I've been able to leave Kalina home lately and focus just on the little one (no offense, Kalina, but you do kind of take center stage the vast majority of the time--like a true firstborn!).

In a nutshell, all is well. I've even finally gained the weight the doctors have been nagging me about! However, it seems as if I'm not quite as far along as I was last time--the baby's head was a bit higher than last time. I attribute it to a different doctor (I'm at a group practice), or possibly the fact that now that the horrendous weather has cooled slightly, my body isn't in such a rush to eject this baby so that I can breathe/move again.

This did, however, earn me another quick ultrasound as the doctor wasn't positive Little Sister was indeed head-down. I neglected to tell her I'd had an ultrasound last week, partly because I knew I'd worry, partly because I feel like any opportunity to check in on the baby is probably a good thing, and partly because Little Sister had been spending the week practicing not sleeping (so she'll be good and ready to stay awake for nights/naptimes at a time once she's born) and instead was readying herself to compete in Olympic gymnastics in 12 years (over my dead body, of course).

And fortunately, all is well.

Photo: I took a "belly shot" first thing this morning with Kalina. She still in her jammies, me in my lovely, wonderful, favorite maternity jeans (I know, they don't look anything special in the photo) that I've been able to wear all of maybe twice due to the insufferable heat during the entire time I've even needed maternity clothes. Not fair.

Waiting patiently

One thing I've been working on with Kalina is the concept of "waiting patiently." Patience is such a lovely virtue, and especially in a toddler, and especially, especially in a toddler who is expecting a new sibling any minute. I knew Kalina had mastered the technique today as she made her stuffed cow and donkey wait patiently as we built them fire trucks out of blocks (Cow had to wait even longer than Donkey, since we built Donkey's fire truck first). Eventually both animals were happily situated in their fire engines, but each had endured a patient wait.

Nowadays, it seems like we're all waiting patiently. Every night is like Christmas Eve, but we have no idea whether "Santa" will come or decide to hold off for another day, and whether we'll get the fun new toy we wanted, or will be stuck with coal. (I'm pretty sure we'll get the toy.)

It's hard to know what to tell Kalina:

"Sometime soon, when the baby decides to come, Mommy and Daddy will go to the doctor at the hospital. Mommy will have to stay a few days."
*Frown,* said Kalina. And then bravely, "And Kalina will stay back home with Grandpa."
I could've kissed her for making that connection, and I probably did. What a trooper.

But then, every day the poor girl reminds me that I'll be going to the doctor. Which I do once a week, but not necessarily to have the baby, and I'm back in an hour or so, and so you can see where there might be some confusion.

It's also always strange saying goodnight to Kalina every evening not knowing whether I'll see her in the morning. How do you explain that to an extremely attached 2-year-old? (I don't even try.) Or to an admittedly also very attached Mommy, for that matter?

We've also been reading "big sister" and "new baby" books, which Kalina seems to enjoy. Today she effectively fed Lamby a "bottle," which was actually a toy bowling pin. I think she's picking up on the whole idea of having a baby around the house.

As for me, the fact that we'll be embarking on more newborn adventures first hit a few months ago when I held one. A brand-new, 2-day-old, teeny-tiny, wobbly-headed little boy. The sweet little guy slept peacefully in my arms for almost an hour, and was easily calmed by his mommy when he decided to fuss a little. I kind of missed newborn Kalina.

The experience couldn't have been nicer, and yet it left me shaking in my flip-flops at the prospect of actually having one of my own. The memories pelted me like shrapnel, the middle-of-the-night feedings first and then the crying and then the middle-of-the-night feedings again. And the diaper changes, which are endless and complicated and always messy.

And perhaps most of all, the complete inability to just hand the baby off to someone else who can make all her problems go away, because I'm the end of the road.

Besides, newborn Kalina was nothing like the newborn I'd held. Calming her generally required the likes of patting my head while rubbing my stomach while riding a unicycle with a flat tire, as well as extensive amounts of paperwork and a clone of myself. At least that's what it seemed like at the time.

It just happens that Kalina and I get along so much better now than we did back then. And no wonder. Based on her preferences about music, wearing socks and where the cats are at any and all times, we were getting it all wrong when she was a newborn. Good thing she can (and does) tell us what's bugging her now.

And here I am starting over. And I know exactly what I'm getting myself into, except for the fact that now my 1 hour of sleep/free time each day will be eaten up by my voracious, albeit adorable, toddler, who I'm sometimes convinced is only a sweetheart because I can take her to the park anytime we want and I rarely withhold stories from her when asked.

Fortunately, Matt and I are mostly prepared. Our freezer is stocked with nutritious home-made meals. Our house and cars are clean and relatively clutter-free. We've talked many times about what we'll do differently with this baby (and have spent about 5 seconds addressing what we'll do the same). We've discussed our roles, including Kalina's. We've discussed labor. We have almost all the supplies, and almost all of them are clean and fresh and nice for Little Sister. Nursery pictures to come.

I think we're both looking forward to the challenge of seeing if we can get this one to sleep like a normal child, and whether all kids hate:
-changing clothes
-tummy time
-"after-bath"
-being set down anywhere, at anytime
as much as Kalina did. It will be nice, in a way, to have new issues.

I have not packed the hospital bag, but I've at least started a list of what needs to be in it. I realized this was very irresponsible last night as I was experiencing regular cramping while drifting off to sleep. Eh, I'll pack tomorrow.

As for the book, all 72,000 words of the first draft are written and approved by the client, and I'm crossing my fingers that I'll be officially on maternity leave after this Friday as planned (having wrapped up a few additional loose ends).

And with most of our work complete, we've been able to have some fun as well (see the previous post). At the risk of utterly spoiling Kalina, we've been heading out to parks and on walks, reading lots of books and just goofing off. The other day, for instance, we all played in a giant sandpit and caught imaginary fish (made out of either Kalina-sized handfuls of sand or pure air) with imaginary rods (made out of the same materials), tossing them into the "livewell" (which was originally a "swimming pool" that Daddy dug in the sand) and finally eating them. Do you think Little Sister will fit in with our loony little family?

Matt thinks the baby will come any day, I'm thinking I have at least a week. What do you think? (Vote in the poll!)

Photo: Hanging out at the EPA lake, where Daddy works. (Having seen Daddy take a fishing pole to work recently--going in on a weekend--Kalina now seems to think that fishing is Daddy's job.)

Zoo visit! Doctor visit!

Today, Matt, Kalina and I went to the zoo. We really probably shouldn't have:

1.) I spent lots of yesterday achy and contracting (the fake kind, not the real kind), especially when I wasn't sitting down in air conditioning with my feet up. As a side note, are we bad parents for making a bet on whether or not I'd go into labor at the zoo? If I won (I said I wouldn't), I'd get a box of donuts (to share with a hungry hubby and a toddler who loves sprinkles). If Matt won, he'd get the new fishing pole he's had his eye on (we figured the odds were in my favor, but he was willing to risk a box of donuts on it).
2.) Matt has a cold (Kalina and I had it earlier in the week).
3.) Kalina skipped her nap yesterday (right on cue--she skips one every 6th day nowadays) and we knew she'd be likely to skip it today, too, resulting in a trip that might be more trouble than it's worth.

But we're glad we did!

It was a lovely day. The animals at the zoo far, far, far outnumbered the people, and the weather was downright comfortable, at least in the shade. We had fun.

We've finally gotten so we no longer dread a 1 1/2-hour car ride with Kalina with every inch of our beings (or maybe that's just me). We got to be those people I'd always envied who simply "just pack some snacks, books and toys" and hop in the car for a longish drive with their happy child. We saw several fire trucks, fire truck signs, bike signs and deer signs along the way, and those helped keep us all relatively content. We also practiced a few of our animal sounds. We didn't even have to sing a note (although Kalina made up a song or two for us), and we arrived right as the zoo was opening at 9:00.

The zoo is made for walking, and you can begin either at the North America entrance or the Africa entrance. It's quite the trek in between, but they have buses that can take weary/pregnant/toddling visitors back and forth. We started in North America, since the giraffe feeding station in Africa (the thing Kalina was most looking forward to) didn't open until 10:00.

Our first stop was the seals. They weren't home--until we went to an underwater viewing area, and Kalina was able to see the creatures soar past the window.

"A seal!" she'd exclaim proudly (we'd asked her to let us know if she saw any) every time any of them swam by. I think she could've stayed there all day, but Mommy and Daddy wanted to see more so we moved on.

Next came the polar bears (we got a side view of one--not too exciting) and then the puffins. We were fortunate enough to have timed our visit to the puffins to be during feeding time, so Kalina helped the birds find their breakfast by pointing out the small, dead fish as they were flung into the water. Irritated when a fish wasn't eaten before it reached the bottom, she nevertheless had a great time watching.


So great that the lowly puffins became the highlight of our zoo trip. Every five minutes we had to tell the poor girl "We can see the puffins again on the way out, Sweetie! Now, let's go see the lions!" And whatnot.

We finally managed to convince Kalina that there were, in fact, other animals at the zoo. We then boarded a bus (Kalina's first bus ride!) to take us to Africa, and the giraffes.

Kalina was "all done" with the bus about 5 seconds into the ride, but fortunately Daddy was able to distract her well enough that by the end, Lamby, at least, "liked the bus."

We high-tailed it to the giraffes, excited to see how Kalina would like feeding them.







Unfortunately, the giraffes took a distant second place to the puffins--especially since none of them felt particularly like getting handed bunches of lettuce leaves by a toddler (or anyone, for that matter--they had plenty of food elsewhere). Heartless creatures.








We moved on to elephants, lions, baboons and the rest before realizing that 2 out of 3 of us needed to rest and eat. Kalina was close to falling asleep in her stroller, it seemed like (although that would never happen, her enthusiasm, even when the elephant splashed in some water National Geographic style, was waning fast), and I was getting quite dizzy from heat and lack of food.

The respite helped, and although Kalina, our little homebody, probably would've been fine heading home then and there (with one more stop "back to the puffins," of course), we pushed on for quite a while longer.

Some of the biggest hits were the statues, large and small, scattered throughout the park. I'm not quite sure why they have animal statues at a zoo, except maybe they know little kids like them. At any rate, Kalina had a blast scaling them. Even though the rhino (pictured) was a little high and scary, Kalina knew the photo would be worth a little worry, and bravely asked to climb onto its back with Daddy's help. "Down!" she demanded as soon as the shutter clicked, and then she immediately wanted to see the photo of that time she was so brave.

Three identical baby elephant statues were also a huge hit. Although only one is pictured here, we do, indeed, have a photo of Kalina on each, by her request. I'm really glad cameras have gone digital.

Smaller pedestal-top statues all warranted a nice petting by Kalina--she takes care of all the animals she sees, it seems.


We saw snakes, otters (sleeping, unfortunately), gorillas, chimpanzees, bobcats (which Kalina tried to feed a rock--fortunately the cats were behind glass), and plenty more cool animals, in addition to plenty of random caterpillars and frogs and such along the path, before we decided that it really was, for real, time to call it quits. At which point we headed to the aviary, where Kalina worriedly watched a Victoria Crowned Pigeon ("peacock," to Kalina) strut within 2 feet of us as Daddy reassured her that everything was okay. One stop at the flamingos later (flamingos sleep standing up! Can you imagine? And Kalina obliged our funny sense of humor by standing up and deciding "Kalina's sleeping!"), and we were off to a final viewing of the puffins (what luck--feeding time again!) before heading back to the car.

We were hoping (and planning, really), that Kalina would sleep on the way home, but her response to anyone, even Mommy, napping was a firm "no, no, no, no!" Oh well.

We stopped and got Mommy's box of donuts, which Kalina related later as one of her favorite parts of the trip.

Puffins, sprinkles--what a day! Early bedtimes for all.

Doctor Visit:

I visited the doctor on Tuesday for my 36-week appointment. I also had an ultrasound to check the baby's size and make sure she's growing.

She is! The baby is now supposedly 5 lbs. 11 oz. I wouldn't put too much stock in that estimate, though. The ultrasound was fun, it's cute to see the baby.

The doctor was happy to see that the irregular heartbeat had cleared up, and also that we now know in advance about the little hole. No worries whatsoever.

The baby is sitting pretty low, and signs point to me delivering early again. Of course, there's no scientific way to tell, but from what I know about myself, and the fact that I spent a lot of yesterday having fake-yet-uncomfortable contractions, I'm pretty sure Little Sister will be out in the world to greet her due date.

And we're almost ready! Except for packing the hospital bag, writing Kalina Kare instructions, pre-registering at the hospital, another load or two of baby laundry, another trip to Babies R Us, cleaning the house, wrapping a present for the baby to give to Kalina, finishing the book and other freelance projects, and a few other minor details, we're good to go!