A Tale of Two Mamas
Trying to keep someone IN timeout
Archive for March, 2006
March 31, 2006 at 1:00 pm · Filed under Milestones
Grammy took the bottle from me this morning! She was a total wreck–she wanted the babas BAAAAD. She’s been coming back into bed with us at her 2 AM waking. We figure that she needs more lovin’ since she’s grieving the loss of the boobie.
Anyway, when she woke up at 6 AM, she kept crawling up onto my chest and trying to lift up my shirt. The sippy cup of water just wouldn’t do–she threw a fit and pushed it away. It’s so hard–when I say No to her, she just crumbles in a little pile of sad baby, and it breaks my heart.
She was just so overwhelmed with needing boobie and being hungry, she was like glass. I would just look at her and she’d cry. I tried everything–brought her downstairs for breakfast and the usual routine, but nothing would do. At one point she was standing on the counter with a piece of salami and looking at the cat and bawling. I tried giving her a sippy with chocolate milk (our latest BadMama technique), but she just left it sitting on the floor.
Finally, I just picked up her shattered little self and sat with her and a warm bottle on the couch. As horrible as it sounds, you kinda have to just shove it in her mouth. She realizes then that she was starving for it–and of course I only had 2 ounces of milk that was quickly eradicated! More tears until I refill it with the remainder of the choco-sippy cup. I briefly tried giving the bottle to her in the kitchen, but only the couch would do.
The last time she took the bottle from me was when she was about 5 weeks old and didn’t know any better.
March 30, 2006 at 8:43 pm · Filed under Milestones
Grammy’s starting to pick up some new words. She said “shiny” for Laura & Lydia, from her book “Tails.” Tonight she said “soap,” as she and mama were playing with the bar of soap in the tub. She’s also learned “hot,” but she says it more like “hOOOOOOOt.” And then she makes the sign for pain.
She’s getting better at her body parts: she knows ear, nose, teeth, mouth, belly, knee, feet, and toes. She also knows shoes, socks, shirt, diaper, potty, trash/garbage, book.
And our latest fave: Oh shit. We’ve been working on steering her away from it without indicating that it’s a word that will get a rise out of us, so now she says Oh shoot.
March 28, 2006 at 8:38 pm · Filed under Milestones
Today Graem is 15 months old. It is also the first day that she is officially weaned. No if’s, and’s or but’s–we quit cold turkey last night upon hearing that we might be eligible for a study with the SIRM Institute to start our quest for Baby #2. They want to make sure my prolactin levels are in check, so that means no breastfeeding.
We had dropped Grammy off to Laura & Lydia’s so we could have the phone conference with the doctor. She was in tears when we picked her up, but her last boobie snack fixed that.
I’m just really sad that I won’t ever breastfeed her again–won’t see her little face looking up at me and making scrunch face while she sucks away. I am also bummed to lose the one instant-fix I have for all her problems.
March 26, 2006 at 8:15 am · Filed under Rants
Both Shawna and I have been extremely sleep deprived lately, mostly due to our own inability to go to bed at a reasonable hour. We distract ourselves with computer and tv or magazines, and before we know it, it’s after 11 PM. And we’re both 8+ hours-a-night people.
So I logged on to cnn.com and saw this: a special on sleep. We’d love to watch it, but doing so would put us in bed after 11 PM!
March 25, 2006 at 12:04 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
We were lying in bed this morning at 5:30 thinking about how a year ago, any time Graem started fussing, Shawna would do “Little Bunny:” hold her sitting up under her arms and bounce her up and down singing, “I’m a little bunny, hopping through the forest” and Grammy would stop fussing.
We talked a little bit about if we would have done anything different the first year, and we agreed that for the most part, we did everything we wanted to, except for Shawna having to go back to work too soon. Although, no amount of leave would have been enough. We thought maybe if we had been a little more aggressive with the bottle in the early days, the later months wouldn’t have been as much of a challenge. Maybe a little more naptime in the crib, but I think she and we both needed to be able to hold her when she was that little.
Can’t wait to do it all again.
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