Girls’ night in.

July 27th, 2010 by christina No comments »

Chris is in Houston tonight, so it’s just us girls. Hopefully Margaret will sleep at least a little. Elizabeth tried a few negative attention grabbing tricks (dumping cupfuls of water over the edge of the tub, jumping on the couch, throwing her book onto her bed) whenever the baby distracted me, so we had a little chat about that. But we’re hanging in there.

I had to take Margaret with me to pick up Elizabeth this afternoon. As soon as I pushed the stroller in, there was a small mob of curious pre-schoolers clustered around us. As I was asking them to “look but don’t touch,” Elizabeth came over and told everyone, with much pride, “Her name is Baby Margaret Isabel Holland!” And on the way out, we ran into another kid’s dad, and she announced “I have a new baby today!” She’s the proudest big sister ever.

First month check-up.

July 26th, 2010 by christina No comments »

Representin' for @austinfilmfest.
I took Miss Margaret in for her 1 month check-up today, a couple days early. She’s still doing just great. She’s 50th percentile on weight (9 lbs, 3 oz), and 75th for length and head size. Yup, she’s got the big ol’ Holland head, too. But I already knew that. She got her second hep B shot (first was on her birthday), which she was unhappy about, but she soon rallied. Now no more doctor visits (hopefully) until next month when we take her for her 2 month shots and Elizabeth for her 4 year shots the same morning. That’ll be a fun morning.

Speaking of Elizabeth, she got a stomach bug this weekend. Nothing too awful, just messy and gross. She’s fine otherwise, with no fever or anything. She’s the most pissed off that we’re restricting how much, and how, she can touch her baby sister until the germs pass.

Gotta go. Baby awake and crying.

And, three weeks.

July 20th, 2010 by christina 2 comments »

Quality time

I think I forgot how fussy and sleep-depriving a three-week-old can be. Good golly. Right now she’s fussing in her swing. I think she thinks she’s hungry. But since she, in the last half hour, spit up so much all over herself, me, and the universe that she’s had a bath and we’re both in new outfits, I think I’ll let her stomach settle a little first.

However, fussing aside, she’s a healthy and happy baby, gaining weight and being more active every day.

We’re back to nursing once or twice a day, pumping and formula the rest.

Elizabeth continues to be an awesome big sister. She loves to hold “Jellybean” and will willingly enough fetch diapers/pacifiers/etc., or hold the bottle for a minute.

We’re working on nighttime potty training (Elizabeth, not Margaret). She has a sticker chart and is working towards her very own Buzz Lightyear. So far, she’s very excited about it, but earns her sticker only about half the mornings.

Speaking of Elizabeth, here’s my latest “bad mommy” confession. After we drop her at day care, the exit takes us past the window/outer door of her classroom, and we always stop there to wave, blow kisses, etc. In the past, sometimes I’ve stopped to talk to someone and taken too long to get there, and when I do get there, she’s in tears thinking I’m not coming, so I know it’s important. Yesterday? I clean forgot. Got down to the car and realized. I came back, but she was off coloring by then so I left. Today I dropped her off again, and after I hugged her, she looked up at me all sad and said “go to the window and wave, okay?” I guess she figured she’d better remind me.

2 weeks old.

July 13th, 2010 by christina No comments »

Practicing for the day when she is Pope.

Somehow Margaret has survived two weeks in our care. She had her 2 week checkup yesterday, and had gained weight, up to 7 lbs 14.5 oz. Since the goal at that point is just to make it back to the birth weight, she’s doing very well these days.

Today Margaret and I went to see a movie, thanks to the Alamo Drafthouse “Baby Day.” She was a total sweetheart.

Healthy, happy, hungry baby.

July 6th, 2010 by christina 2 comments »

Happy 4th, part II.

Margaret and I went back to see Dr P this morning to follow up on her jaundice, which is basically gone. She’s pink and alert and hungry these days, and she weighed in this morning at 7 lb, 3.5 oz, having regained about half of the weight lost since birth in just the last 4 days. The doctor was pleased with her progress and said to just keep going as we are, since it’s working.

In theory, I could go back to nursing at this point, but I’m kind of on the fence about it. Whether because of the low supply or because it’s just her happy way, Margaret bites. Hard. I’ve been pumping, and getting a decent return (about 25-33% of her nutritional needs), and now that I’ve had some time to heal up, I think I might be okay with this method. Actually, I think she might be getting more breast milk this way. I know babies are supposed to be the best pump, but not if I tense up and flinch every time.

And I’m okay with the formula being a large part of her diet. I promised myself I wouldn’t beat myself up if this happened again. Of course I did anyway, in my sleep deprived state. But Elizabeth is turning out just fine, and Margaret will too. The bottle feeds allow the whole family to be involved, and my pumping gets her my antibodies.

A friend of mine said this, which both made me feel better and made me laugh: “Breast may be best but that doesn’t mean formula is bad; formula is good. Formula is the Olympic swimmer who came in .07 seconds after Michael Phelps.”

I also love this one -

July 4th, 2010 by christina No comments »

Girls, plus monkey.

We just finished the 3:30am feeding/change. Miss Margaret is back to acting like a baby should – sleeping, but not ALL the time, alert and crying for food every couple hours, eating well, and working it through her system.

We’ve had a few jealousy issues with Elizabeth and grumpiness on our part from lack of sleep. But she’s an awesome kid, and we’ve been able to (eventually) talk things through. She’s a big help, finding diapers, holding bottles, and more. I’m totally proud of her.

Proud big sister.

July 3rd, 2010 by christina 1 comment »

My girls.

Progress.

July 3rd, 2010 by christina No comments »

Overnight and today, Margaret has been pooping up a storm (probably one of the last times we’ll be happy about THAT), eating steadily more at each feeding, up to 2-3 oz per feeding now, staying alert more, all the right things. We took her for another blood check this morning. She was way more pissed off about it than yesterday, which, while hard to watch, was also good news.

I just talked to the doctor about the results. The bili levels are the same as yesterday, which the doctor said was good news. She said the levels take a while to come down, but as long as they aren’t going up, we’re in good shape. So we’re to continue the same way through the weekend, but the best thing? No light table! Which means I actually get to see 4th of July fireworks after all.

History repeats.

July 2nd, 2010 by christina No comments »

I hate jaundice. I’m not going to write much about it right now, because right now we don’t really know how things will go.

First off, though, Margaret is going to be just fine, don’t worry. We are following her doctor’s orders to the letter. It remains to be seen to what extent, if any, I’ll be able to nurse her. Which sucks, but after all, Elizabeth seems to be turning out okay.

My longest sleep stretch, in the meantime, is still about an hour. I’m hoping to fix that tonight, since a bottle feed doesn’t require me in particular.

Everyone at home.

July 1st, 2010 by admin No comments »

Blissed out

All the girls are back home now, trying to figure one another out. Elizabeth is generally good-natured about her little sister. However, I’m sure it’s just a matter of time before there’s some aspect of being a big sister that doesn’t appeal to her.

For now, though, it’s all smiles and feeding schedules. There’s even an iPhone app for keeping track.