Scott's mom Cj came by for a visit yesterday evening and brought us a box of chocolates, clearing the way for me to briefly live out a housewife cliche this morning, sitting around eating bon-bons and sipping my coffee after breakfast. I hope to do more of that in the future.
Yesterday was a busy day at our house. Sue and Cherie came to town to go out to lunch with all of us, Adrianne came to visit, and then Cj came by in the evening. Adrianne deep-cleaned my kitchen while we were at lunch, then hung out with David while I napped for two hours. We finally got to visit for awhile in the late afternoon before she had to leave for Ann Arbor. In spite of all the company, David, Scott, and I managed to find time to play Nintendo (Zelda: The Mask of Majora). As we predicted pre-birth, playing NIntendo is a good fun family activity that is compatible with baby care. We're only sorry we haven't gotten to do more of it. Between Scott starting full-time work and me having a tendency to be pretty tired in the evenings, so that even the level of thought involved in playing Zelda is too much for me, we haven't been able to do any Nintondo marathoning. I hope we get to play some more tonight, though. We are nearly done with the Woodfall Temple, just needing to find three more stray fairies and the captive Deku Princess, and we finally found the bow and arrows, which opens up a whole lot of other stuff we couldn't do until we had a projectile weapon.
Eric went to the pediatrician on Monday for his second hepatitis shot. He was also diagnosed at that time with a thrush infection in his mouth, so he has to have medicine for that. It's topical; if he were a grown-up, he would hold it in his mouth for five minutes. I dribble it in slowly from a syringe. Fortunately he doesn't seem to mind it much; in fact, it's possible he likes it. The doctor also gave us another box of Enfamil samples, since we are now formula-feeding. This box was labeled "Breastfeeding Transition Kit," but was basically identical to the Breastfeeding Success Kit they gave me at the hospital. The best part of the sample kits are the little disposable bottles of pre-mixed formula. You just have to screw a nipple on it and voila! you can feed your baby. They're very handy for going out and about, but expensive to buy in the store. The Breastfeeding Transition Kit also included a form to send in to get on their mailing list for coupons. I sent it in under an assumed name (Su Dierauer) since Su Penn is already on their list.
Formula is going to get cheaper for us, though. The pediatrician says that, although manufacturers will try to convince you they're different, infant formula is so highly regulated that they are all identical. "Even the store brands?" I said. "Even the store brands," she said. Which cost half as much as the Enfamil. At last we can start mixing the formula full-strength!
The Enfamil cans say in big letters "makes more than any other leading brand!" I had been wondering about that; surely, I thought, it can't be more concentrated? The small print in the little brochure that came with the transition kit revealed the truth: The Enfamil can makes more than "similar-appearing" cans of other brands of formula. Similar appearing, but smaller, you can see if you look closely at the carefully arranged cans of Similac and Carnation Good Start in the photo. In other words, the can of Enfamil makes more formula because it's a bigger can.
Eric is making great progress at holding his head up and also now cries real tears. And he's getting big. He weighed 8 pounds 10 ounces at the doctor's office on Monday. Since I love spurious statistical projections, I calculated that if he continues to gain weight at the rate of the last two weeks (about a pound a week), he will weigh 55 pounds when he is a year old.
All the newborn clothes fit Eric now, including his little union suits, on which we previously had to roll up the sleeves multiple turns. And these two sleepers that were just enormous on him, the ones that his feet wouldn't stay in the legs of, his feet now stay in the feet of. Those two sleepers are actual sleepers, the only flame-retardant sleepers we own. I had been feeling guilty for not conscientiously putting him into flame-retardant sleepwear at night, but Adrianne says the flame-retardant stuff melts on their skin (it's polyester) so she never used it either. And I noticed the other night that, being polyester, the flame-retardant sleeper gives off sparks when it brushes against other fabric, like the sheets. No wonder it has to be flame-retardant, I thought, as I watched my baby giving off fireworks in bed.
We had a few days of mild fussiness late last week and over the weekend, as Eric had begun suffering from intestinal gas. Adrianne and Carla reminded us that it's a normal stage right about now, something about Eric's intestinal flora maturing, and it will pass (no pun intended). In the meantime, we have discovered Infant Gas Drops, and they have restored to us our fuss-free baby. But even the gassy days were not too bad. We knew why he was fussy, and the fussiness usually lasted only a short while until the bubbles moved along. We were able to help by bouncing him and rubbing his tummy vigorously.
The painters had told me they were taking a long weekend for the fourth, so I didn't expect to see them until Monday. But not only is one of the college students here continuing to scrape paint this morning, the head painter is here repairing a piece of missing trim. OK.
David and I figured out why Eric waited until after midnight to be born: he didn't want to be born on Saturday. Apparently he had heard the old rhyme, which states that "Saturday's child works hard for a living," and he clearly wanted none of that. He opted for "The child that is born on the Sabbath day is blithe and bonny and good and gay." A wise choice.
I could never forgive my mother for having me on a Wednesday. I was born by scheduled C-section, and she had a choice of Friday or Wednesday. Friday's child is loving and giving, but Wednesday's child is full of woe. Thanks, mom.
The painter just drove his truck across my lawn to unload materials for repairing the trim. It's a good thing I don't actually care about my lawn, or I might be cranky.
I find it stressful to be around while they're working. I'd be so much happier if I were out of the house all day and all this brou-ha-ha were taking place where I didn't have to see it, or occasionally find myself face-to-face with a stranger through my kitchen or office window.
The days are much the same as each other. I melt down when I get over-tired, so I am trying to monitor myself a little better and remember to take naps so I'm not such a pill in the evenings. When I am not melting down, I see that we continue to do very well--that the house looks pretty good, that I am able to more or less keep up with things like paying bills and doing dishes, that as I predicted before the baby was born, I can do everything I did before, just less often, more slowly, and with a baby. The only thing I want to do that I can't, actually, is boating. Everything else I do--reading, writing, housework, e-mail--adapts itself pretty well to the baby-care rhythm of regular interruptions. I have just had to learn to let a task take more than one sitting, and I am also learning to break tasks down farther than I used to. For instance, "clean dining room" used to be one Housework Unit, but now "Tidy and Dust Dining Room" might be one, and "Sweep Dining Room Floor" might be another one, that happens on a whole nother day. But kayaking can't be done in five fifteen-minute increments in the course of the day, and it can't, in my opinion, be done safely with a baby in a single-person boat. Scott found a park nearby that rents canoes, and we are going to go as a family, with Scott in his kayak and David and me in a canoe with Eric. I feel comfortable with Eric in a boat with two of us, so that if something happens, one person can deal with the boat while the other goes right for the baby.
Adrianne and Carla bought a tandem kayak this spring and they and Noah are really enjoying boating in it. We're in no position to buy another boat this year, and I don't have a lot of physical energy yet. I'll be happy if we can get out in a canoe two or three times this summer. And who knows--the boating season usually extends into November, so I may be able to do some kayaking this fall, once I have figured out how to leave Eric with a babysitter.
Speaking of napping when necessary, it's time. Eric is sleeping and may stay asleep another hour or two with any luck, and that's a decent nap for me. Off I go.
Posted by Su Penn at July 5, 2003 07:45 AM | TrackBack