Tuesday, June 10, 2008

More Maggie stories

Yeah, my life is one note right now. Get over it.

I forgot a couple other cute stories. We actually were brave enough to try to bathe the poor child. We got one of those infant tubs with a sling and that thing worked REALLY well. Unfortunately, as soon as baby got in it and got wet she pooped. Yay! What fun. Brand new tub, now poopy. Guess it’s real baby furniture now. And she didn’t even cry – much – during the bath. We were terrified but it worked out, and I think next time we might even try soap!

One of the times she was hysterical I tried sitting in the bath with her. Again, immediately, poop. And this time, ON me since I was holding her, not the sling. Well that was fun. John’s only gotten peed on. I feel like the privileged parent. I got peed on immediately after her birth AND now was the first recipient of a generous out-of-diaper poo (well first human – there’s been plenty on the changing table and in the clothes). I really can’t wait for my own washer/dryer. We had to have a friend bring quarters for us!

Speaking of, friends have been wonderful. We’re really blessed to have food brought almost every night. And mostly good stuff, although we got a comical number of bread loaves, ice creams, and fruits (particularly cherries, which are in season at the farmer’s markets – got several pounds now, John’s considering making a pie). My one sadness is the friend who was bringing sushi last night came down sick. The one meal I was REALLY looking forward to!

And I should report that the cats are doing remarkably well. They’ve always hated babies so we didn’t know what to expect. Kitty, the older one, took to her immediately and likes to sniff and lick her (which we don’t allow much of). She also wants to sleep with us, and the baby, in the bed, which is making for quite the crowded situation. Tyke, the bitchy one, is less thrilled with the whole thing – and cries loudly whenever baby cries – but at least there’s been no violence (at least, only to me and John – we both are sporting huge scratches – and to one friendly visitor who crossed her path). Overall, we’re trying to encourage guests to spend time with the cats, and are giving lots of treats and reassurance. But Tyke caught on too fast and now when the baby cries, she runs over to her treat place and stands there looking at you. Yeah, that cat isn’t super bright, except when it comes to her food.

Anyway those are a couple more things I wanted to share.

3 comments:

Vitaly Kartsev said...

Yeah, my life is one note right now. Get over it.

Dude, you had a baby. You're allowed to hold forth on baby stuff. :-D

Reading all the stories with pleasure and glad things are going so well for you. I'm keeping all three of you in my prayers and hope you and J. get as much rest as you can.

JTB said...

Our cat seems to have quite the maternal instinct as well. I'll post the link to our pics of the first few minutes after arriving home from hospital...

Just read your first week post as well and it brought back so much remembered angst. But you are right--advice is always conflicting and the best thing to do is trust your own instinct. The feeding interval, for instance...and gaining back to within an ounce of birth weight so soon proves you right!

I'm really glad breastfeeding seems to be going well. Clare was great right away too. My crisis didn't hit until Day 10 (oversupply issues interfering with latch on). But keep talking to friends/family/experts because there is a lot of help out there, and problems are usually simple to fix once you can identify what's going on...

I'm sorry to hear you're so sore and that recovery is harder than expected. I lucked out so I don't have any good advice other than to share the best advice I got, which was to remember my job was Clare and ONLY Clare, and everyone else's job was to make it possible for me to do mine.

Can't wait for the birth story!!!

JTB said...

oops, here's the link to our kitty-meets-baby pics:

http://rudetruth.blogspot.com/2006/06/cat-meets-baby.html