bird & bears

Robin slept through the night again. My brain doesn't believe it, but my body does: I am no longer waking up completely at 2 am and 4 am as I have been. Sometimes she's getting up really early, but I'm not complaining. Hoping this is a real trend that will continue. Loving it.

Holly is refusing bottles and sippies from the sitter. I don't know what to do. I wish she was a little older so I could leave some solids for her, but that's a month away. I guess I will probably have to work from home and hope that once she hits 6 months, she likes solids enough to get through the morning. She isn't inconsolable or even super fussy, she just doesn't want a bottle and eventually she gets really hungry. She's also almost completely off the pacifier: she only takes it from me, when she's completely relaxed and nearly asleep, and I do it just so I don't have to lie there with my boob in her mouth until she's completely out.

Her naps are weird. She's dropped an evening nap entirely. She's up from about 3:30 until bedtime at 7:30. She still takes a morning nap, and then may or may not take a late morning nap depending on if I'm home (if not, no dice). She naps twice in the mid-afternoon. Really, what she needs is a long morning nap and a long afternoon nap (by long I mean more than 45 minutes!). I tried the whole "go in before she wakes up to nurse her" thing a few weeks ago and it didn't really work, so I quit before I got frustrated unnecessarily. May try it again, though, at least with the naps I'm around for. But I'm hopeful, hopeful... having a real bedtime routine has already reduced her wakings between her bedtime and mine to one brief one, so that's good.

Sleep. The topic of my life.

See more pics of her party here.

Still nursing!

Holly is 4 weeks old today.


Happy birthday to you, my girls.

Or as Robin would say, "happy day noodles."

If you are a breastfeeding mom on my lj list, please consider becoming an adopt_a_mom mentor. There's a short application process and you need to have nursed for 1 year. It's very easy (the most time-intensive part is right after the birth, when you're perhaps sending emails back and forth once or twice a day, or hunting down info on kellymom) and extremely rewarding. You get to decide how many mentees you take on, and how intense that relationship is. For example, right now I have 2 mentees and we email back and forth about once a week (one late July baby, one August baby). Right now AAM has had to STOP accepting mentees because they are overwhelmed with moms wanting help and do not have enough mentors.

Brian is off work today so I can type two-handed. Wow does it feel amazing. He and Robin are sitting nearby making faces at each other and having a conversation. She's really coming into her own little personality right now, cooing and gurgling and making lots of faces. It's pretty freaking awesome.

So, we still haven't heard from the guy about his condo and whether or not it will be available. And all of a sudden today I got impatient about it and emailed him basically saying "we would vastly prefer to rent from you but if nothing changes by the end of the semester, we're going to look elsewhere." I poked around a bit to see what's available and it looks like we should be ok if we don't dawdle on finding a new place. There were even a few options that looked preferable/nice! The trick is finding places around here that are cat-compatible. We decided that our must-haves are: cat friendly, laundry hook ups (in-unit w/d even better!), dishwasher. (We're looking for 2 bedroom/2 bath.) After that, we'd prefer a first floor place, covered parking, and not an apartment (I'd love a duplex, or something where we don't have to share walls and halls with people).

Usually I'm a complete fucking mess about finding housing, but this time around I'm just trusting that the right place is out there for us. I was encouraged by the stuff I saw just poking around.

I'm trying to focus on getting my homework for my indy study done. Fortunately we set it up so I don't have that much to do (I think about 24 articles to read, grouped into "units" about which I need to do a little write-up, and then a final "essay" that's about theory-into-practice type stuff). I have about four weeks to get it all done, and I'm almost through one unit. The trick has been finding time to write. I can read while nursing but not write a paper - not yet, anyway. At any rate, I think that's achievable. And hopefully I can stay on top of grading. OMG I can't wait for summer. Can't. Wait. So. Ready.

Oh. This is fucked up. Apparently someone somehow got ahold of Brian's debit card number and used it to run up a $600 charge at a gambling site through Ireland. So now he's had to run all over town to the bank and cops and everything to get the money returned. It's a huge pain in the ass -- shouldn't it NOT be? We're not the bad guys here. Why do we have to do so much weird paperwork to get back money we didn't spend?

I've been obsessing over Robin's diaper situation. I so dislike disposables. I'm psyched: babycatcher33 did a Goodmama lotto and I got one!! The holy grail of cloth diapering and I get to try it out. Brian asked if I was going to sell it :P funny enough that hadn't even occurred to me. I'm excited to try it.

We need to get Robin's birth certificate taken care of. If we do it within the next week, we won't have to go down to the Soc Sec office and get her number. That's our goal: to avoid more hassle. We have to find a notary public. Do you have to make an appointment with a notary, or do they just hang out waiting for people to show up for notarizing purposes?

Robin is getting chunky and strong. She's getting really good at head control - nursing her at night is so much easier now. I think she's almost to where she'll hold her head up. Exciting! I think wearing her will be a lot easier once she can do that.

Sorry I'm just rambling. It's just so amazing to be able to type fast.

Robin is getting hungry but I don't want to have her back. I'm annoyed at how little Brian takes over her care when he's off work. I'd like a little more break time, you know?? I keep thinking that his days off will be days where I can accomplish things I haven't been able to that really require time and two hands, like some serious laundry sorting/putting away, and writing, and shaving my legs. It's not working out that way. I think it will get better. We had some serious talks this week that I think might result in some big changes. More on that later, probably. Yeesh.

OK. She's really getting fussy. I'm off!