Audrey caught her first bug at Christmas. Its a virus of some sort that has been brutal on her poor little stomach, and torture for her brand new parents.
There was a point in time we vowed we would not be those "neurotic" parents that required everyone to purrell their hands when coming within 5 feet of our baby. Apparently the joke is on us. If you plan on visiting anytime soon be warned you'll need to medically scrub in before you even breathe near her.
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Apparently we are a filthy people.
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Monday, December 22, 2008
Audrey's first Bears vs.Packers game
When Daddy first plopped on the couch with Audrey and shared the importance of the Bears vs. Packers game, she was excited.
Then the game started and Daddy explained how the Bears were, I quote, "sucking ass".
Audrey's reaction...
Confusion.
Welcome to being a Bears fan, baby girl. It's not easy.
Friday, December 19, 2008
9 lbs
We had our follow up appt with the pediatrician this morning. Audrey blew her weight goal out of the water. Dad's reaction was...
hilarious.
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Strong evidence we will absolutely be nerd parents.
Exhibit A: When Audrey was fussing this morning my husband appealed to her with, "Listen, you need to go to sleep. This is important. I know you're feeling disorganized, but if you don't sleep we don't have harmony. We could plummet into chaos, which could eventually lead to anarchy and a Hobbesian state of nature. As a family, that's not what we want."
Exhibit B: Our little Aud ball does not like pacifiers. We've tried a bunch. Yesterday though we had some limited success with a model called the "Soothie". The Soothie is a strange little passie in that its made of very transparent rubber, and instead of a handy little ring for the baby or you to to grip on the end, its just hollow. (Side note: of course this is the one she's considering using, right?)
Anyway - the thing Mr. A immediately discovered is that if he looks at it from underneath, he can actually WATCH the mechanics of Audrey sucking with complete transparency. So, you can imagine how this went. Yes, baby science project #1. The Soothie Experiment:
It's like a messed up combination of "A Baby Story" and "CSI"
Monday, December 15, 2008
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Strong Finish
She has the homemaking skills of a... well... 30-year old single girl from Hollywood.
But she tried hard. And on her last day staying with us, my sister finally mastered how to make a decent sandwich. She even served it to us in bed. Now that's love.
Friday, December 12, 2008
First Outing
Audrey met her pediatrician today.
Vital Stats*
Weight: 70th percentile
Length: 70th percentile**
Head Circumference: I covered my ears and sang "la la la" to myself so I have no idea.
The short story from Dr. Wegner is she looks perfectly healthy. LaPlantes don't take that for granted, so I was extremely grateful and happy to hear it. Only issue that came up is we have to work on getting her to gain some weight. She was down a whole pound from her birth weight. The doctor reassured us this is perfectly normal, but wants to see her again in a week so we can make sure she's back on track.
In typical Anderson fashion, daddy is now on a one man mission to get his little girl fattened up. It's all about feeding, all the time. (In fact, if he could nurse her himself, he would.) We're now pretty steady at feeding every 2 hours, so I think she should be fine.
One other fun note about our trip to the doctor - Mr. A and I are such rookies we showed up there with absolutely nothing. No baby bag, no diapers, no change of clothes. Nada. So when she pooped on the exam table, we just looked at each other like, "Uh, um, so..." Duh!! We need to, like, have baby stuff with us, now, right?
It's a lot to adjust to.
- J&J
* These stats seemed strange to us since she was so damn huge at birth. Then the doc explained they're calculated off her stats for that visit. If you're interested, according to the hospital, as a point of comparison her breakdown for stats at birth was:
Weight: 85%
Length: 95%
HC: Unspeakable
**This is an especially bs stat. Dr. Wegner did a half-assed job measuring her while Miss Audrey was wiggling. The length was an inch and a half shorter than the measurement at the hospital. Watch this change over time. I'm betting the doctor will see "incredible growth!" on the next visit.
Thursday, December 11, 2008
It's a girl!!
Audrey Jane Anderson
December 7, 2008, 8:10 pm
8 lbs, 15 oz., 21.5 inches
Her Name:
Audrey after my great grandma. Jane after J's Grandmother.
Nicknames:
Audball. The A bomb. Little Monkey. Anderson Pooper.
Likes:
"Getting groceries" (aka nursing), plus sucking daddy's fingers, and the tip of his nose.
Dislikes:
Pacifiers. Sleeping.
Other Tricks:
Can scooch and crawl up daddy's chest if she's laying on top of him.
Can get her hands out of the tightest, most insanely snug swaddles.
Labor Details:
Not sure if it was the trip to Lowe's, acupuncture, the raspberry tea, or the curry dinner, or the combination of all of them but I started getting contractions on Saturday night around 10 pm or so. We called our doula at around 1 am.
Yup, I said doula. The first 7-8 hours of labor were at home with Mr. Anderson and our fantastic doula, Jen.
Now before you think I've gone all granola on you, the back story is this: My goal for labor was to put off medical intervention for as long as possible in order to protect my back. Sounds counter intuitive, but when you get an epidural you can't feel *anything*, which is problem because when you have a herniated disc, you only know if you're re-triggering the herniation by the type of pain you feel down your leg. If you can't feel any pain, you can't correct and realign. By pushing an epidural until as late as possible, I could move around and control my positioning, thereby protecting my lumbar area. (And as bonus, holding off on the epidural also reduced my chances of needing pitocin, thereby reducing my chances of c-section, which would have also put my back at risk, plus made recovery harder.) So there you go. Your type A working girl turns granola. Anything to never go through that back pain again.
Actually, I should say I was really happy with the experience I had during those first 8 hours. Not just because I successfully protected my back, but being at home was actually were a very special experience. Let me just say, my husband was an amazing support -- we really became a "team", and our doula kept us both calm. By the time we left to head downtown at sunrise, I was moving into active labor, but feeling confident and anxious to meet the baby.
At the hospital things got a little tougher. After the epidural, everything slowed down. I was really limited to just one position because of the pain meds and my back, which made dilation progress less quickly (freakin' 8 hours to go the last 3 cm!), and in the end pushing took 3 hours and yielded very little. We finally had to bring our baby into the world via "salad tongs" (Andersonese for Forceps).
In the end I was so exhausted I could barely see a foot in front of me, but when the baby actually came out Mr. Anderson lifted me up a little and in all the commotion, I only heard him. He said, "Look, it's Audrey!"
In that instant everything cleared away and we were a family. So here we are. She's perfect, healthy and feisty. We're very happy.
Give us a few more days to figure things out before you demand more pictures. (That means you, mom.) We truly appreciate all the good wishes and support.
Saturday, December 06, 2008
No baby. More clever thoughts...
So there's snow falling today, and due to budget cuts by the village we aren't going to have regular plowing and salting. This, naturally, has my hopes up. Of course the baby should come when the roads are slightly treacherous, right?
Also, we've decided to run some errands today. One of which is a trip to Lowes. After a year of construction, I can't think of anything more poetic than having my water break at a home improvement store. We're going to do some extra laps. I'm aiming for a clean up on the lumber aisle. Bwahahhahhaahahaha.
Thursday, December 04, 2008
1/4 of the cake gone. No baby. New game plan.
Chocolate cake with pure white icing and fresh rasberries.Grandma Jane would be proud.
I have an induction date of 12/12, but I really want to avoid the medical route if possible. So the get-the-baby-out plan is as follows:
Leftover crab legs last night.
Accupunture today.
Walking.
Rasberry Leaf Tea.
Plus some other things that would fall into the category of TMI.
My sweet baby daddy is trying persuasion. The night before last he told the baby that grandpa would build him/her an igloo if he/she would come out. And last night he offered cake. Baby doesn't seem impressed. We'll go for a pony tonight maybe. I'm getting desperate.
Wednesday, December 03, 2008
Re-due
No baby.
Yesterday was an oddly disappointing day.
For one, waking up on your due date and realizing there will be no baby that day (or at least being pretty sure you don't feel like you're likely to have a baby that day) is a fundamentally disappointing thing. In most obvious terms there's been 40 weeks of build up and then, nothing. And then "nothing" is followed up by impatience. (When when when then?) And then the phone calls start. I got at least 5. And you know, while I realize everyone is well-meaning, it's annoying. (BTW, I promise you, I'll let you know if I have the baby. You don't have to call.)
I now understand the brilliance of my friend Deborah's Due Date Cake. When I woke up yesterday, the one comfort I took was that at least I would get a due date cake. But then... I went to the doctor... and...
For reasons I can't quite explain, I was informed my due date is not Dec. 2, but today, Dec. 3. Weird, huh? The story goes like this: yesterday when I went to the Doctor's office I greeted the physician's assistant with, "Well, here we are! My due date and no baby." And she replied with, "Oh no, tomorrow, you mean." What?? After a little confused back and forth, plus me checking the chart twice, we confirmed that, medically at least, my due date is actually TODAY. Huh? How did that not come up in the LAST NINE MONTHS?!
So no baby, a new due date, and no due date cake.
Boooooo
Thank goodness for my fabulous in-laws, R&M, who decided to cheer me up (and help along labor) by taking me out to Shaw's for some delicious crab legs, lobster rolls, and oysters! If shellfish really does in fact move labor along, then I couldn't have gotten a better kick start. It was delicious.
Now, I'm off to start prepping the (revised) due date cake! Yum!
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