Okay this is the last time I will move URLs on this blog. After trying unsuccessfully to a) upload a photo and b) change the looknfeel, I have decided to return to the hosted version of Wordpress.
So here you have it: over40mama.wordpress.com
Please join me here!
The bean started to get really fussy this afternoon. Behold, the saga of our evening:
Try to put laundry away - baby wails.
Pick her up.
Bounce her.
Sing to her.
Think: Holy crap, when was the last we changed her diaper?
Change her diaper.
Bounce her again.
Sing to her again.
Put her in bouncy chair.
Feed her.
Burp her.
Put her in the comfy sling she fell asleep in yesterday
Success! For not very long.
Show her pictures that transfixed her yesterday.
Put those down after she swats you in the face.
Put her in stroller.
Walk around the block.
Return home. She’s quieting down…
Take her upstairs to see what’s going on there.
Note she may be finally sleeping - try to put her down.
Regret trying to put her down. Pick her up again.
Walk back downstairs.
Turn on Hawaiian music.
Bingo.
Armed with a notebook full of questions, I brought the bean to her one-month visit to the pediatrician on Thursday.
I love this pediatrician. She’s got crazy curly gray hair, and wears a stethescope around her neck adorned with a gaggle of stuffed bears. She is positively encyclopedic in her knowledge of pediatrics, and believes that no question is too stupid. I have already called her 3 times in 6 weeks - each time, she calls me back right away - and this despite the fact that she is the most sought-after ped in the East Bay. (She was also an art major in college, which tells me she’s got a lot more soul than your standard-issue by-the-numbers doc.)
Once we get the insurance info sorted, an assistant named Mary comes in and takes her vitals - the bean has grown an inch and a half and has put on two and a half pounds. (C notes that she now has a “regional manager” chin.)
Mary feels her back and scrunchs her legs to determine if her spine and hips are growing correctly (they are).
Dr P comes in and tells me that, yes, 5-6 weeks is a period of accelerated development, which explains the increase in fussiness. The mylan sheaths are forming around the neurons in her brain, her vision is crisping up, and she is learning how to track voices with her eyes. Her neck is still insanely vulnerable, as is her immune system. The gunk in her eye is normal - as her tear ducts get online - even though her left eye is clouded with filmy goop. All of these developments in her perception creates stressful and unpleasant conditions for a brand new bean. The remedy? Soothe her, play with her, give her neato stuff to look at.
After a gazillion hours of research and talking to myriad parents, doctors and alternative health practitioners, we opted to start vaccinating this week, too. (NB: This is a long and very charged topic so all I’ll say here is that I am more comfortable with the odds of side-effects than I am with the odds of contracting one of these diseases.)
Note to self: Be sure to get a lot of sleep the night before you vaccinate her again - she’ll be up all night fussing afterwards.
Speaking of sleep deprivation, C and I were driving somewhere the other day - he was driving - and I saw a parked truck start rolling backwards. I did a double take, thinking the truck was going to smack into the car behind it, and realized I had hallucinated the whole thing. The truck wasn’t rolling backwards. My brain was. Sleep deprivation has finally gotten to the point of hallucinations. So whee! No driving when I’m this tired, but at least there’s something fun about all this lack of sleep.