Weird Science

This morning, Anna's big poopy diaper was outweighed by Rachel's wet one. Keeping in mind that Anna outweighs Rachel by approximately 10 pounds, I am mystified. But then again science was never my best subject.

Firsts

Rachel laughed for the first time about a week and a half ago. I was holding her after a feeding and she was mostly asleep with her cheek pressed up against my chest and I looked down at her and said her name. At the sound of my voice, before her whole name was even out of my mouth, she giggled. It was such an amazing sound.

Then last weekend Anna blew me a kiss for the first time. Dan was taking her to bed and I was waving goodnight to her after smooching her cheeks. As Dan was walking out of the room with her, I blew her a kiss and she put her hand to her mouth and blew one right back at me. She is just so sweet.

And last Saturday morning I looked at the clock and noticed that it was 9:30 a.m. Then I realized that despite the fact that it was 9:30 a.m., everyone in the house was still asleep. Rachel, Anna, Dan. A miracle had indeed occurred. Rachel had been asleep for eight and a half consecutive hours.

About fifteen minutes later, Rachel woke up crying loud enough to wake Anna, at which point my house became bedlam for the day. But what a nice little present Mommy got for a Saturday morning!

Random Goofiness

Anna's latest goofiness

Twirling. Like a ballerina, only sillier. She puts her arms out and spins in circles until she's dizzy, then she falls down and laughs. Anna also enjoys a new evening ritual wherein we take her clothes off and she runs around in her diaper, shrieking in delight.

Rachel's goofiness

Ok, she's an infant and not really goofy, at least not knowingly, but she is smiling a lot more now and starting to stick out her tongue for no apparent reason.

Date night goofiness

Dan and I had our first night out together in over a year last Friday. No children. Free babysitting (thank you Dan's sister Amy). A quick dinner, the movie I've been wanting to see for months, ice cream after. And what am I thinking? That I am sad that I missed putting Anna to bed. Maybe not so much goofy as pathetic...?

Grandparent goofiness

As told to me by my dad, who visited my grandparents earlier today...

Grandpa (picking up the salad tongs): I need one of these for when I go pee.

Grandma: Ok, I'll go look for small ones.

Or Maybe Not So Much

We tried to recreate the scenario that led to Rachel sleeping all night. It didn't work. I KNEW there wasn't a Santa Claus.

Santa's Late Arrival

Yes, I am Jewish. And yes, I am 34 years old. But I am beginning to believe in Santa. Why? Because last night, my little Rachel finally slept through the night!

I was spoiled with Anna. She basically slept through the night from the start. A few fussy nights here and there, but she'd easily do six hour stretches at night, and soon was up eight to ten hours. I knew there would be payback this time around, but I forgot how utterly exhausting it is to have a child who likes to eat every three hours. Especially going back to work and having to deal with grownup life on no sleep.

The worst part about getting up with Rachel isn't even the feeding. It's trying to get her back down to sleep afterward. Either she wants to stay awake or she wants to be held. Getting her back to her crib is nearly impossible. Sometimes she will tolerate the swing, but that isn't the magic weapon it was with Anna. The low point was two nights ago, when after three hours of crying, she finally fell asleep in her carseat on our bedroom floor with her pacifier. So, I asked the expert (my mom) and she suggested putting rice cereal in Rachel's bottle before bed. I did just that at 10:00 last night. By 11:00 Rachel had finished her bottle, finally burped and cuddled with Daddy for a bit. She was in her crib by midnight. At 6:00 this morning I woke up and found her still asleep in her crib and happy. I even had time to blow dry my hair before she woke up at 6:30.

After two months of fussy sleepless nights, I consider this a belated Christmas miracle!

The Big Return

Ok, so I've let my shame about not keeping this blog updated run my life long enough. So I'm back. I can't promise that there won't be another seven month "hiatus", but I will do my best. Besides, I've been busy having my second child in a year - that is a somewhat time-consuming project.

Anna's little sister Rachel arrived on November 15, 2005. I was really hoping there would be at least one full year between the two children, but alas, I was carrying a Bornstein. Which basically means that she was going to do what she wanted, when she wanted. And indeed she did. Her due date was December 22nd. Somehow, I just knew I wouldn't go that long. Well, lo and behold, I start having contractions on Sunday night, November 13th. I couldn't really tell if the baby was just stretching or if I was having Braxton Hicks or what. But it wasn't frequent or painful, so I went to bed. Monday morning I was still having them, but how many times was I sent to the hospital when I was pregnant with Anna for the same thing? And they kept sending me home after giving me some meds, no problem, right? So I decide to go to work, after all, I had court. So I go to court. I go see a client at the jail. I go back to my office, drink a bunch of water, put my feet up. By early afternoon they were getting a little worse, so I call the doctor's office and head over to the hospital. Talk about denial, I left my laptop at the office, convinced I'd be back the next day.

I got the hospital at about 3pm. On the way, I call Dan and tell him not to worry about meeting me there, it's going to be just like the times this happened with Anna. After some tests, they give me some meds and check my cervix. I'm told that I'm not dialated, so that's good. I still think I'm going to sleep in my own bed that night. But now the contractions are getting a little more painful. Mom is in Florida, supposed to be there for another day and then head to New Jersey for a couple of days. So I am calling and updating her. She asks if she should try to take the last flight out that night or come in the morning. I am surprised. "You're coming back?" I ask her. I was still convinced they would be able to bring this whole thing to a stop.

But it's more serious than all the times this happened with Anna. I end up being admitted for the night. I get an IV with magnesium sulfate and morphine. They send in the nurse practioner to talk to me about what might happen when I deliver, and even send in the anesthesiologist to talk to me about the spinal. I spend the night a sweaty mess (a nice side effect of the mag) and waking up every so often with an especially painful contraction. By morning, no one can believe I haven't had the baby yet. Mid morning check shows that I am slightly dialated and 90% effaced. After more than 24 hours in the hospital, Dr. Houser arrives and tells me we need to get the baby out. I call Dan and tell him to leave work immediately. Rachel was born at 4:54 pm.

My biggest fear was that being not even 35 weeks along, Rachel would be rushed out of the room the minute she was born, but luckily she came out crying and looked good. I got to see her and kiss her, Dan got to hold her. After they had her assessed, they realized she needed some help with her lungs, but she did really well. She was only in the Special Care Nursery for six days and we had her home for Thanksgiving.

She's now over seven weeks old and she's wonderful. At her one month checkup she weighed over seven pounds. Anna can't get enough of her. She gives her hugs and kisses and today she said "hi Rachel". Ok, so it sounded more like "I way" but we knew what she meant. Now she just needs to teach her little sister how to sleep through the night.

I still can't believe I have children, girls, plural. It's been such a whirlwind year.

Anna's Weekend

Ok, so technically it's not over yet, but it's been so eventful!

Anna is now mobile - she has rolled over a handful of times before, but now she really has the hang of it. Yesterday she was laying on her back watching (what else?) Baby Einstein, and I walked out of the room for a minute. When I came back, she was on her tummy, happily playing with her toys. She actually stayed like that for several minutes before demanding to be returned to her back. She did it again when I was reading my magazine, later that day, and that night she rolled from her back to her tummy again, and then onto her back by herself, all in the same direction. I'm sure that within a couple of days she will be able to cross the room like that! Today she has also been practicing her rolling, letting her Daddy see it as well.

Just as exciting - Anna got her ears pierced yesterday! She was such a good girl. Her Grandma accompanied us to Easton, where we went to Claire's. Grandma held her while her Mommy kept an eye out for Child Protective Services ... (!). Anna cried for a few minutes, but recovered quickly and then took a bottle and hasn't seemed to notice the earrings since. They are nice, tasteful, small gold balls. She looks even more girly now. She also seemed to really love Easton, lots of eye candy for her.

Today she's been happy because her Daddy is not working, so she got some quality time with him. She took full advantage by giggling at all of his funny faces, and of course, spitting up all over his shirt with a big huge smile.