It's been a long time since I've let the blog go a whole month without updating! I wouldn't say I've been particularly busier, but it's harder to get a stretch of time where I can create a cohesive blog post. I get a few minutes here and there, but not a whole serious chunk to work with. I've been breaking down my productive time into smaller chunks and taking more frequent, shorter sit breaks so I can try to last throughout the entire day. Last week, I spent a workday out in the field with a customer, watching him plant corn, and I was impressed with how exhausting it was. It really took me two days at home, laying around and sleeping a ton at night, to catch up and not feel utterly exhausted.
And now it is being demanded that I read books. See? can't put together a train of thought at all anymore...
It really seemed like a milestone to hit the 34-week mark last week, where I've got about 6 weeks left of this insane discomfort. Trav and I worked last weekend to get the nursery cleaned and vacuumed (and found a used diaper underneath the changing table! yech!!), so it's nice that that is all ready. The rocker is up there, although I need to do some alterations with blankets and such to make sure I can sit more comfortably in it. With my previous babies, it was very, very obvious that the rocker was not made for nursing - hard wooden armrests that are way too high, and the seat is too wide. I'm going to try to stuff it with blankets and such to make it more comfortable, if only that doesn't make it too high to climb into, and more importantly, to get out of while holding a sleeping baby.
I saw an article today about the 5 S's for soothing a baby, outlined in Happiest Baby on the Block. I haven't read the book but I know people who have and who swear by it. The 5th S is sucking, but it's viewed as a last resort - which is exactly how I want to parent!! Even after two babies, I feel like cramming something into their mouths is the lazy way out, and unnecessary. It just teaches that they have to have something in their mouths to feel soothed, and I'm STILL fighting my 4YO on that topic. Emily might still have ended up with her oral tendencies, but I wish, wish, wish I would have acted on my intuition that she should not suck her thumb instead of pretending it would go away on its own (ha!). More on that later. I would much prefer to have it not be an issue with my last kid - maybe I can get one right - especially after 3 months, when apparently the 5 S's are less effective and the kid has generally got a good start on self-soothing. The main reason I didn't force an end to the thumbsucking or blanket chewing was because I wanted them to be able to soothe themselves while at daycare, but it's not necessary after the age they'll go there, anyway!
So, yeah, I took Emily to the orthodontist a few weeks ago, to investigate whether she needs orthodontic interaction to keep her stupid thumb out of her mouth. He said she's a little young to do that, and gave us a few suggestions (all of which freak Emily out because she really doesn't want to stop sucking her thumb, she just wants us to quit bothering her about it). They were clever - make a sock puppet for her to wear on her preferred hand at nighttime, or wrap an ace bandage around her elbow so it's harder for her to get her hand to her mouth while she's asleep. But yeah, we're probably just going to have to go in when she starts to get her first loose tooth and hope it's not too late for her bite to correct itself. She may be in for braces later in life anyway, but it'd be nice for her to not be self-conscious all through elementary school, whether it's the complete lack of a bite, or gap in her teeth, or whether she can go to a Girl Scout camp-out without fear of being made fun of at bedtime.
Naptime for one girl, book for the other...
Audrey has been accident-free for at least a week now. I'm SO relieved!! I think it might finally have been a long enough stretch of succesful days that it would be weird for her to actually go in her pants, and she will prefer to hold it and try to put it in the right place. I know that these days, 2 1/2 is a pretty common age for kids to be potty trained, but she COULD do it 6 months ago and was tripped up by all kinds of things, mostly that horrendous pooping situation. We've cut out onions and garlic from her diet, although I think there may be more culprits out there, possibly peanut butter? I think she's sensitive to food colorings, but that's an emotional thing. She completely freaked out on two different days that she had storebought cookies with lots of different food dyes in them. We got rid of the cookies (okay, I ate them), and without changing anything else, her tantrums are really pretty manageable. I mean, she's 2, she's gonna do some of that, but these other two days were absolutely insane. At least half an hour, flopping around and screaming, looking at me like I was standing over her with a knife. It was actually a little scary, and i could tell she didn't like it either; it wasn't manipulative. She was just plain out of control. So, I guess that makes me even more of a hippie mama, but I feel like I should apply the knowledge that I do have, at least.
Speaking of hippie mama, I'm pleased to report that my girls will now eat broccoli!! Haha!! Audrey finally tried it and ate 3 trees in one night. Emily will eat one small tree in order to qualify for dessert, without howling or gagging. She's on her way. They will eat cabbage (I sold those as noodles) if they've got sweet and sour sauce on them, and then I can mix in carrot slivers, cauliflower (which they also like roasted and doused in ketchup, so they're almost like french fries), and green peppers, sliced thinly. Audrey likes peas ("Crunchy!" she says), and Emily will eat them smashed up in mashed potatoes with ketchup, or doused in tuna casserole. They genuinely like sweet potatoes, and they don't flinch at a whole mess of veggies that are pureed and mixed into something tasty (spaghetti sauce, mexican rice, etc.). I'm pretty proud of them!!
Okay, we've covered pregnancy, each girl, food... I'm still waiting for my promotion at work. I've got a meeting set up with my boss for Thursday afternoon, which he will probably blow off, but I've emailed him and cornered him and cannot get him to actually sit down and write a proper job description for me. That is the ONLY thing this process is waiting on. He's down to 5 weeks of me left at work, and I'm gonna totally let people know how irritated I am if this drags into my maternity leave. Yes, it may seem inappropriate for me to get a raise right before I'm paid for 6 weeks off for work, but it still doesn't make up for the past 6 months of being paid less than I should have been. Plus pain and suffering for being jerked around. :) I'm really reluctant to follow through on my threat to find a new position at ISG, because I really do like the projects in my current position, and I like my coworkers, and I feel like i'm on the verge of accomplishing something very satisfying when I return next fall. And, positions elsewhere in ISG will be a lot of fighting for process change, which is not particularly what I enjoy. But really, I feel like I need to call his bluff, and changing jobs when I return from leave is a pretty good option.
And of course, Travis is pretty excited because he just accepted a new position at JDF. He doesn't officially start until June 1, so I won't post much for details, but he has officially accepted it so I think it's safe to announce it in this forum. :) He was a total lunatic during the whole process because he was absolutely convinced that this was the perfect job for him. He was so adept at expressing his desire for the job that the hiring manager jokingly admitted to one of his old bosses that if she didn't hire him, he might kill himself. Which, considering how much alcohol he might have consumed in soothing himself, may not have been far off. :) Anyway, he deserves a lot of credit for how he went about pursuing the job - he was incredibly prepared for the interview, spent hours preparing his resume and cover letter, sent a whole bunch of emails asking people he's worked with to recommend him to the hiring manager, and even scheduled a meeting with the hiring manager before he applied - for which he was prepared with a whole list of good questions. And at each step along the way, he fretted and overanalyzed and worried and was superstitious and went running to get the jitters out -- he was seriously a lunatic! :) His old boss told the hiring manager that when she read the job description, she recognized it as the job Trav has talked about for years as his ideal job. He has great things to say about this hiring manager, so he has high hopes for this being a satisfying position. It just leaves me a little annoyed that in two weeks he got a promotion that I haven't been able to get pinned down for months.
...helping Emily with an activity throughout writing this...
I did a toddler busy-bag exchange with some friends, and it has been the coolest thing! There were 15 different moms who signed up, so I made one activity 15 times, and then we had a potluck and exchanged games. So far, Emily has really enjoyed 3 activities we've gotten out, but I'll admit I'm rationing them to get maximum interest out of them! Some of them are just right for Audrey, and some are a challenge for Emily yet. They're the kind of thing they can do without that much help from me, or if it is help, it's mostly verbal explanation. So, I'm picturing this being a go-to thing for us while i'm sitting and nursing a baby for hours on end. Most of these activities have some serious math learning going on, disguised as play. So, I don't know if this was just a particularly well-run busybag exchange, but I am SO glad I signed up to participate!
I woke up this morning with two girls in my bed, snuggling with me, poking at the baby, offering me toes for breakfast, singing, and talking so nicely to each other. It was so awesome. I absolutely love that Emily is starting to figure out that she really can catch more flies with honey, and she talks so sweetly to Audrey. And Audrey is responding more now to demands that she use her words, not just howl and push, which is pretty awesome. And they really, really love each other, and giggle and sing and hug spontaneously. This baby girl has a lot of catching up to do!!
