White and Urpy

Because I'd be a bad blogger if I didn't share every silly thing that I find on the web, I just had to let you know that Weird Al Yankovic's new "White and Nerdy" parody of Chamillionaire's "Ridin'" is really too funny. Of course, I think it says something about me that I find it so terribly amusing. :P With lyrics like:

I got a business doing websites
When my friends need some code, who do they call?
I do HTML for ‘em all
Even made a homepage for my dog

How can I not laugh? (After all, I'm just too white and nerdy. ;) On a related note, we discovered that Max's aforementioned interest in the Numa Numa Dance has been taken to the next level. If he hears the song playing, he'll now DO the Numa Numa Dance around the room. He even does the head movements -- the first time he did it I was laughing too hard to think about getting the video camera (even though he won't ever perform for the camera anyway).

As far as babies are concerned, it seems that Molly is showing signs of reflux. We were hoping that she wouldn't take after Max in that respect, but she's been super urpy and fussy the last few days. Since Max had it we at least know what to look for and how to deal with it, but we'll probably have to talk to the pediatrician about our treatment options at Molly's well-baby checkup next week. The reflux isn't interfering with her appetite or her weight gain, however -- Molly has passed the 11 pound mark! Since she'll be nine weeks old tomorrow, Molly technically only has another week of doctor-recommended house arrest. So, health, weather, and mom paranoia permitting, Molly might be able to get out and about a bit more and meet (a very small, well-sanitized, totally healthy section of) the public.

Max seems to have rallied a bit from his recent bout of teething and has been a jolly little soul the last couple of days. He's becoming more of a little boy and less of a baby every day -- I can't believe he's almost two! Having Molly made him seem more grown up overnight. He's learning new words every day now and he'll try to repeat a lot of things that you say. Max also constantly finds new and exciting ways to get into mischief. He's also gotten tall enough to reach into our kitchen drawers and pull out cooking implements, so we're going to have to put baby locks on those too. The other day he figured out that he could smoosh his Nuby cup spout into the front of the fridge and make water come out. After he'd accumulated a sizable puddle (unbeknownst to me), he proceeded to walk through it, getting his socks wet. Apparently squelchy socks are really fun, because he spent several minutes walking back and forth across the kitchen floor and laughing. I finally started to wonder WHY walking back and forth in the kitchen was so much fun and went to investigate. I then promptly removed the wet socks, causing Max to cry because I was ruining his fun.

The only other (not so exciting) news here is that I managed to catch my first cold of the year. Along with permission slips and school newsletters, the big kids brought home the first nasty bugs of the season. I don't get sick often and I haven't been sick since I was first pregnant with Molly, so this was an unpleasant surprise. I've been liberally applying Purell in the hopes that Max and Molly won't get sick as well. Ugh!

Fat Babies Have No Pride

(Who can resist the occasional Lyle Lovett reference ;)

Molly is eight weeks old and growing like crazy -- it's hard to believe that the chubby little girl in front of us was such a little peanut less than two months ago. She's over 10 1/2 pounds now and growing out of her "little baby" clothes already. Max spent so long in his preemie and newborn clothes that it seems strange that it's already time to pack up Molly's smaller outfits. She's already chunked up enough to have a "nacho neck" that we need to clean carefully during baths ("nacho neck" being an obscure Beavis and Butthead reference and describes a neck with enough chubby folds and creases that one could potentially use it for the storage of snacks ;).

Happily, although Molly lost a lot of her hair on the top of her head, she doesn't seem to be losing all of it and the missing hair is already growing back. Hopefully her receeding hairline and extreme widows peaks won't be noticeable for much longer! So far it looks like she'll be a total brunette and won't even have the "almost blonde" hair that Max has. But, it's a little early to tell yet -- she might surprise us. I'm just glad I won't have to cut it -- I'm still procrastinating about getting Max's hair cut for the first time (and, no, he does NOT have a baby mullet -- he has baby curls).

Max is still in full-blown toddler mode -- it's all his way, all the time (or so he'd like to believe). He's still being a super picky eater, which we're hoping is a passing phase, since he's always happily eaten a wide variety of things. He's become really fascinated with toy cars -- this must be an inherent boy trait, because we've never taught him to play with cars. Nevertheless, lately he'll go steal one from his big brother's room, carry it into his room, and start driving it around on the floor while saying, "vroom, vroom." So, we had to get him some cars of his own, which he happily drives around the house. Max has also been learning his animal sounds, which is very cute. He now knows what dogs, cats, birds, monkeys, lions, and monsters say (in case you didn't know, monsters say "raaaarr raaaarr" while waving their arms around).

I also let Max make his artistic debut last week -- his great grandma would have been proud. I gave him an old box of crayons (the 64 pack, mind you) and let him go to town. With a little prompting from Mom, he made a very colorful piece of squiggle art before he decided it was MUCH more fun to dump all the crayons out and play with them instead. But, I'm sure it won't be long before he's creating amazing works of art all over the white walls (there's a good reason I set him up in his high chair to color). :P

It's starting to feel a lot like fall already -- my favorite season. The leaves are starting to turn and you can already hear geese flying over the house on their way to more temperate climes. It's time to visit some orchards, drink some cider, bake a couple of pies, and make some pasties. Grandma and Grandpa managed to score some Honeycrisp apples and were nice enough to share their good fortune with us. Mom can't stop eating them and even Max the Persnickety decided that they were worth trying. I'm currently contemplating what Max and Molly want to be for Halloween (since they don't have an opinion) and whether or not I want to make their costumes myself. However, it'll be hard to beat Max's awesome costume from last year.

Back to Normal

Dad is home from his trip and we're all glad to see him! It's good to know that I can handle everything on my own, but it's even nicer to know I don't have to. I had my six-week checkup with my OB yesterday and I've been cleared to return to all my normal activities. The lab results from my placenta were in, but they didn't shed much light on the reason for my pPROM. There was some indication that there could have been a possible infection (which could have caused my water to break prematurely), but nothing obvious or clear cut. So, I'll never have any concrete answers for why my babies came early, which is frustrating, but not uncommon. My OB seemed relieved to hear that we wouldn't be having any more children, since I'm sure that would have been her recommendation anyway. Apparently the combination of our genetic material is too powerful for any mere mortal to contain. :P

Molly is officially a "big" baby -- she weighed in at just over 10 pounds tonight!! She now has multiple chins and little rolls of baby fat on her legs. She's getting good at holding up her head and looking around -- she's especially interested in lights and windows. She still really likes to be held and has become extremely proficient at deciding she is hungry or needy at the exact time that I'm doing something with Max (making his lunch, changing his diaper, getting him ready for bed, etc.). I swear that she's doing it on purpose. Max doesn't like it when she cries -- he gets all worried and upset. So far, he seems to think that little sisters are a bit of a pain in the butt -- they take over Mom's arms and lap, they're noisy, they commandeer almost all of the burp clothes (which Max has always used as comfort blankets), and they don't go away! On the positive side, it's fun to push them in their swings, point out their eyes and nose, play "this little piggy" with them, and give them kisses on the head.

On a related preemie note, the March of Dimes is trying to convince Google to create a doodle for Prematurity Awareness Day. Please take a moment to sign the petition and help raise awareness of the growing problem of premature birth.

On the Job

Mom is managing to hold down the fort without Dad just fine -- thank goodness that I'm good at multi-tasking, since both babies invariably need or want me at the very same time! I think Molly purposely decides that she's hungry whenever I put Max in his high chair and start fixing his meal. Max has been fairly crabby the last few days -- he either misses Dad or his eyeteeth are making another push! Max and I did discover a new favorite video on the Net. Although this was the talk of the Internet a couple of years ago, Max thinks that the infamous Numa Numa Dance by Gary Brolsma is very entertaining (who knew that living in your parents' basement could get you so far in life? ;) After repeated viewings, we began to realize that Molly bore a striking resemblance to the Numa Numa guy. Can we say Baby Numa?

I think we've moved past the jinx stage -- Molly is officially a nursling. :) The big, green pump has been unplugged and is en route to the closet. Having to work a little harder for her supper doesn't appear to have interfered with Molly's weight gain at all -- at last night's weigh in she tipped the scales at a whopping 9 lbs, 9 oz. She's outgrowing her newborn clothes, so I'd better get out the box of 0-3 clothes that I have waiting in the wings. I have decided that the much-praised Boppy nursing pillow is really pretty useless for nursing. It makes a great arm rest and it's a wonderful place to prop up reflux-y babies while you clean bottles or pump parts, but it really doesn't facilitate the nursing process much at all. With Max, I thought it just didn't work well because he was so small, but it doesn't work any better with Molly. The babies always slide down into the "Boppy hole" between the pillow and your stomach, which makes things fairly awkward if you're trying to get a fussy baby to latch. So, I've gone back to the basic cradle hold and demoted the Boppy to the position of glorified arm rest. ;)

I'm slowly catching up with a few projects around the house (and I do mean slowly). I am proud to report that the refrigerator has been thoroughly cleaned from top to bottom. Happily, the life forms that were evolving in the back of the fridge had not quite reached sentience, so we didn't have any problematic Prime Directive conflicts to resolve. (I'd like to point out that I can only make such a geeky TNG reference because I did, in fact, live in my parents basement at one point.) I have my six-week post-partum checkup this week, so I should be cleared to return to a normal level of activity (like chasing a toddler and toting around a newborn isn't activity enough for anyone). That means that my guilt-free loafing period is about to expire and it's time to get back into an exercise routine and start eating better. Tomorrow. ;)

A Moment of Silence

The Day She Was Due

This is the day that Molly was due to be born. It seems strange to think that she should still have been in my belly all this time -- I feel like her birth day was a long, long time ago. It's hard now to imagine a world that didn't have Molly in it. Although I'm happy and relieved that she's here with us, safe and sound, I can't say that I'm not a little sad that I didn't make it to term. It would have been nice to have lasted out those few extra weeks and been able to have a nice, normal birth experience and a take home baby. But, there's no use crying over spilt milk (unless it's breastmilk, in which case one must cry ;) -- I'm grateful that we made it as far as we did and that Molly has done so well. She's a beautiful, amazing little girl and an absolute joy -- we don't need to make the pages of Vanity Fair to know that!

So, as of today, Molly is officially newborn according to her adjusted age. Even though she's five weeks old now, she gets six weeks of preemie credit as far as her developmental milestones go. Since she's a later gestation preemie, chances are she'll catch up to her actual age much faster than Max did. She's definitely doing well in the eating and growing department. Since she now weighs 8 lbs, 15 oz -- she's gained more than three pounds since she was born. I think it is safe to say that she would have been a good sized baby if she had decided to stay put. As a comparison, when Max made it to his original due date (he was three months old at the time), he only weighed a hair over 6 lbs. I'm starting to think that Max had better be nice to his little (big!) sister. ;)

I hate to jinx things by posting this, but I think we might finally have a nursing baby! Molly started nursing full feeds earlier this week and she hasn't had to have any supplementary bottles in over two days. I've been able to cut back on my pumping, in an attempt to get my supply to meet Molly's actual demand (instead of the demand of Molly times three!). It's still a bit of a struggle to get her to latch on properly and remember what those darn things are for, but we've made tons of progress in the last couple of days. So, instead of taking an hour and a half to feed Molly (attempted nursing, followed by a bottle feeding, followed by pumping, followed by cleaning up bottles and pump parts), it only takes a half an hour and I no longer end up with dishpan hands! It took Max six months before he got to this point, so we managed to shave five months off of the process (thank goodness!).

Max is still keeping us laughing and on our toes. He had his very first ice cream cone this week. He's been a fussy eater lately and is highly suspicious of any unfamiliar food. When I presented him with his vanilla ice cream cone (Guernsey Farm ice cream, no less!), he gave me the stink eye and initially refused to try it. He finally took the teeniest, tiniest lick and then his eyes lit up and he started signing "more, more, more." After that I didn't have any trouble convincing him to finish it (even though Mom had to help him out a bit).

Max had a play date with one of his NICU buddies yesterday. It is always so funny watching two toddlers chase each other around. Each of them was convinced that the other one was the "baby." To make up for the fact that Max climbed over her and pulled her hair during their last play date, his little friend decided that this time she'd give him a run for his money. They played very nicely together, even with the highly desirable toys (which turned out to be a puppy board book and a play cell phone). They kept taking the toys from each other, but nobody got too crabby about it. Max kept signing for "more" and saying please when his friend took away a toy he wanted -- too cute! Max seemed to enjoy getting out of the house with Mom, especially since his attention-hogging little sister didn't come along.

Dad is going on a golf trip next week, so Mom will be home alone with the babies. I'm getting fairly good at juggling two little ones, so I think we'll manage just fine. I'll just have to make sure the fridge is well stocked and I've run all the necessary errands, since we're not ready for Molly to make her public debut yet. Wish me luck!

Happy Labor Day!

It's business and usual over at our house today -- neither Mom nor Dad has to work, except for changing diapers, feeding babies, doing laundry, picking up toys, or cleaning little faces and hands. ;) Mom and Molly are trying to spend as much quality nursing time as possible, so we can get past that last hurdle and get Molly nursing full time. This can sometimes be challenging when Max is in the room -- he always decides that when I'm feeding the baby is a really good time to bring me his heaviest toys and try to deposit them on my lap (thereby clunking Molly in the head). This afternoon while I was nursing he brought me the train station that attaches to his Little People train track (he was happy to detach it just for the occasion), the bulk cashew container that he snaked off the counter, several volumes of our ChildCraft kiddie encyclopedias, and a really heavy toy train. Happily, I managed to prevent him from squashing the baby with his toys while managing to keep Molly latched on. Victory! Perhaps to thumb her nose at her meddling brother, Molly set a new personal nursing record -- 128 mls! If only we could convince her to do it consistently!

Molly is still eating and growing like crazy. She weighed in at 8 lbs, 4 oz the day before yesterday, so I'm guessing she'll hit 8 1/2 pounds when I weigh her tonight. I realized today that I spend more time holding Molly than I did with Max, even though I have more demands on my time now. I'm not sure why -- maybe we were so afraid of overstimulating Max (he was very easily overstimulated for a while after coming home) that we thought he was more comfortable in his bassinet or his bouncy seat. I'm almost a little sad about that now. Molly loves to be held and she's never happier than when she's snuggling with Mom or Dad. I let her sleep on my chest while I'm reading or watching TV and we have lots of nice snoozes together. We were given a sling that lets you wear the baby upright against your chest -- as soon as my lazy butt gets downstairs to watch the instruction video, we're planning on making use of that as well.

On a completely unrelated note, I'm sure everyone has heard about Steve Irwin. I was up pumping in the middle of the night last night and saw the report of the accident on an Australian news site. I'm not sure why, but I'm really saddened by his death -- my heart goes out to his family.