The first couple nights with Katie home were pretty rough, but we got through them. I couldn't fall asleep the first night, I was so anxious. Yesterday Richard drove us to her pediatrician for the first checkup, and I fell asleep while we waited. When we got home, I left her asleep in her carseat and napped on the sofa. Bobby's parents arrived in the afternoon, and they entertained her this morning while I got a bit more sleep. I'm feeling pretty okay now, but looking forward to sleeping again.
We put together the pack and play, and she's sleeping in the napper in that instead of in her crib upstairs. That's making it a lot easier for me, since I can sleep with Bobby in my bed and still hear her easily and get up with her. I did spend a bit of time on the couch, though.
My mind is mushy. I'm so glad to have help. I'm afraid of how it'll be when they leave.
Showing posts with label inlaws. Show all posts
Showing posts with label inlaws. Show all posts
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Monday, September 21, 2009
Procrastination
Getting ever closer to my due date, and it seems to be making me lazy. Or I was lazy already, and now I just have a ready excuse. It's probably the latter, but I've nicely justified it to myself by saying I have to slack before a tiny dictator arrives. =D Total sense, right? This week I have to clean however, so I'm procrastinating with Gilmore Girls and blog posting.
Bobby called me slightly panicked this morning: he thought his parents were going to be here at the same time. My mom's baby shower is this weekend, so they were both invited, but my mother in law seems to be boycotting group visitation. We already told Bobby's dad he could have the bed in the nursery. His mom emailed yesterday to confirm it was okay for her to come October 2, and Bobby told her she could have the bed. Then, this morning, he realized that the baby shower is this weekend, and, for some reason, thought it was also October 2. So yeah, obviously, he was a little concerned about having promised the same bed to each parent and accompanying spouse for the same weekend.
So, about that. I kind of thought my mother in law would have taken an interest in one of the baby showers. She's sent a couple emails about the baby. When we first told her, she sent an announcement to her mailing list and forwarded the well wishes she got back. She sent us some pictures of Halloween costumes ideas for next year. I'm not sure if she's making token outreaches because she feels obligated or if she wants to be more involved and isn't sure how to go about it. It is, however, terribly difficult to make delicate inquiries into Ann's thought processes. She reads into things. So, uh, yeah. Not sure what to do there. Then again, I thought it would have been easy enough to attend a party with 30 other people, half of whom she was related to. Now I'm wondering if she would've come to the wedding if Bobby and I had done that whole thing. No reason to dwell though, right?
Gilmore Girls is so awesome. I feel like a dork, kind of, watching tv on my computer by myself. I just love the sarcasm. And I love that Alexis Bledel has hips. It makes me wonder about how to build a relationship like theirs (and mine with my mom) with my daughter without being a single mom. Or, more simply put, it makes me hope extremely hard that she likes me. Not that I wasn't hoping that anyway. I think I'm safe for about a decade though, yeah?
I'm glad she's not a boy. I'll have a much easier time giving the sex talk to a girl. Get some practice in, then have it with the boy we're hopefully going to have next. I might be a little ahead of myself here. I also read a book about how to deal with the colic I don't know she'll develop. Granted, I thought it was about forming good sleeping habits when I bought it. Then once I realized it wasn't, I figured the knowledge couldn't hurt and read it anyway. I still want a book on the sleeping thing. If there's a way to help a baby sleep, I want to know about it. You know, short of head injuries and spiked bottles.
Bobby called me slightly panicked this morning: he thought his parents were going to be here at the same time. My mom's baby shower is this weekend, so they were both invited, but my mother in law seems to be boycotting group visitation. We already told Bobby's dad he could have the bed in the nursery. His mom emailed yesterday to confirm it was okay for her to come October 2, and Bobby told her she could have the bed. Then, this morning, he realized that the baby shower is this weekend, and, for some reason, thought it was also October 2. So yeah, obviously, he was a little concerned about having promised the same bed to each parent and accompanying spouse for the same weekend.
So, about that. I kind of thought my mother in law would have taken an interest in one of the baby showers. She's sent a couple emails about the baby. When we first told her, she sent an announcement to her mailing list and forwarded the well wishes she got back. She sent us some pictures of Halloween costumes ideas for next year. I'm not sure if she's making token outreaches because she feels obligated or if she wants to be more involved and isn't sure how to go about it. It is, however, terribly difficult to make delicate inquiries into Ann's thought processes. She reads into things. So, uh, yeah. Not sure what to do there. Then again, I thought it would have been easy enough to attend a party with 30 other people, half of whom she was related to. Now I'm wondering if she would've come to the wedding if Bobby and I had done that whole thing. No reason to dwell though, right?
Gilmore Girls is so awesome. I feel like a dork, kind of, watching tv on my computer by myself. I just love the sarcasm. And I love that Alexis Bledel has hips. It makes me wonder about how to build a relationship like theirs (and mine with my mom) with my daughter without being a single mom. Or, more simply put, it makes me hope extremely hard that she likes me. Not that I wasn't hoping that anyway. I think I'm safe for about a decade though, yeah?
I'm glad she's not a boy. I'll have a much easier time giving the sex talk to a girl. Get some practice in, then have it with the boy we're hopefully going to have next. I might be a little ahead of myself here. I also read a book about how to deal with the colic I don't know she'll develop. Granted, I thought it was about forming good sleeping habits when I bought it. Then once I realized it wasn't, I figured the knowledge couldn't hurt and read it anyway. I still want a book on the sleeping thing. If there's a way to help a baby sleep, I want to know about it. You know, short of head injuries and spiked bottles.
Monday, August 24, 2009
Baby Shower
This weekend Bobby and I went to Louisiana for a baby shower with his family. Because of the way we got married, and his self-imposed exile when I met him, I'd never met the majority of his family. I was very pleasantly surprised by how warm and welcoming and similar to my own boisterous clan they were. Bobby was surprised, too. In the car on the way home he said that maybe it was just everything in his head and heart as a teenager and they all just were too much in his business. That they didn't mean to push him away by trying to push and pull him in one direction or another and that he's sorry to have lost time with them. (I'm paraphrasing a bit..) It made me happy that he feels like he can enjoy time with them again.
I've always felt like my family is very close and tries to be involved with each other. We're very spread out (from California to Idaho, Connecticut to India), but when I was younger, my great-grandparents would put out a newsletter every month and include letters from anyone who'd sent one in that month. So even though it might be years and years between our visits, we'd still get the major milestones, as well as the day-to-day minutiae that makes up the little (important!) details of our lives. Since my great-grandmother died, that's stopped, but now we have facebook (hah!) and a surprising number of us are on and active on there sharing the bits and pieces. Bobby has convinced his parents to get accounts, and slowly more and more of his family are joining and posting their bits and pieces, though admittedly some have an easier time navigating than others. (True for my relatives as well.) And it's so wonderful to see him linking more closely with them. They add me, too, so I'm having a good time getting to know them by increments and seeing pictures and things. For the most part, I'd only seen Bobby's baby pictures (his mom had seven albums and they only go to about age 4), so it's really cool seeing everyone all grown up. It definitely helped me keep things straight once I started being introduced to everyone at the shower.
So, with that enormous side tangent explored, the shower! It was at Bobby's stepsister's (Sara) house and it seemed like we were the last to arrive, even though we were right on time. It took me half an hour to make it out of the entry way, I swear. Bobby got tugged off in another direction pretty immediately, so I had a few minutes of feeling very much adrift, but I did all right. I eventually found a stool to sit on and I stuck there most the night and let people come to me. It's pretty blurry, but I know I smiled and laughed and said hello many times over. I talked to cousins and aunts and grandparents and people I had no idea who they were, and it was a lot of fun. Afterward, I started putting it all together. "So which aunt was loud with really dark eyes?" But in the moment, I pretty much just let it go since I wouldn't get it straight and had a good time.
I did have a single moment of mortification. The stool I'd chosen was right against the wall beside a sliding glass door. I didn't notice anything ON the wall until I'd bumped something with my head and it fell and shattered under my chair. Everyone went utterly silent. 30+ people talking and laughing and then all falling quiet at once to look at you is awful. They blamed Bobby, so I had to say something. Sara's husband said it'd already been broken and glued back together, but I still feel really, really bad. Ugh. >.< I hate being clumsy.
I was just about comfortable enough to get a plate of food when someone came to grab us to go open presents. They put us on two chairs in front of everybody next to a veritable mountain of gifts. Bobby whispered, "Ugh, you know how I love to be the center of attention," in my ear, and I gave him a look that meant I would find a way to incinerate him if he tried to leave me. I'm still overwhelmed by how generous everyone was. Pretty much everything off my registry was there, even the items I put in because I knew I needed them, but didn't expect anyone to buy because they were too expensive. And, of course, there was a lot of Ohh and Aww going around. I laughed when I looked up to see all the guys hovering around and looking bored, and was happy when conversations started springing up again instead of everyone just focusing on me. I might post pictures of my favorite things later, but I need to charge the camera battery.
Once we were done, things started breaking up, and we spent an hour or so taking group photos and hugging and saying thank you and goodbye to everyone before helping clean up. We loaded all of the gifts into my mom's car. One of Bobby's aunt brought us clothes her 7 month old doesn't fit anymore and it's lucky the people who purchased larger items got them online and opted to have them shipped to us, because my car and my mom's were full for the drive back to Dallas.
Getting all the baby stuff has really made everything seem a lot more immediate. Only 2 months until my due date now; eep! It took me a long time to fall asleep after the shower, because I couldn't stop thinking about how inevitable the life altering event is now. I chose this, of course, but that doesn't make the looming of the future less intimidating. The bottles are the worst. I think because I've actually used them before? (Not these exact ones, of course, but I've fed babies.) The clothes were more abstract as I was collecting bits and pieces, but the bottles... It's my responsibility to make sure they're full, if that makes sense. I have to know what to do with them and it made everything else look all different, too. Suddenly the clothes were outfits I'd put on and take off a child. Laundry I have to learn to keep up with. Diaper rash ointment I'll apply to a little bottom. Nail clippers I'll wield with dread and necessity. A rattle I'll shake, praying it's the magic no-more-tears solution. It's all very weighty.
I really am excited, though. Just so we're clear. I am not on the edge of a breakdown, I just had a couple minutes of "OMG, what have I done?"
We got home last night about 7 and called my mom so she could empty her trunk. I went through the boxes of hand-me-downs. It's mostly 0-3 stuff and I told Bobby last night that even if those were all the clothes we had, there's no way ours would be able to wear all of them. I sorted them all by size, but I think I'm going to go through again and just pull out the stuff I really like or that looks like it will be really good for winter wear. I'll put the rest aside to return later. There's just soo much. Then I went through the gifts and opened everything I was positive I wouldn't want to potentially return or exchange and sorted it all by category. (Bath, kitchen, toys, etc.) I saved putting together the stroller for very last and had to get Bobby help me collapse it the first couple times. I didn't put anything away, so my living room is a disaster of babydom. A pack-and-play, high chair, swing, and exersaucer are shipping, so I can put them together once they get here. Where am I supposed to put it all? For such tiny little beings, they sure do use a lot of stuff.
I've always felt like my family is very close and tries to be involved with each other. We're very spread out (from California to Idaho, Connecticut to India), but when I was younger, my great-grandparents would put out a newsletter every month and include letters from anyone who'd sent one in that month. So even though it might be years and years between our visits, we'd still get the major milestones, as well as the day-to-day minutiae that makes up the little (important!) details of our lives. Since my great-grandmother died, that's stopped, but now we have facebook (hah!) and a surprising number of us are on and active on there sharing the bits and pieces. Bobby has convinced his parents to get accounts, and slowly more and more of his family are joining and posting their bits and pieces, though admittedly some have an easier time navigating than others. (True for my relatives as well.) And it's so wonderful to see him linking more closely with them. They add me, too, so I'm having a good time getting to know them by increments and seeing pictures and things. For the most part, I'd only seen Bobby's baby pictures (his mom had seven albums and they only go to about age 4), so it's really cool seeing everyone all grown up. It definitely helped me keep things straight once I started being introduced to everyone at the shower.
So, with that enormous side tangent explored, the shower! It was at Bobby's stepsister's (Sara) house and it seemed like we were the last to arrive, even though we were right on time. It took me half an hour to make it out of the entry way, I swear. Bobby got tugged off in another direction pretty immediately, so I had a few minutes of feeling very much adrift, but I did all right. I eventually found a stool to sit on and I stuck there most the night and let people come to me. It's pretty blurry, but I know I smiled and laughed and said hello many times over. I talked to cousins and aunts and grandparents and people I had no idea who they were, and it was a lot of fun. Afterward, I started putting it all together. "So which aunt was loud with really dark eyes?" But in the moment, I pretty much just let it go since I wouldn't get it straight and had a good time.
I did have a single moment of mortification. The stool I'd chosen was right against the wall beside a sliding glass door. I didn't notice anything ON the wall until I'd bumped something with my head and it fell and shattered under my chair. Everyone went utterly silent. 30+ people talking and laughing and then all falling quiet at once to look at you is awful. They blamed Bobby, so I had to say something. Sara's husband said it'd already been broken and glued back together, but I still feel really, really bad. Ugh. >.< I hate being clumsy.
I was just about comfortable enough to get a plate of food when someone came to grab us to go open presents. They put us on two chairs in front of everybody next to a veritable mountain of gifts. Bobby whispered, "Ugh, you know how I love to be the center of attention," in my ear, and I gave him a look that meant I would find a way to incinerate him if he tried to leave me. I'm still overwhelmed by how generous everyone was. Pretty much everything off my registry was there, even the items I put in because I knew I needed them, but didn't expect anyone to buy because they were too expensive. And, of course, there was a lot of Ohh and Aww going around. I laughed when I looked up to see all the guys hovering around and looking bored, and was happy when conversations started springing up again instead of everyone just focusing on me. I might post pictures of my favorite things later, but I need to charge the camera battery.
Once we were done, things started breaking up, and we spent an hour or so taking group photos and hugging and saying thank you and goodbye to everyone before helping clean up. We loaded all of the gifts into my mom's car. One of Bobby's aunt brought us clothes her 7 month old doesn't fit anymore and it's lucky the people who purchased larger items got them online and opted to have them shipped to us, because my car and my mom's were full for the drive back to Dallas.
Getting all the baby stuff has really made everything seem a lot more immediate. Only 2 months until my due date now; eep! It took me a long time to fall asleep after the shower, because I couldn't stop thinking about how inevitable the life altering event is now. I chose this, of course, but that doesn't make the looming of the future less intimidating. The bottles are the worst. I think because I've actually used them before? (Not these exact ones, of course, but I've fed babies.) The clothes were more abstract as I was collecting bits and pieces, but the bottles... It's my responsibility to make sure they're full, if that makes sense. I have to know what to do with them and it made everything else look all different, too. Suddenly the clothes were outfits I'd put on and take off a child. Laundry I have to learn to keep up with. Diaper rash ointment I'll apply to a little bottom. Nail clippers I'll wield with dread and necessity. A rattle I'll shake, praying it's the magic no-more-tears solution. It's all very weighty.
I really am excited, though. Just so we're clear. I am not on the edge of a breakdown, I just had a couple minutes of "OMG, what have I done?"
We got home last night about 7 and called my mom so she could empty her trunk. I went through the boxes of hand-me-downs. It's mostly 0-3 stuff and I told Bobby last night that even if those were all the clothes we had, there's no way ours would be able to wear all of them. I sorted them all by size, but I think I'm going to go through again and just pull out the stuff I really like or that looks like it will be really good for winter wear. I'll put the rest aside to return later. There's just soo much. Then I went through the gifts and opened everything I was positive I wouldn't want to potentially return or exchange and sorted it all by category. (Bath, kitchen, toys, etc.) I saved putting together the stroller for very last and had to get Bobby help me collapse it the first couple times. I didn't put anything away, so my living room is a disaster of babydom. A pack-and-play, high chair, swing, and exersaucer are shipping, so I can put them together once they get here. Where am I supposed to put it all? For such tiny little beings, they sure do use a lot of stuff.
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