Full Steam Ahead

My lack of updating is for actual good, valid reasons -- I'm working a lot these days, and it's keeping me incredibly busy, which is great for things like paying the mortgage but not good for logging important milestones in my child's life.

When Sadie was first born, my sister gave me a beautiful baby book. It was filled with pages that said things like, "On the day I was born, here were the top headlines in the newspaper!" and I always mean to go back and Google September 24th, 2009 and then write down all the important news stories, but then I realize I forgot to go to the market and Pepper's going crazy at my feet because she needs to be walked and I need to cook up a batch of baby food because we're down to nothing but three cubes of Wheaty Meaty Stew and instant oatmeal. And then I rationalize that Sadie, if she's interested in such a thing when she grows up, will also have the power of the internet at her fingertips, so really, it's not necessary for me to write it down and....aaaanyway, long story short, I was bad at filling in the baby book and I'm bad at posting updates.

These days are going by so fast, I'm just trying to stop every once in awhile to remind myself that my baby is becoming less of a baby and more of a kid. At last night's anniversary dinner for my grandparents' 50th, my mother looked at Sadie and said, "You can see...she's really becoming more of a little girl." And I was like, "Heh, yeah, that's what a grandmother would say," but then I did a double-take and when I looked for the second time, I could see: yes, she IS becoming a little girl. The baby features are already starting to go -- her cheeks no longer look like she's hoarding golf balls, her hands aren't as fat and dimpled, her hair has grown out.

Last week, Scott and I took her up to Seattle and Vachon Island for a vacation. And by "vacation," I mean that Scott got to listen to me bitch about how vacations are supposed to be relaxing while this was no such thing, and for that I'm sorry, honey.  But really -- I was rushing to meet work deadlines up to the night that we left, packing was a frenzy, in the middle of it we had to go return my leased Volvo to the dealership, and all that was before we even left. Once we arrived in Washington we contended with rain, many hours of travel, and a baby who went through one of the worst teething phases of her life to date. She actually went on a food strike for four straight days, refusing to consume anything but bottles and occasionally some yogurt, and let me tell you, a teething, hungry baby whose gums hurt too much to eat and who is also in an unfamiliar environment, constantly being thrust into the arms of people she doesn't know or  forced to sit in a carseat for hours on end, is NOT a happy baby.

So it was a bit stressful, but I'm also making it sound a lot worse than it was. We stayed in a hundred year old inn on gorgeous Vashon, our quarters adjoining the establishment's well-respected restaurant. That meant live music and conversation being piped into our rooms every evening, which I loved. Scott's sister stayed with us, holding out the fort at night, allowing us to attend our friends' wedding (the reason we were in Washington to begin with) baby-free and to feel privately smug towards all the people who'd brought their kids with them for a nighttime wedding.

From Vachon we took the ferry across the Sound to Seattle, where we stayed with my aunt, uncle and niece. They're incredibly cool about houseguests, making us feel welcome the entire time. Even so, I felt bad walking in the door with a crying, drooling, hunger-striking infant. "We swear she's usually not like this!" has become our constant cry every time Sadie goes through a teething period. All things considered, the plane flights to and from Seattle were remarkably unremarkable. Minimal fussing, she napped briefly both times, and all I can say is, thank heaven for the emergency instruction card because it kept her entertained for most of the flight.

Now that the teething has passed, Sadie's gone back to her usual happy self. Today I took her over to my parents' and she was the happiest baby you've ever seen, giggling at all of us and showering us with kisses. And why wouldn't she be happy? She's got all the love she can handle, from aunts and uncles to grandparents and great-grandparents -- all within the span of a few days. If this keeps up, she's going to start getting a big head.

Saturday in the Backyard

Scott is suffering at Twi-Con today (if you aren't a "Twilight" fan, then you have no idea what this is; if you aren't one, then you have no reason to care), so it's just me and the baby. We both woke up at 5am this morning, along with Sadie. On a freaking Saturday. The funny part is that as we were sitting on the couch, dressed and ready for the day by 5:40, blearily rubbing our eyes, Scott looked at his watch and went, "Wait -- it's only five forty?" Turned out he'd rolled out of bed when I did, not actually looking at the clock. I laughed at him a lot. We've had a lot of early mornings recently, but this one topped them all.

Since I last posted, the teething has miraculously improved. Really, that one awful day was a stand-alone. Her mood remains generally cranky, though, so I think she's suffering from a general malaise, and that's tougher to treat than sore gums. Also, STILL NO FREAKING TEETH. She is the toothless wonder.

She likes to climb all over me like a jungle gym now, hurling herself at incredible speeds towards anything I'm holding in my hand -- a glass of wine, a hot cup of water. The phone. ESPECIALLY my iPhone. When Mac created the iPhone, did they intentionally design it to look like baby crack? Because apparently that is what it most closely resembles. Possibly the only thing Sadie is more obsessed with than my iPhone is the remote control. She picks it up, jabs her fingers at the buttons, and inevitably, sends our cable reeling into some strange outer dimension from which there is no return.

Despite her newfound wiggliness when she's attached to me, she still has no interest in getting around on her own once you put her down on the ground. No scooting, cruising, crawling, pulling herself up. Not even any inching backwards while on her back, which used to be her preferred method of transportation. She just sits. Plays. Gets bored. If it's within her reach, she'll grab it. If it's even three inches beyond her grasp, she'll give it a cursory look and be like, "Nah." COME ON, SADIE, YOU HAVE TO TRY.

Update on the vegetable garden: it was...a semi-success. I choose to look at it this way: this was our rehearsal, and this fall will be our real attempt at growing a garden. We did get some good output from a few plants, mostly the herbs, but also failed spectacularly in other areas. Here is what I know now about planting a vegetable garden:

- Do not plant seedlings too close together. I had no idea how big full-sized plants are. We mistakenly planted six zucchini seedlings inside about 12 square feet of growing space, and what we have now is a tangled jungle of zucchini plants, several of which do not produce at all. Two plants would have been plenty.

- Deadhead plants before they flower and go to seed. Now I understand that flowering is the final stage of a plant's life, and they have to be regularly clipped and pruned to prevent this.

- Cool weather plants shouldn't be planted in mid-spring. I had to throw out a lot of lettuce plants today.

- Herbs can be touchy.

- You really shouldn't forget to mulch.
 

Shut Up, "Two Days Ago Me"

Seriously? I was complaining about a whining baby? Shut up, me. The good part is just getting started. Sadie spent yesterday screaming her head off. Drooling, chewing her fingers, desperately rubbing her nose against my shoulder, snotting, falling into an exhausted sleep and then waking up to do it all over again. We had a steady flow of visitors yesterday, and each one sent her into paroxysms of rage and shrieking. I guess she doesn't like people to witness her pain.

Still no Infant Tylenol in the entire state of California, it appears, so we finally called her doctor and got okayed to use a low dosage of Chidren's Tylenol syrup instead. That's been helping, a little bit. Today she's supposed to spend the day with my dad and my sister, hanging out at my parents' house while I help my mom organize some office files for a few hours. I almost canceled that after yesterday's crying marathon, until --

Well, really, it was the craziest thing. There we were, Scott and I, sitting on the couch with Sadie around 6pm. She'd play for a minute or two, then a wave of pain would hit her and she'd burst into hysterical, furious, tired sobs. We'd soothe her, walk her around, distract her with toys, and she'd eventually stop crying, only to start up again. We were literally counting down the seconds to her bathtime so we could give her a bottle and put her to bed.

The doorbell rang and it was my dad, ready to take me to a Dodger game (Scott was on baby-sitting duty last night). I let him in and got ready for another round of, "Why have you introduced this horrible STRANGER into my house?" yelling. But instead, Sadie was fascinated. She wanted to stare at his face and pull on his mustache. She almost smiled. We put her in my father's arms and she sat there peacefully until it was time for us to go.

I guess what this means is that my father has magical child-calming powers. Which is why, today, I'm headed over to my parents', baby in tow, feeling only mildly guilty about the fact that I'm dropping a miserable nightmare baby on my well-meaning family members. And if it turns out badly, well, sorry guys. Mom needs a break.  

Getting Creative

Can I just say, as an aside, that it's miraculous how a three-hour nap and a giant crap can improve a baby's mood?

I had to get creative in two ways today, because the universe is making it difficult to meet my child's simple needs, which really all boil down to: change my diaper, feed me some food I like, keep me entertained, and let me sleep. (The Four Commandments of Child Rearing?) To begin with, she seems to be teething again. The last 24 hours have been pretty miserable. I'm constantly being treated to a fussy half-cry-half-whine that most closely resembles the sound an airplane makes when, just before take-off, the pilot takes it up to full-throttle. It's hard to listen to that all day.

The last time she teethed and things got really bad, I was able to treat the problem with an occasional dose of Infant Tylenol. This time around, guess what? Every freaking bottle of Infant Tylenol in the United States has been recalled. Guess what else? Infant Motrin has been recalled, too. Guess what a third time? All the generic brands of these two medicines has flown off the shelves and is nearly impossible to find.

After visiting two markets and a drugstore with no luck, I've turned to more conventional home remedies: cold teethers, frozen washcloths, and Orajel. Okay, so Orajel isn't a "home remedy." It's a freaking remedy, and I'll take what I can get right now.

The other problem is a little more unique: we've been trying to figure out a way to get Sadie to drink more water. It might not seem like a big deal for a baby to drink water considering she drinks five bottles of formula a day, but she also eats a lot of solid food and trust me, the water helps to keep everything moving at a nice, brisk pace.

Unfortunately, she has developed an intense hatred for sippy cups. When you bring one to her mouth she turns her head away, all, "No THANK YOU ma'am." Scott discovered one day that she likes having water squirted into her mouth via squeeze bottle, which was fun for awhile, but also insanely messy. Also mock me all you want, but the idea of showing up to her new day care next week with a giant Arrowhead bottle with a squirt cap is just too embarrassing to contemplate.

"Yes, this is how she drinks water. Yes, I'm aware this is for adults. Yes, that is spilled water all over the front of her onesie. You'll probably need to change her clothes four or five times a day."

It's unlikely they'd cotton to my other method for hydrating her: wetting down a washcloth when she takes a bath and letting her suck on it, like it's her idea to drink water rather than mine.

In desperation, I've turned to the internet for help. Turns out people have all sorts of inventive methods for getting their kids to consume water, from putting ice cubes in a mesh bag that hangs from the baby's neck to feeding it to them from a spoon. Since I don't have the mesh bag and we own enough stuff, I tried the spoon option. And hey, what do you know? She was all about the spoon. Sadly the spoon is not a long-term solution, but if I have to instruct the day care employees to spoon-feed my kid water, well, I'm guessing they've heard stranger things.

All We Want for Easter are Her Two Front Teeth

A few months ago when Sadie's salivary glands first started to kick in, I wondered if she was teething and tried to look for evidence everywhere that it might be starting to happen. Ooh -- she's chewing on her fist! Is that teething? She seems fussy today -- could she be teething? Ha! Silly me. When teething happens, YOU KNOW. I know this because for the past week, Sadie has been teething. For real.

Teething seems like...not even descriptive enough a word for what she's been going through. "Suffering" might be more apt. "Experiencing the ceaseless sensation of sharp bone slicing through her delicate gum tissue without being able to quaff a martini with a couple of Motrin to take the edge off," even more so. Teething, no doubt about it, sucks.

Oh, new parents, you don't yet know what you're in for. And I only hope that when your babies teethe, it won't be as bad as it's been for us. They tell you it can vary in intensity -- some babies barely feel it, while others have an especially difficult time. Sadie seems to be falling into the latter category. You want specifics? Let's run down this handy list of possible teething symptoms, pulled from the internet, one by one.

Irritability:  Hoo boy, yes. Everything has been making her mad: she fusses when you put her down, when you strap her into her carseat, when it takes more than 0.4 seconds to feed her once she decides she's hungry. The best is when you try to distract her by doing something silly and she starts smiling and crying simultaneously because it hurts to smile.

Drooling:  Oh, gee, let me think. Has she been drooling? Well, today I took her for a walk and forgot to put a bib on her. By the time I lifted her out of the stroller, she'd created a bib of her own. A SPIT BIB that went from her chin, across her chest, all the way down to her belly button. Yeah, I'd say there's drool.

Coughing:  There's a lot of this. It's what happens when you're constantly jamming your index finger down the back of your throat, trying to counter the pressure on your gums. The other day Scott was feeding her and she tried to gum the rubber spoon, but it slid back too far and made her cough and choke. My comment: "Honey, she's truly a Valley Girl. You literally gagged her with a spoon."

Chin rash:  I tried to take a picture so I could show you the evidence of this, but the resolution on my iPhone isn't good enough to do it justice. You'll have to take for granted that a big, bumpy, red, angry rash has spread all over her cheeks and chin.

Biting &
gnawing:  She will bite anything within reaching distance. Today she managed to grab hold of my plastic coffee filter holder and had it in her mouth before I even knew what she was doing. She'd chew on the dogs if they let her. Her favorite chewing object of choice is my shoulder, which feels weird. I'm just about ready to give this girl some chaw and call it a day.

Cheek rubbing
and ear pulling:  Check.

Diarrhea:  Okay, there's ONE symptom she hasn't exhibited yet. And thank Jeebus it's this one.

Low-grade
fever:  Last night she spiked a 99.6 -- low, but enough to make her uncomfortably warm and add to her fussiness even more. Today she seemed to be a little better.

Not sleeping
well:  While I live in fear of the Night of Ten Wake-Ups, she has still been sleeping well and is really only fussy during the day, getting angrier and angrier as the day progresses.

And so it goes on. Our family members and friends have been awesome, bringing over a steady supply of bibs and rubber teethers to keep in the freezer and even a freezable pacifier that I can't wait to use. Also, Orajel is a GODSEND; it has worked so well I've only had to give her Tylenol once or twice when things got really bad. At this point, however, I really just want her to cut the damn tooth already. Not because of my own exasperation, but because after going through this for as long as she has, she deserves something to show for it.

You Like Us, You Really Like Us

Two things I learned on this trip:

1. A surefire home remedy for teething pain is gnawing on a frozen mini bagel. I was told this by not one, but TWO sets of relatives, and neither one was aware that the other had given me this same advice. Which means it has to be true. And as soon as we've got Sadie started on solid foods, I plan to try it out.

2. A lot of people read this blog. I mean, not a LOT, but more than I thought. Many times over the course of our vacation, people told me that they enjoyed following the Slurry Baby Blog because it reminded them of their own kids growing up, or found it funny, or appreciated the photos and videos. Some even told me that they had forwarded it on to friends who might enjoy it. This was really nice to hear. Readers, feel free to leave me a comment here saying hello, even if you don't know us personally. We promise not to get creeped out. As proof, here is a video of Sadie in the Jumparoo, not being creeped out.

Sadie in the Jumparoo