Baby Blues

They say that after a woman gives birth, with all of the residual hormones raging in her body, she is likely to have postpartum depression. I think that it should be known as Baby Burnout. I'm not depressed...just overwhelmed, easily annoyed and overall a bit cranky due to severe lack of sleep. In fact, I am crying as I type this. Mike just went on one of his first outings alone with our son. If anything happens to them my life is over. Oh happy day!

The Forgotten

I am such a sleep-deprived space cadet lately. The other night, we went out to our favorite Teriyaki place for noodle bowls for dinner. I purposely left half of my meal so that I could enjoy it the next day for lunch-even taking great care to leave the proper ratio of the meat and vegetables. I got a take out container and meticulously scraped my luscious leftovers in and then walked right out leaving my treasure behind on the table. I was so ticked off when I got home empty handed. And even more unhappy the next day eating dry toast for lunch.

Zombie

I can't get much shut eye around here anymore. Between getting up 2-3 times per night to feed Lucas and the fact that he is a bit of an insomniac during the day, makes it tough for me to get my proper amount of beauty sleep.

Today durning one of his catnaps, I decided to take advantage of the opportunity to make a quick puddle of drool on my pillow. I joined him in a few magical moments of slumber. I was so nice and relaxed and the spittle was just forming in the corner of my mouth...oh sweet bliss. And then Arnold Schwarzenegger called and woke me up followed by a delivery guy ringing the doorbell. No rest for the wicked weary.

Banana?

Recently I was shopping at Wal-Mart with my parents and Lucas. I had Lucas in his stroller and was pushing him around. A group of women surrounded the sweetie slumbering in his stroller and excitedly said, "Chiquita, chiquita." I smiled and wondered why they were calling my son a banana. He's not jaundiced or cone headed anymore. Sheesh, cut the kid some slack, ladies.

Question

Why is it that babies drink all their meals, yet they still produce poop?

Pollock Jokes

Our church meets at the Polish Community Center in town. I jokingly told my mother-in-law that we have to be Polish to attend there. “We told them that our last name is “Lomonacowski.” I think that she believed me for a second.

Hypochondriac

I got my hand slapped by the pediatrician this week for stopping in. I happened to be in the building for my own doctor's appointment and wanted to see if someone could quickly check out the lump that I discovered on little Lucas' head. Does this growing tumor require a visit, I wanted to know? The nurse told me that I need to call in such questions (not just pop in at will) and that the lump was normal.

Normal. What is normal? Everything seeming out of the ordinary freaks me out. We were just in last week because of his flaming red rump and enlarged breast tissue (caused apparently by my hormones in the breast milk...oh and the same hormones give him baby acne, too). My hormones SUCK!

Today, I got up the courage to call the office again because Lucas has been stuffy and struggling to breathe at night since Saturday and then screaming like he is in pain when I am feeding him. It's been a long few days of excessive fussiness. And it turns out that the problem is possibly with me. My diet, actually. I am now to avoid all dairy (WHAT, no ice cream, milk, cheese or yogurt?!), acidic juices, caffeine, carbonated beverages. Life as I know it is officially over. All of my little pleasures have been taken away from me...sleep, showering in peace, and now ice cream and orange juice). What next? I just wanted a little nasal spray or something not an evil diet.

Note to self--Don't call the pediatrician anymore. He has it in for me.

Houdini

Today at 1:45 pm, I put Lucas down in his bassinet wrapped in his swaddle (a little blanket with velcro to wrap tightly around his body making him look like a burrito--only his head sticks out) after NO naps all day since he woke up at 8:15. He screamed for a few minutes then got silent. I came up to check on him 15-20 minutes later and somehow he was able to weasle his arm out of the straight-jacket like swaddle. The sneaky snake.

Sweetest Things

* Lucas' milk breath
* The frantic sound of his gulping when he first starts feeding...the kid doesn't come up for air
* The way he stretches by jutting his little dimpled chin out and thrusting up his arms
* Baby sighs and all of the various precious sounds he makes
* Mike holding our son
* The way he smiles when he is satisfied (really he's probably just pooping, but I like to think that he is smiling at me)
* The peaceful expression on his face as he sleeps
* The silly, non-traditional way that he sucks his thumb for comfort...the thumb in the mouth and the rest of the fingers splayed out on his face
* His little, kicky frog legs that curl up as we are trying to change his diaper (making it nearly impossible to fasten the sides)

Fountain

Last night, daddy had diaper duty and was changing Lucas on our bed. I was out of the room and heard Mike yell, "Oh no, he's fountaining." I ran into the room in time to see a stream of urine shooting up into the air and landing on our clean sheets. It was a funny sight and I had to laugh. Suddenly, though, Lucas was hysterical. He had gotten some pee in his eye. Poor little guy.

I'm in the Money

As an added bonus, since I gave birth without any pain medication, I am $100 richer. I WON the bet! If you haven't a clue what I am talking about, see No Baby Yet post below.

Christa and I were talking the other night and I mentioned my plans to have the baby sleeping through the night in about 8 weeks using a method that I read about. She laughed at my idealism. I asked her if she wanted to bet $50. "NO, I already had to write you out one check today."

He's Here!

On Tuesday, March 1 at 1:01pm, my sweet son, Lucas Gabriel officially joined our family.

Here's a quick recap of his birthday:
* My water broke at 4am and we knew that it was time to get to the hospital
* We got to UC Davis Hospital several hours later after taking our sweet time getting ready (a momma's gotta look good for her new baby)
* I was admitted after they tested to see that my water indeed did break
* After four hours of dealing with pretty intense labor contractions, I was finally allowed to start pushing (these were more painful than I imagined they would be and I dealt with them without meds)
* And then after a very long hour and twenty minutes of trying to push the child out, my little Lucas finally emerged to breathe his first breath and start screaming

I was quite tired at that point. Tired, but ecstatically happy. And my freshly washed and styled hair (from 4 in the morning) still looked good, dang it!

Here are his stats:
7lbs 6oz
20 in
A cone-headful of hair (hey, give him a break...he was in the birth canal for awhile)

Mike and I are really thrilled to be this amazing kid's parents. Look at how cute he is...I am a little partial, I realize, but come on...He's marvelous.

A Little Wet Behind the Ears (Lucas' first bath)

Am I in Labor?

Eeek, less than a week until little Lomonaco is due. And perhaps he or she will come sooner than that. Like in the next day or so...

Last night, I may have started to experience labor symptoms. My back was killing me and I had periodic cramps for much of the night. It made sleeping quite difficult, darn near impossible. I kept getting up because of the discomfort, got chills at one point and even had to vomit. This better not be what they call false labor. If so, I'd hate to see what the real thing has in store for me. Not much fun.

At this point today, I feel pretty normal. I may try to catch some shut eye and see if anything starts up again. Ok, so I am starting to get kinda scared again. Oh, but what an ultimate reward I have in store for me. I've got to keep my eyes on that precious prize.

Ready to POP

I've heard this phrase used several times today. The first couple were about the fact that I look like I am ready to give birth at any minute. The last time, however, was about the buttons on my stretched to the max shirt.

One week to go. I hope that the buttons and my sanity hold up til then.

Just Sleeping?

This weekend, I had a bit of a scare from the child within me. It is not even in this world yet and it is already doing things to make a mama nervous. My very active little kicker stopped moving for hours on Saturday. It was so unlike the baby to do this that I eventually called the doctors office to report lack of fetal movement. This can be a sign that something is wrong with the baby.

As a precaution they had me come in for testing. On the drive in, the little booger started moving around and kicking the heck out of me like normal. Great, it's making me a hypochondriac, psycho lady pre-birth. We continued in anyway since I already had an appointment and got to hear the baby's strong little heartbeat and see it's movement monitored. Everything came out a-ok and the baby seems to be really healthy. The little one must have been sleeping in as it was up all night kicking me awake.

No Baby Yet

Dang it!! A little more than 2 weeks til my due date. I am not feeling very patient anymore. But yet, when I start to go into labor, I am pretty sure that I will be scared. I know this because last Friday when I thought that I might have been starting, I was quite terrified.

We hired a doula (a lady that is experienced in childbirth) to assist in the labor. I am hoping that it will help me in my quest to go natural and not get an epidural. She can talk me through the pain and give me relaxation ideas, massages:), etc.

There is also $100 at stake to go natural. Christa offered up $50 and my mother-in-law said that she'd give the same as a reward. I'm pretty competitive by nature and now that money is involved it ups the ante. I hope that I can do it, as it is ultimately better for me and the baby. There are so many things that can be side effects to the meds (like a groggy, drugged up baby and a paralyzed mama). And I am already spending that money in my head for new skinny clothes for me and a more gender appropriate wardrobe for the little one (so far we have mainly yellow and green outfits for it).

Spring Showers

I didn't expect to have any baby showers as I moved from all of my friends and family at the start of my pregnancy. Today I am having my third one, the second this week. Our family is so blessed with people loving on us and helping us out. I am tremendously greatful and excited to try out all of these new, cute little things on our sweet bundle of joy. It could come any day now. I feel like it may be very soon-maybe this weekend.

Head Down

Less than a month to go. This morning's doctors appointment was very encouraging. The baby is in the head down position and my cervix is thinning out well in preparation. The doctor said that I was in a very good place for a first time mom. The end is near and I feel good. It's like hearing that news gave me a burst of energy. I can survive this. Please pray for me. I want to do this naturally without pain medication.

Head Scratchin'

Twice now I have been stuck behind the same weirdo at a red light. This fuzzy headed mini van driver sits at the light and scratches his head the ENTIRE time. The frenzied scratching continues even when the light turns green. The driver turns the wheel with one hand and digs into his scalp with the other. Is it dandruff? Lice? Crazy, yet kinda facinating to watch and then my head starts to itch a little.

Ignorance

While waiting in line to check out at Albertson's last night, I witnessed a scene that broke my heart. A precious little blonde girl of about 8 and her father were in line in front of me. The little girl was repeatedly trying to get her fathers attention and he was ignoring her.

"Daddy, daddy, DADDY, look!" she said while holding up a bag of Valentine's conversation hearts. She tugged on his shirt as he just stared ahead.

"Daddy, look at the purple heart at the bottom." She kept pointing at it and tugging at his sleeve as he did anything but acknowledge her.

I read it and it said, "Kiss Me."

The little girl was puckering and smacking her lips to kiss her daddy and he wouldn't even look down.

Hopefully the man was simply having a bad day and this wasn't his normal treatment of his daughter. If he is a rotten father, this poor little girl may eventually and unfortunately turn to boys and other men for the acceptance that she so desires from her dad.