Re-Blogging: "Man Cold"

Is re-blogging the same as re-gifting? Well, 'tis the season! Thanks to Dooce.com for giving me a laugh that I really needed this morning.

Blogging by way of e-mail

The bottle-refusal saga continues...

I sent the following e-mail to writermom this morning, in response to her inquiry about Macy's progress. After rereading it, I realized that it makes a perfectly suitable blog post, so here it is. Consider yourself in the loop.

Ugh. Still not a drop!

However, I did talk to the doc last night, and she was completely cool about it. She said that as long as Mae is still making wet and dirty diapers (Definitely so—you would not BELIEVE the bomb she dropped in her diaper last night! Level 3 Code Brown.) and as long as she continues to grow and act normally, we should, in her words, “leave her alone.”

She’ll start eating when she needs to, Sarah says, and even then she might only take a bottle from Tata once a day. As long as she’s getting what she needs during the other hours of the day, she’ll be just fine.

All of which is supremely comforting, but also exasperating because it does not provide me with a plan of action.

I also talked to the lactation consultant yesterday afternoon, and she gave me some ideas and tricks to try out next week, including things like trying a syringe or cup like you suggested. In the mean time, we are going to offer her the bottle as much as possible this weekend, though it will be a challenge since Ted will probably be out in the snow for at least half of the weekend. Phooey.

Hmmmm. I think I’ll just take this e-mail and copy it into my blog as today’s update! You’re the first to know!

Hunger Strike

Well, Mae has now gone three full days without taking a drop of milk from the bottle offered to her at day care. I'm trying not to freak out.

She has taken expressed breast milk from a bottle for Ted on a few occasions, without much of a fuss, so we didn't think she'd need training. Now I wish we had given her more practice!

Tata says she's offering the bottle about every hour, and we have tried a number of different bottle and nipple combinations. This morning I even brought a burp cloth soaked with my breast milk, in hopes that the scent will stimulate Mae's hunger and desire to suck.

Now I also have calls in to the doctor and a lactation consultant (waiting for return calls) and am feeling my anxiety mount, even as I endeavor to stay calm.

Advice, anyone?

Who do you *really* want to be the President?

A coworker forwarded this link to me. It's a questionnaire that asks your opinion on a variety of hot political issues, then ranks the presidential candidates in order, from which one agrees with you on the most issues, all the way down to the evil bastards on the other side.

http://www.wqad.com/Global/link.asp?L=259460

What I like about this (if the results are accurate) is that it allows me to get rid of all the marketing and image hooey that turns my head one way or another, and gets down to the nitty gritty about which candidate will actually run this country the way I would like to see it run. I think this country would be a much better place to live, and a much greater good in the world, if more people would vote this way instead of based on which yahoo they like the best, or which one looks the best on camera. Or, for that matter, which one has the most signs up in their neighborhood.

I'm not sure if I'm ready to divulge publicly which candidates ranked at the top for me (it was a tie between two), but I will say two things about my results. First, that I was mildly surprised, and second, that I know which of the two top matches I would vote for today--based solely on the fact that the winning candidate recently visited me in my dreams, in a really special and naughty way.

Air Guitar

IMG_0861
Originally uploaded by knights_writes

My baby is a rock star.

Get Behind the Mule

As Tom Waits says, "You gotta get behind the mule in the mornin' and plow." That's just what I did this morning, re-entering the workforce with as much grace and dignity as I could muster.

The drop-off was relatively painless. I tried to be quick about it, to rip the band-aid off, so to speak. When I left Tata's house, I left behind two happy little humans, which is about as good a situation as I could hope for. Well, truth be told, I actually left behind four happy little humans, if you count the Boelk twins (Carver and Kinnick, the matching bookends flanking Arlo in the photo above). Tata and Tato (her hubby, Pat) had the foresight to have a bunch of new toys on hand for the boys this morning, so Arlo was happy and distracted during the drop-off period, which gave me a few minutes to talk with Tata about Mae and her first big day--without him needing my attention.

As you can see, Mae's First Day at Tata's was a festive and happy affair, and I only shed a few crocodile tears before taking a deep breath and heading to the office. Amazingly enough, I made it to my desk by about 8:15, for which I gave myself a sound pat on the back.

Mae had a pretty good day, I suppose. She was happy as long as Tata was holding her (hmmm, sound familiar?) and pretty relaxed--but she wouldn't take milk from a bottle yet today. Ted has given her small amounts of expressed milk from a bottle, so we know she knows how to do it... guess she just has to get a little hungrier before she'll take it from a new person. Part of me feels good about that, actually. Arlo took to his bottle feedings so quickly as an infant (also with Tata, beginning at 8 weeks old) that as a new mom, I felt kind of slighted and insignificant. Now, don't get me wrong, I don't want Macy's hunger strike to last more than a day or two, but it does make me feel important and special to have my baby (poor thing, though!) go all day without an ounce of milk because she'd just as soon wait for her mommy, thank you very much.

I hope I'm not tempting fate by saying so. I've had my moment, and now I hope that she will eat for Tata tomorrow. As for tonight, I'm thinking I'll be awake every two hours (or less) feeding her through the night. Stay tuned!

Caucusing in College?

Over the past few days, our local media has been giving a lot of coverage to the poor college students who will have trouble participating in the January caucuses because they take place over the UI's winter break. Some students say it's not fair that they'll miss the caucuses because they're spending a month at home, out of state.

Is it just me, or is this stupid? If the kids go to live with their parents whenever school is not in session, then I would say that their parents' home is their permanent residence. If their permanent residence is out of state, then why in the world should they be participating in the Iowa caucus?