Thanksgiving Math

PLUS

PLUS

PLUS

EQUALS

In other words, the postpartum diet starts tomorrow, folks.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Old Home Week

Of my four college roommates who have lived in New York since we graduated in 2002, one recently moved back to the Boston area, one visited yesterday, and one is joining me for dinner tonight.

We've spent Thanksgiving with Dave's family the last couple of years, but this year we decided not to travel with a two-month-old and instead to save Will's first trip to New Jersey for Christmas. The silver lining to celebrating in Boston (besides the obvious: taking one year to celebrate with my parents and eating my mother's Midwestern classic--a sweet potato casserole with a pecan crust) is seeing these native New Englanders as they return to the homeland. I'm having so much fun!

Incidentally, that fourth college roommate? She lives in New Jersey, so I'll see her over Christmas as well.

At the risk of sounding corny (Get it? Corn? Thanksgiving?), I admit I've got a lot to be thankful for.

Favorite Baby Stuff

Since Will is still asleep two hours later (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!), I'm moving our list of Favorite Baby Stuff from the sidebar to a post unto itself. Here it is:

• Pampers Swaddlers diapers: they're cozy even when pulled tight around the tummy, and they're virtually leak-proof (in our experience)
• Baby mittens: any brand or type works to keep hands warm and prevent face-scratching if you're too skittish to clip or file your baby's nails
• Dr. Brown's baby bottles: we tried Avent, Born Free, Medela and Evenflo, but these bottles are worth their slightly more involved assembly requirements
• Snap 'n' Go stroller by Baby Trend: I've covered this one already in another post
• Random humidifier bought at CVS: clears up congestion, warms up the nursery, provides some welcome white noise

I'll add to this list with future posts in the "Faves 'n' Raves" category.

The Sleep Update

I wrote most of that last post on Sunday; yesterday (Monday) was an exercise in patience and in moderating expectations when it came to Will's sleep patterns. Yikes.

Will woke up at 8:30 a.m. after two nighttime wake-ups (not normal for him), and stayed up save for four separate naps, the total of which was only two hours of sleep! All day! Yikes again.

Then he didn't fall asleep for the night until midnight, and he slept until 6, then fell asleep again from 6:30 to 9:45 this morning. Phew.

Dave and I were absolutely convinced there was something terribly wrong with him (is he dehydrated? does he have reflux? does he have diarrhea?), but I think he was just incredibly overtired and, you know, having a "regular baby" day. Will has set the bar so high for his first two months of life that we consider it a horrorshow when he has one tired-but-can't-sleep 24-hour period. And while that's important to pay attention to, we don't have to get quite as worked up about it as we did. Oh well...there's no way to learn these lessons except to live through them, I suppose.

Epilogue: William slept from 11-1:30, 2:40-3:30, and has now been asleep since 4:45; in between he ate copious amounts of milk and had a nice playdate with Auntie Molly. Lovely.

**UPDATE WITHIN AN UPDATE** I just found my favorite article on infant sleep: http://www.askdrsears.com/html/7/T070200.asp

Currently Enrolled in Sleep 101

From the pictures I'm always posting here, it may seem as if Will is constantly sleeping.




And while it's true he's been a very good sleeper--I knew I was baiting the baby gods when I bragged that he was sleeping an average of six to eight hours a night since he was two and a half weeks old--William was not always very skilled at sleeping alone...day or night.

He slept, but haltingly: Will woke up when you put him down unless he was in a VERY deep slumber; he woke himself up with a nose sniffle or an arm flail (even while swaddled tightly). In order to make a decision about whether to keep him with us in bed because he slept so much better there, we started to read the blogs and the books (OK, parts of the books), which all give differing opinions such as:

• -co-sleeping at night is great, and optimally you should carry your baby around with you all day for the first three months (say Harvey Karp and Penelope Leach)
  
• -co-sleeping is OK, but you should train your baby to sleep on his/her own starting at three months (say What to Expect and Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Baby)


• -co-sleeping is a slippery slope, but we'll be careful, but we love snuggling with him, but sometimes it is annoying, but he doesn't sleep half as long when he's not in our bed, but we will be ready to suffer those consequences soon... (every mommy blog out there)
  

And those are just thoughts about night-sleeping!

Last week, I started to put Will down in his crib during the day, and lo and behold, he slept for two to four hours at a time! I couldn't believe how great it was to have two whole hands to myself for three uninterrupted hours! Now I can make a pot of coffee, unload the dishwasher or even run a load of laundry during the day, I crowed to myself. And the best part would be that since all the experts say "sleep begets sleep," Will would continue to snooze for the usual seven hours at night, right?

Hm, not quite. At the exact moment Will learned how to be a good crib napper, his supernatural ability to sleep for a full night, whether in bed with us or not, was zapped. He is now...well, a regular baby: he wakes up once or even twice per night. My pediatrician says that the next step (since we're dealing with a 13-pound eight-week-old here) is to cajole him into eating 6 ounces before bedtime so his stomach stays satiated until morning.

Still, I can't help but think that the more I try this strategy or that one, the more William makes it apparent that I have no control over his schedule, not really. He'll eat as much as he wants and sleep for as long as he needs, and I'll try to roll cheerfully with this ever-undulating itinerary...at least for now!

What Not to Wear

Recently I've been thinking a lot about clothing and fashion and looking generally well put-together. (Could you tell from the last few posts?) The topic has been occupying my mind, I think, because I'm now moving into a new phase of style, one I described to my friend Amy as "Whatever's inexpensive, will survive spit-up stains, and takes less than a minute to throw on in the morning."

I've always been someone who thinks about what to wear, but not always with the greatest results. You can blame my affinity for neon and Spandex at the tender age of nine on the influence of the 1980s, but the rest of my outfits are not so easy to explain. Let's recap:

Here I'm in the ninth grade, sitting with Jenny and Clara and wearing my favorite jean cutoff shorts--probably for the fifth time that week.

This picture was taken at a party in twelfth grade, wearing a light pink gingham stretch dress from J. Crew that I thought was so sophisticated. I remember how much Ashley, Maria and I loved this picture of the three of us, but I can't remember why exactly.

Sophomore year of college, on spring break in the Dominican Republic

Here's where things get truly questionable. I'm wearing khaki clamdiggers with a baby pink cardigan?!? And let's not even talk about those black Steve Madden slides everyone was wearing. By the way, I cut out Molly and Amy out of this picture in order to protect our friendships, but let me assure you that they were sporting very similar outfits.

Also sophomore year of college...with Julie...don't we look like we are going to a costume party dressed as mermaids? Too bad we were going instead to a frat party, and those were not costumes.

Junior year ushered in a new era of style: all pink, all the time.

Molly and I used to sing karaoke in her room during our senior year at Michigan; I lived in this long gray sweater throughout the winter of 2001-2002, despite my roommates begging me to please wear an actual parka now that it's below freezing here in Ann Arbor.

On my twenty-fifth birthday, I cleaned up quite nicely...except that I distinctly recall taking off my banana-leaf necklace before this picture was taken because the bulbous beads kept catching in my hair. Yes, the necklace was made of BANANA LEAVES.

A few months later, I met a guy who'd have a large influence on my looks from that point onward:

Maybe a little too much influence?

Hey, at least I didn't wear a pink wedding dress.

Now Hair This

I need your input. At my next hair appointment at the fabulous Joi Salon in Boston's North End, I'll be asking for one of these looks (yes, they are both Jessica Simpson hairstyles, and no, they are not very different from my current hair--just bear with me here):

Look #1: Longer and Layered with Sideswept Bangs

Look #2: Shorter and Razored

Please do not be distracted by the fake tan/fake lashes/fake nose...

You can vote on the sidebar to the right!!