By Julie

Angelina is growing fast. We're running out of size 2 diapers, and instead of buying more we're just going to move on to size 3 diapers.

Yesterday we started bottle training kind of half-heartedly. Kevin attempted to give her a bottle. She made faces as the formula dripped into her mouth. Then she started wailing. We haven't tried again since.


Her babbling has gotten awfully advanced. At this point I think she's closer to saying dada than mama.

She still loves baths, almost more than how much I love bathing her.

She seems to be a morning person, whereas I am most definitely not, but seeing her cheerful smiling face first thing every morning has made it a lot less painful to wake up.

Labels: angie

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By Julie

This week the rest of the family finally started getting some of the baby loving. As long as she's full, Angelina is willing to be held by Daddy and be entertained by Alex and Ana. Unfortunately her appetite has also increased, which means she's lying in my lap nursing more than ever. It doesn't stop at night either. Lil mouse eats every couple of hours no matter what time of day, so I haven't been sleeping all that well.

Labels: angie

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By Julie

The rash on Angelina's face all but disappeared this week. The trick was to wash with nothing but lukewarm water. She still has some spots on her scalp, and they seem to be itchy. Even with her limited coordination I can tell she is trying to scratch them, poor thing.

Angie started staying awake for longer stretches this week, which means she needs to be entertained a lot more. Fortunately it doesn't require a Broadway act to make her happy. She seems content to be carried around the house and utterly delighted with all the time we're spending in front of the mirror, making faces at that smiley baby on the other side. For those times when Mommy has to step away for a minute, Alex and Ana have willingly stepped in as second acts. She also loves sitting in her swing, though staying in it for more than a minute at a time makes her fall asleep.

Speaking of sleep, without any prompting on my part Angie seems to have fallen into a routine. At a certain hour every evening she'll refuse to nurse in the living room and cry until I take her into her room and nurse her there. It makes me go to bed on time instead of staying up too late as I'm prone to do, so it's a good thing.

Labels: angie

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By Julie

After 10 days of nasal congestion, Angelina's cold finally went away. During that time I put saline drops in her nose and then sucked out mucous with a bulb syringe several times a day. It worked very well, so I don't think she suffered too much.

The bad news is Angie broke out in a rash on her face and head. At first I thought it might be a heat rash because it started clearing up when I dressed her in cooler clothes, but since then it has taken a turn for the worse. Now I wonder if it might be caused by the baby wash we're using for her baths, but if that's the case wouldn't the rash cover her whole body? Sigh.

I'm somewhat comforted by how happy Angie seems. This week whenever Kevin held her, she has cooed and smiled at him. She likes to listen to her siblings chatting with each other and look at their pretty art projects pinned on the wall. Overall she seems very calm.

Angie continues to eat well. We've started dressing her in size 2 diapers. Saturday we visited the kids' new cousin Bethany, who at a month younger than Angie is currently two weeks old. Beth looked positively tiny next to Angie!

Labels: angie

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By Julie

This week Angie started talking a lot, lots of ha's and goo's and gah's. Her cheerful chatter has been a great source of joy for me. Bad days? Who me? Don't know the meaning.

Our diaper order from Amazon arrived just in time. We're running out of size 1's, which seem to leak quite a bit, so we'll probably switch to size 2's soon.

Angelina seems to have caught a cold from her big sister. Her only symptom is a boogery nose, so I haven't felt the need to call the doctor. Unfortunately I seem to have caught the same thing. Hopefully we both get better soon.

Labels: angie

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By Julie

I heard about this Amazon diaper deal from Parent Hacks: buy $99 in diapers by May 31, get a $20 Amazon certificate come July 12 - 26. Angelina has spent more time in newborn diapers than either of her siblings, but even she has already moved on to size 1. To reach $99 in diapers without running into the danger of her outgrowing a size, I guess we'll end up buying one box each of sizes 2, 3, and 4.


Today Angie turns 4 weeks old. Her appearance is changing fast. Her blue-gray eyes have not switched colors yet, but her blond hair is darkening. She'll probably end up with hair color similar to her siblings. I've already mentioned the change in diaper size. When I hold her against me I think there's no way she could fit in my belly now.


She still spends more hours asleep (or half asleep, judging by how quickly she wakes up when I try to put her down or hand her to someone else) than awake, but we've had the pleasure of seeing her eyes open quite a bit the past week. She often looks vaguely amused, and sometimes when we coo at her she'll coo right back. She also moves a lot: waving her arms, turning her head this way and that way, etc. Once when I was sitting on the sofa with her lying against my left shoulder, she managed to move herself all the way over to my right shoulder like a little baby rock climber by kicking repeatedly.

I've been concerned with the color of her poo; it's been green instead of mustard yellow. After reading this article I think I've found the answer: too much foremilk and not enough hindmilk.

Labels: angie

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By Julie

@ birth:

Latched on immediately. Wants to eat all the time.
Black poo!

@ 1 week:

Loves baths. Hates leaving the water.
Green poo!

@ 2 weeks:

Gained 2/3 lbs and grew 0.5 inch for a total of 8 lbs and 19.5 inches.
Yellow poo!

@ 3 weeks:

Looks around to see what's going on.
Says "ah-goo."

Me, I'm doing better. No more weepiness, though I'm still inhaling Angie's delicious scent nonstop. Also I was able to stop taking painkillers last week because the single stitch I had to get was no longer bugging me. However, the weight is coming off as slowly as I'd feared. A week after giving birth I went from +13 lbs to +10 lbs without even trying, but now 3 weeks postpartum I'm still at +10 lbs. I'm not supposed to engage in any major exercise for 3 more weeks, so until then I don't think there's much I can do other than stay away from junk foood.

Labels: angie, pregnancy

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By Julie

The only reason this entry exists is because I'm forcing myself to write it now before all the details escape my feeble sleep-deprived brain. I haven't felt like blogging little Angie's birth story, not because it was a horrible experience but because it was so wonderful that I don't want to admit it's the last time I'll ever experience something this amazing.

Here's a typical conversation you might overhear between me and Kevin if you happened to be in our house between 9 p.m. and 12 midnight on a random evening:

Me: look, she's so cute

Kevin: (some sort of acknowledgment of my previous statement)

Me: and she smells good

Kevin: (some sort of acknowledgment of my previous statement)

Me: and she's growing up too fast already... (burst into tears)

Kevin: (some comforting remarks about how they'll always be my babies, how we still have many years of parenting ahead of us, etc.)

Me: (keeps sobbing inconsolably and blubbering about how I don't want them to grow up)

Incidentally, we had similar conversations right after Ana was born. That's how we decided maybe we weren't done having kids yet. This time, however, I think I'll just have to suck it up and deal.

Angelina was born right on her due date, April 27, at 10:48 a.m., measuring a healthy 7 lbs 5.5 oz and 19 inches. About 24 hours before she was born I started feeling something that wasn't quite contractions yet, but it was significant enough that we completely forgot about Alex's karate lessons as well as a birthday party he was invited to attend that day.


Then, sometime in the afternoon, Kevin started keeping track of my contractions. They were still far apart. To pass the time, he sang songs from the Myspace karaoke website to me. It was a very effective distraction :)


At some point we told the kids that the baby was coming soon. They were very excited. Here they are playing animal doctor, delivering a puppy.

We also called Kevin's mom. That evening she came to our house with her overnight bag. Kevin read the kids a bedtime story and tucked them in while I alternated between walking around the house and lying down on the sofa. Kevin's mom stayed up with us for another hour or so and then went to bed.

Around 12:30 a.m. we set out. My contractions were not yet 5-1-1 (5 minutes apart, each 1 minute long, for 1 hour) but since we live about 30 minutes from the hospital, we decided to head to some place near the hospital, maybe a 24 hour diner, where we could hang out until I hit the 5-1-1 mark. About 5 minutes into the drive a particularly intense contraction made me change my mind, and we headed straight to the hospital instead.

When we arrived at the hospital, I was taken to a labor and delivery room immediately. A few weeks ago I had tested positive for group B strep, so I had to take antibiotics via IV for the baby's protection. Since I had to get 2 doses, preferably 3, with 4 hours between doses, the nurses did not give me Pitocin to speed up labor. This was a new experience for me. With Alex and Ana I didn't have group B strep, so maybe that's why they gave me Pitocin to make the baby come as quickly as possible. By contrast, going through labor without Pitocin was positively pleasant.

Kevin had packed 2 of my favorite DVDs in the suitcase. After we finished signing all the hospital paperwork, he started up Bride and Prejudice. My nurse was highly amused to find me LOLing in the midst of contractions whenever she came to check on me. We never got around to watching the other movie, Nacho Libre. By then my contractions were too strong for me to pay attention to a movie.


I made a joke about how strange it was that we didn't hear any screaming from the other rooms. I spoke too soon. Almost immediately I heard my neighbor in the next room start roaring in pain. I guessed that she had opted to go "natural." The yelling continued for about half an hour. It was very disconcerting.

Around 6 a.m. I requested an epidural. The anesthesiologist had just come on shift, and he didn't know what the previous guy had done with the key to the epidural cart. So I had to grit my teeth through 15 minutes of the worst pain while he and the nurse tracked down the key. But as soon as the drug kicked in, it was instant relief. I was so relaxed I fell asleep. Two hours later I woke up feeling positively refreshed, but I couldn't feel a thing from the waist down, so the nurse had to give me a catheter, which was yet another experience I'd not had before and one that I hope never to repeat, because while I couldn't feel a thing with the epidural, when it wore off I felt sore for quite some time afterwards.

Around 10:30 a.m., right after I received the 3rd dose of antibiotic, the nurse checked my progress and discovered to her surprise that I was fully dilated (10 cm) and the baby had crowned. Fortunately my epidural was still working because the doctor on duty was busy with another patient, so I was told to hang on for a few minutes. Immediately after the other woman delivered, the doctor ran into my room and changed into fresh scrubs. Five minutes and 4 pushes later, the nurse put Angelina into my arms, and for the third time in my life, I experienced love at first sight.

Labels: angie, pregnancy

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