Mama Thoughts

Last night we had 3 wake-ups.  This is already huge.  Even if it doesn't happen again, at least last night was glorious. Today I drove my child to Northbrook Court for a date with Ms. BB, whom I haven't seen since before the birth of my child.  Her kiddo and my kiddo didn't really hit it off right away, but I believe that they will be fast friends soon enough.  :)  We wandered around the mall, had lunch at Stir Crazy and then walked a little more.  It's wonderful having so many people in my life with kidlets of their own.  It's a wealth of knowledge, but more importantly a huge source of empathy.  I could swim in empathy at this point in my life.  Until my fingers get all prune-y. We drove home and had a 10 minute bout of hysteria where my child screamed so hard that when I finally did get a chance to look at her she was passed out with a nice coating of foamy spittle around her mouth.  I was able to drown out her screaming (and cal...

Today was magic. Why you might ask? Because it wasn't about the baby, it was about me.  Before you think to yourself "wow! what a parent she is ..." I'll go ahead and explain.  I went to yoga.  Not just any yoga, but my favorite yoga at Bloom taught by Dede.  This is a class that I haven't been able to attend since I was about 5 months pregnant, and had to stop doing things like handstands and extreme twists. Today my mother-in-law came to watch my child who is still on a nursing strike off and on, and I left her with a bottle (which I am not really supposed to do with a child on a nursing strike) and ran to yoga.  And it was worth it.  I forgot what taking a second to breathe actually felt like when you mean it.  Not the "breathe! 10-9-8-7" kind of breathing but the in and out of ujjayi breath.  The kind of breathing when you prepare to "om."  I also realized today that the last time I breathed like that was during labor.  It turns...

This is pretty much an accurate description of last night from 2:45am until about 4:45am and then a good 3 hour chunk of today.  Everyone I told over the weekend "maybe we've turned the corner!" I take it back completely.  This picture will for sure be used as guilt material throughout the teenage years.  Sigh.

So many accomplishments this week! I went out to dinner at a Michelin starred restaurant with my husband for our anniversary.  I went to a dentist appointment and the baby came with.  My mom sat with her and then we ventured into Northbrook Court.  A mall! With a baby! Yan and I took her to the doctor's office where she was measured as almost 10 lbs, 21.5 inches.  We stopped and got sushi for lunch afterwards. With a baby! Today I got a massage.  Yep! I left the house for 3 hours and even went to Trader Joe's.  Without a baby! Yesterday was the first day where I think she was smiling at us and not due to a bowel movement of some sort.  That's some great progress as well. We booked a trip with the baby in June to San Francisco.  We're heading to a wedding.  She's going to experience sunshine eventually... that's good to know. We're starting to move around again.  Life is starting to creep on.  Eventually we're going to t...

It's crazy to think that my sweetheart and I walked down the aisle one year ago today.  We've accomplished a lot in that year.  :) We traveled to Spain and Portugal, we went to California and drove up the coast, we went skiing a few times in Colorado, and then we went and got ourselves a little lady.  She's definitely changing things.  We now sleep with a bassinet in between us... but hopefully that won't last too long.  I'm looking forward to 4 hour feedings in the night and actually getting our bed to ourselves. It's a little crazy to have a month-old little lady and also have our anniversary.  Today is just a regular day.  I woke up.  Lilah slept on me after a feeding for an hour or two.  I slung her to me, we watched the latest episode of Downton Abbey and an episode of "Masters of Sex."  Mom and grandma came over and we hung out (4 generations of ladies is pretty awesome). They left and I'm waiting for Yan to get home so we...

So in real life, things are still about the same.  Every day is a whirl of diapers, rocking, learning to do things with one hand, and every time I sit down or have a moment I can't seem to get myself to do anything actually productive.  It's just kind of a mess up in my head.  I also can't believe that it's been almost a month of this!  Anywho... before I forget, I wanted to write down our reasons for little lady Pritzker's name.  Jewish folks name their children after those who have departed this earth.  Here are the wonderful people who our little girl will never meet.  We'll do our best to teach her about them and more importantly instill their lessons and values. Lilah There are two "L"'s in this little girl's name and they stand for the parents of my father, Lev and Lyubov.  Lyubov was one incredible woman who really truly left me a legacy of cooking and warmth.  She was a woman who was never ever thin physically, but she was as ...

This week has taught me one thing.  My parents were super heroes.  They were here with myself and my brother without any parents or support.  After this week I understand how that is just not even feasible or reasonable. My parents and parents-in law have been such a saving grace these few weeks.  When this little lady has her few hours of crazy every evening and is difficult during the day it is such a HUGE help and blessing to have others come over and walk with her, swaddle her, sway her and give me some time to take a nap or shower or eat.  It's incredible how an entire day can pass and then all of a sudden you realize "holy cow... I never ate lunch."  There are crazy skinny people that this happens to all of the time.  You know.... THOSE people.  But that never happens to me.  I'm a foodie.  I love food.  I love lunch.  I start usually thinking about lunch around 9:30 am.  Now? It's  3pm and I haven't peed in ...

We're 2 weeks in. We're establishing patterns.  The problem is that I don't particularly love the patterns we're establishing. Both of us love to research problems and fix them.  We love to read up on things, figure them out and then find the best approach.  This is problematic when dealing with a newborn's nervous system which is by definition on the fritz.  We can't troubleshoot the situation and it becomes very very difficult. Every night we have a period of 2-4 hours where this little lady "winds down for the evening" by crying and screaming inconsolably.  It's rough.  It's hard.  And I am a little bitter that nobody really covered this in classes or in books.  This is the stuff that I'm utterly unprepared for.  And two parent overachievers aren't really good at being unprepared.  So it's hard on our egos and it's hard on her.  Every time we call the doctor or consult with nurses we're told that this is just somethin...