Scott and I had the following conversation on the phone at about 8:30 this evening:

Me: I'm tired.

Scott: Oh yeah? What did you do today?

Me: Well, I got up, fed the baby, left her with you, went to the grocery store, my mom came over for coffee, Zoë and I went down to Kathye's house, we all went to the farmer's market in Ontario, went to lunch, went to the 99 cent store, came home, napped, I duped a movie from Tivo to VHS while we napped. I made 2 big batches of baby food, unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher, talked to Alisa on the phone and then I had to hold the baby because she cried for forty-five minutes. She just let me put her down to sleep so I could eat some dinner and now I'm folding laundry. Of course I breast fed about every four hours like I do every day too.

Scott: Well, yeah you're tired. You made supermom at the 99 cent store.

Me: You think?
posted by Amanda Snyder at 9:54 PM

The baby is teething. God help me. She's chewing on everything. Wooden spoons, teething rings, my fingers, she clamped down on my left nipple today and I almost attatched myself to the celing. Oh.. Ow... She took a nice long nap with me today, about three hours and both of us felt much better afterwards. She's been her usual cheerful self the last couple of days and we're getting along better. We're continuing to work on getting her to sleep in her crib. When she goes to sleep for the night we put her down in her crib. She ususally wakes up about midnight to nurse. About half the time she'll go back down in her bed for another three hours. At three o'clock she comes into bed with us. Sometimes I'm just too tired to deal with getting up and bring her in bed with us. Of course, this all depends on if we want to have sex or not. We have married people with kids sex now. No more taking your time or any of that nonsense. This is "Hurry up we don't know how long the baby will be asleep" sex. All that getting undressed and foreplay that I thought was so crucial have now become time wasting luxuries. What was once a complex, intimate exchange has been boiled down to three simple steps and nighty night! Now, Murphy's law applies so when you get right into the middle of something that is promising to be really great the baby will wake up and cry. This will break your concentration quicker than a bucket of cold water. Those of you who have kids know what I'm talking about.
posted by Amanda Snyder at 10:50 PM

The last month has been a hard one and the last week especially. Scott hasn't been home for more than 5 days at a time in the last 30. He's off, he's home, Zoë gets used to him again and then he's back on another plane. He's back from San Jose tomorrow and will be home for at least a week. Scott came home last Friday night and then his brother Bryan and his friend Mike came to stay with us for 3 days. They were here on vacation and we said they could stay Friday night, Saturday night and Sunday night. Scott and I had made a date to go out Saturday night as he was gone for Valentine's Day as well as the day we got engaged. We hung out with Bryan and Mike Saturday day then went out Saturday night while my folks watched Zoë. We picked her up, took her home, put her to bed and she woke up every 2 hours crying all night long. Sunday she spiked a fever of 101 or so and had developed a runny nose. She was fussy all day and I kept her on breast milk exclusively. Bryan and Mike took off for the Nixon Library. Zoë was feeling much better Monday and since it was a holiday we saw John and Stephanie. By six I was feeling lousy. We went home and I was up every two hours but the baby slept fine. Scott went into work Tuesday and I was miserable with my head stopped up. Whenever I get sick I get hives so I had to take a dose of steriods. Zoë would NOT take a bottle from me so I ended up nursing her a couple times but she seems fine. And on Wednesday we dropped Scott off at the airport for a three day trip. I'm up at my parents now and Scott comes home tomorrow night. Between getting over the bug I got from the baby and dealing with the fact that she wants to be held all the time again I've had a bad couple of days. I find myself thinking "Jesus! Shut up!" and being resentful of how I gave up my life to stay home with this child who won't let me take a 20 minute nap. I hope we have a better weekend this week.
posted by Amanda Snyder at 8:40 PM

Yes, it's been a while but I just haven't been inspired by anything. It's been hard with Scott gone. He came back from England for four days and then left again for Virginia. He's home this weekend, Monday and Tuesday then off again for a three day trip to San Jose. Zoë and I spent this last trip at home. I did spend the night with my folks one night but the need to be in MY house was pretty overwhelming. Zoë is also getting better at agreeing to be put down while sleeping. Ususally I'm able to put her down in her CRIB (o my god!) after she goes to bed at nine or so until she wakes up for her midnight feeding. She eats about every four hours like clockwork. We have a new routine here now that solid food has entered the picture. We get up about seven for rice cereal and a short nursing session. She's ususally up and active for about 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Then she's down for a morning nap. She eats avacado or sweet potatoes in the middle of the day. A nap generally follows about two in the afternoon. Then whichever she didn't have for lunch and rice cereal for dinner about five. She nurses after every solid feeding and in between. She breast feeds again about seven but only a little. She's down for the night between eight and nine if we're lucky. I like to put her in her crib between nine and midnight so I can do stuff online or read or whatever. Then I bring her in bed with me after twelve mostly because I don't want to have to get out of bed at four in the morning to feed her again. Rolling over is quite enough activity at that time of day.
posted by Amanda Snyder at 4:33 PM

Scott is home! Yay! No musing for today.
posted by Amanda Snyder at 8:14 AM

We had an up and down day today. Scott called me from the music convention he's at in England. He reminded me that today is the day we got engaged twelve years ago. I had completely forgotten. We said how much we missed each other and I told him "It's time for you to come home. I'm getting used to you being gone." I was down in the mouth for the rest of the morning and early afternoon. My mom had suggested that I come out to see her at work. Her assistant Ana and an old friend of ours, Lynn, were both going to be working with her today. Zoë and I headed out about two in the afternoon. The baby did NOT want to be in her carseat and cried all the way from Claremont to San Dimas. I got her out of the car and she was fine. I sat outside with the other three ladies as they greeted potential home buyers for thier new tract homes and we all played with the baby. Lynn and I used to work for the same company and we amused Ana and my mom with horror stories about them. I felt much better after that. I popped the baby in the car to head back to my folks house and she was asleep inside of ninety seconds. We got back to my parent's place and Zoë played with her grandpa while I had some dinner. She was full of beans and beezleweeds. I fed her some avacado and she got sleepy. After a short nap she was up and ready to play some more. She's upstairs now with my dad. He likes to rock her to sleep at night. This works out well since it's ususally Scott that rocks her to sleep at night. We're here for 2 more days and then we'll head back to our place and greet Scott.
posted by Amanda Snyder at 8:47 PM

As I've said before, I like to come up and stay with my parents when Scott is out of town. I'm here at their house and I noticed my mom has put out an impression of my hand right underneath an impression of my dad's hand. I'm pretty sure we were both around 4 years old when they were made. My dad made his at school and I did too. They are both round. My father's is a very shallow impression, just showing the outline of his hand without details like lines or bumps. Mine is very deep and you can actually read my little girl palm and see the lines on the knuckles of my fingers. My dad has fingers that are quite even in length. I have a really long middle finger and a short pinky finger. My dad's plate is painted green while the actual imprint of his hand is still white. Mine is spray painted gold. Kinda neat.

posted by Amanda Snyder at 8:39 PM