Friday, November 30, 2012

6 Weeks

How time flies. We had our 6 week apt with the midwives. Which was our last. This is how Malachi and I both felt about it.
 
 
 
 
"I want my midwives!"
 
 
At the appointment  Heike held Malachi, who sensed her presence, relaxed, and went to sleep.
She truly is a mommy-in-labor-baby-whisperer-can-you-move-in-next-door-please kind of lady. Makes me want to get pregnant just so I can go see her. But she encouraged us to  stop by anytime to say hi. And since she is near my neurologist who I see in a few weeks, we just might do that.
 
 
But most of the time Malachi looks like this:
 
 
 
Which is probably due to the fact that he has become a very rotund  11 lb 13 oz  piglet.  I took him to his 6 week check up. He was 75th percentile for height and weight. And 90-95th for head circumference. So he is a smart piglet too. He passed all the tests with flying colors.
 
I was a little worried that night, when actually cried at bed time. More like screamed. I tried nursing him. Burping him. Shane walked him, bounced him, talked to him. I was hot and sweaty and afraid he was starting a new phase and my calm little kitten was turning into a grunty, squealy, screaming pig. But finally, he did an enormous poop, nursed, and went to sleep. I changed him between the pooping and nursing. And being that it was almost 3am when all was said and pooped, we slept in until 11:00 the next morning. Fortunately, he has not repeated the episode and we are attempting to get everyone to sleep at a more reasonable time.
 
Malachi still likes to sleep on someone's chest. Which is great for me. None of  the other kids liked that for too long. But I love knowing I, or Shane, is right next to him all night. I can feed him, hand him  to Shane,  and Malachi wakes up from a sound night's sleep smelling like men's cologne. Everybody wins. And gets sleep.
 
My snorky little pig is calling for lunch. Which means I should eat something too.
 
 
 
 
 


Sunday, November 18, 2012

Baptism

 
 
I wrote this post three times. Then decided none of them captured the magical night before Christmas feeling of the event. It was thrown together two days before the actual event. No reception. Three grandparents, one uncle, and godparents were able to attend. Plus regular Saturday night parishioners. The kids were given their cameras and my phone for pictures, These are all by Kateri. It was super cold that night. Afterwards we stopped at the store for dinner ingredients, came home and cooked the meat inside because it was too cold to grill. Turned on the fire, opened some celebratory wine, and enjoyed our new little Christian. The whole event felt positively magical. I half expected to come out of the church to Christmas lights and a surprise snow storm.
 
Baptized
 
                                                                       Chrismated
A quick wardrobe change.
 

 
And there he was. No picture of his first Eucharist as we did not have time to get into position.

Afterwards I realized we did not get a group picture with godparents and family and Father. But I quickly saw an opportunity to get most everybody in this shot. His godmother is just leaving the church. I thought it was pretty successful given the last minuteness. Oh, and there was a football game that night and traffic was horrible. My brother texted me saying Father was looking for a baby. we arrived a couple minutes later and walked right in and Father started the opening prayers.
Shane's parents arrived a bit later and the godparents just a little before the actual baptism.

Standing there, holding Malachi, next to Shane reciting the creed gave me an overwhelming sense of awe, together with responsibility, gratefulness, and the feeling that everything at that moment was just the way it was supposed to be and it was humbling to be able to participate in something so incredible.  It was not just me. Shane said afterwards he felt the same. That it was perfect.



Friday, November 9, 2012

Look! Two Arms.

As opposed to one. Or none. I forgot how exhausting just holding a baby all day can be. Even with all the extra arms. Sometimes only mom's will do the trick, and mine are sore and my back hurts. Then I took him to his 3 week check-up yesterday and found he weighs 9 lbs 13 oz! So that explained it. The midwife took one look at me and said,

"You need to eat more."

So  on the way home I stopped at the store, first time grocery shopping by myself, actually Kateri was with me. But I was the only adult. Ok the only driver. Anyway, we stocked up on more half and half, doughnut holes, steak, eggs, butter, and honey crisp apples. If he keeps gaining weight at a rate that would make a sumo wrestler proud, I might just have to schedule some maintenance back rubs. And some regular  deliveries of highly caloric foods, as I should probably save my stores by not walking around a store pushing a cart. Or thinking. The midwife asked me how many wet diapers he has in 24 period. And how many hours of sleep I get in a 24 hr period. Then she told me I need to get more of that too. ( the sleep, not the diapers). Which is hard to do with a nursing baby who, when he is not sleeping, is grunting, pooping, or eating. She suggested I nap with him. Which is tempting, but it is also tempting to do things with two arms when I have them both available. Things like typing.

I actually composed some really good posts in my head in the past few weeks. At least I thought they were gems at the time. But they never made it to text, which is probably just as well as the post partum hormone cocktail with a twist of sleep deprivation that I  was taking probably made things sound a lot more entertaining than they were. Plus, there was a touch of  "O, me miseram" that would not be so uplifting. And  I realized, what is better- when you are feeling sad about totally imaginary things- than adding really sad, but also real, things to the mix. Not much, if you are going from maximum drama. At least I can say I didn't watch myself cry in the mirror like a 7 year old. Although that might have only been because I was in the shower and the glass was too fogged up.

But eventually I did get some sleep and the fears of him stopping breathing lessened and the sad disparity between his  sweetness and the world's insidious and cold ways did not feel like an immediate threat. And the sad but true stories were put back in the past.  To await being dragged out again the next time he pulls an all-nighter.


So basically we are all doing really well. It was great to see the midwives again. I will be sad when the appointments end at my 6 week check-up. We finally made an appointment for his baptism. I don't know if the baptismal gown will fit him. I have no clue what will fit me. I thought there might be an opportunity to get my hair done before the event but it does not look like that is going to happen. I put the big kids on picture duty for Malachi's big day and hope they don't fight over vantage points. We decided to do it on a Saturday evening as there is nothing like trying to get 6 people fed, dressed, and in church before 10am after a rough night. And because we may have had a rough night the night before, we are forgoing a reception afterwards. Once it gets dark and cold, which it has been here lately, I just want to put cozies on, have some tea, or maybe some wine with Shane and be home.

Which reminds me, I think it is time for lunch. Too bad I ate all the doughnut holes already.