I'm sitting at Starbucks. When we first arrived here, Piper had an explosive dirty diaper -casualties were a cute froggy onesie, a baby blanket, and Miss P's cool. We went into the bathroom to clean her up and you'd never believe she could scream so loud for such a pint-sized little thing. It echoed off the walls and I swear the baristas must have thought I was torturing her in there.
For two nights straight over the weekend Piper didn't sleep at all. We'd introduced the bottle and she sucked in so much air she was full of gas, and thus full of fuss. Poor thing. We finally found a bottle that works for her, so last night she mercifully got a little rest. I'd been spoiled - before this bad patch she'd been sleeping through for about 6-8 hours at a stretch.
At her last peds appointment Pipes did okay - she hit the minimum weight gain for the time between visits so while the NP had hoped for more, I was just happy she was within the 'normal' range. But we're still working on getting her to eat more often throughout the day.
As for me, I'm just desperate to eat a hot meal with two hands. I'm hoping that now that the bottle thing has been addressed Piper will be more amenable to being put down. My arms ache from carrying her around for the past 48 hours.
Our home appraisal came in where we wanted it to given the state of property values in this economy, so we're happy about that. Of course, our air conditioner was on the fritz last weekend at the tail end of a heat wave and then this past Saturday night our garage door spring busted with one of the cars stuck inside. The repair man came out this morning and put a temporary fix in place while he ordered the required part, allowing me to get out of the house and procure some much needed caffeine. Lately I feel like my life (at least my life as it relates to major homeowner issues) could be the video for the Daniel Powter song Bad Day.
Where is the moment we needed the most
Harbingers of death
You may remember the baby birds of last summer. Or the bunnies of the summer prior. If you don't, I'll cut right to the chase: Hubs and I have a nasty way of inadvertently tearing apart animal families while trying - and failing miserably - to be helpful.
This year the tradition continues. With a turtle.
Out on a family walk, we passed a turtle who appeared to be stuck in a very random patch of mud. It was kicking its back legs but wasn't getting anywhere. I pointed it out to Hubs, instructing "Help that turtle! It's stuck!"
"I'm not sure we should..."
"HUBS! Help it! It needs help!"
He seemed hesitant, but then lifted the turtle out of the mud for relocation. At which time he noticed the eggs she was working on burying.
"She's burying her eggs," he said sadly. "I had a suspicion that's what she was doing."
"WHAT? What? What do you mean? You did? I didn't even know turtles lay eggs!"
He nodded regretfully. "They do."
"Oh no! Oh no! Put her back! Put her back in the mud!"
Hubs shook his head. "I think it's too late..."
"No, no! It's not too late. Put her back!"
He tried to place the turtle back in the mud, but she ran (okay, she crawled - painfully slowly) back toward the pond we were walking past.
"Try it again!" I insisted.
"I don't think that's a good idea."
"Oh, no! No, try again Hubs! Put her back and we'll hurry up and walk away and she'll realize she doesn't have to be scared of us!"
Hubs stood firm. "No, I'm just going to leave her alone now."
"Well, maybe we should cover up the eggs for her? That way when she comes back they'll be safely buried?"
Hubs was already pushing the stroller along the trail ahead of me. "I think we've probably done enough."
"Aw, crap. Why does this always happen to us?"
"I think it's usually your fault."
"Yeah. I need to start watching The Animal Planet."
"It's just Animal Planet. Not The Animal Planet."
"Really?"
"Obviously you have a lot to learn."
Do real grown ups say 'oops'?
Life with Piper is surprisingly... normal. It's so new, but at the same time it feels like we've been doing this forever. I can't remember ever not having this tiny extension of myself. It will be interesting as she grows into her own little person! She's definitely willful and impatient, traits she got from her mama. But she's also a fantastic sleeper, which is a gift from my side of the gene pool as well.
We probably could have approached maternity/paternity leave with fewer aspirations though. Our project list is a large part of what's caused us stress. Wanting to get a lot done with a new baby is a recipe for chaos. But at the same time, Hubs and I were so rarely home beforehand that this is the most natural time to start crossing things off our to do list.
That being said, in hindsight I can see we should have done a few things differently. Case in point, Wednesday night we set about the project of installing new shelves in the living room. At around 8pm. While preparing for a home appraisal the following morning. Not. Smart.
You're wondering how this stroke of genius played out? Well, we got to bed the following morning around 3am. One shelf installed, a large framed print hung next to it covering the six new holes in the wall that resulted from attempting to install shelf #2. All four members of the household very unhappy. You might even say on the verge of breakdown. (Okay, Piper and I were the only two breaking down, but the men of the house were certainly cranky to say the least!)
While Hubs fought with the shelves I'd gone outside to pull the weeds along the driveway, wanting the overall first impression of our home to be favorable. It was beyond dusk, and the mosquitoes were out in full force. I now have no less than twenty ugly red welts covering my body, but it can't be said that I didn't totally take one for the team. And for the record I also smacked down at least five of those hateful blood suckers, so a modicum of revenge was realized.
Anyway, as if our lack of sound judgment in that situation weren't enough, the next day we discovered that we'd positioned our grill too close to the house, thereby melting some of the siding below our bay windows in the back. Which, for us, begged the question, are we just total idiots? Do other intelligent adults do so many stupid things in the course of a few days? Are we incompetent?
I posed these question to Mookie today in a moment of pure self-flagellation. He assured me that learning a few life lessons the hard way was par for the course. He suggested I count myself lucky that we didn't burn down the house as part of our education.
Where does the time go?
I have been meaning to post forever, but somehow the time slips through my fingers every day. It's been a whirlwind, and Piper is now 3 and a 1/2 weeks old! She's doing great, and we're smitten. Sweet baby girl!
Life has been so busy. Our days are packed with visits from family, friends and coworkers, house projects, errands, not to mention the business of caring for a newborn.
All in all things have gone smoothly. Labor was more painful than I'd expected but went off without a hitch. The first few days afterward were hard but within two weeks I was back to my pre-pregnancy self so my recovery was quick. Piper's had a little trouble with weight gain but nurses wonderfully and sleeps like a dream. We've been a little overwhelmed with visitors but we're hanging in there and are thrilled that so many people are just dying to love this little angel.
Hubs has been home with us for the past month but goes back to work next week, so that might make day to day life more challenging :) In another month my stepmom comes, then my mom will be here for four weeks, then my sis for a week so we'll have non-stop house guests (and extra sets of hands) for a while.
There's so much to say, but it's very late and I'm going to grab some sleep while I can! Hopefully more soon...
