No one in our house has a fever today and Hattie’s congestion (did I mention she hasn’t been able to breath through her nose for four days?) seems to be clearing. Everyone got to play outside in the warm sunshine this afternoon. I went on a walk with my friend Kristin and got an italian soda and talked about the futility of trying to find an affordable house in UA. All three children are currently sleeping and I’m going to take an 8pm nap while Brad is out riding his bike with Super-Curt. I can’t believe how quickly the last three weeks have blown by (and my maternity leave, sadly, with them), but see? We’re surviving. Depending upon your definition.
Wed 3 Mar 2010
CUT ME A FREAKIN’ BREAK!!!
Posted by admin under Stacy, Uncategorized
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Mastitis.
Mon 1 Mar 2010
A rough first week…
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Hattie’s joyous arrival has been somewhat tempered by lack of sleep and a completely disrupted house. Poor Leva and Geert had terrible separation anxiety when we came home – although they slept through our first night back (whereas Hattie was up to eat EVERY TWO HOURS), the next night Leva resisted going to bed with innumerate requests for water, books, songs, snuggles, and fear of monsters. Geert pathetically and desperately screamed out for MommyDaddyMommyDaddy for over four hours before finally falling asleep in bed with Brad. I slept with Hattie on the couch so Leva could sleep in the toyroom in relative quiet. Then both kids were up at 4am and we all watched Thomas the Train before going down for disjointed, extra long morning naps.
The next few days things slowly got better – we restricted visitors and tried to keep to a regular schedule to try to get them back on track (as much so we could sleep as them). Geert would only cry for an hour, Leva wouldn’t nap at all, etc, until we finally started to seem to get ahead of it. Then the kids got sick. Geert had pus draining out of and matting both eyes, giving him bilateral shiners, and horrible nasal discharge and cough. Leva got a cold, and even Hattie got an eye infection. Now we were back to the land of lack of sleep, but now due to fevers and congestion, and the fear of a sick newborn. A trip to the pediatrician diagnosed Geert with a virus with a double ear infection on top of it, and Hattie with an isolated eye infection, and got both of them on antibiotics. Leva started napping again if I napped with her (which I’m very happy to do). Put all this on top of cramming one more person into what functions as an essentially one bedroom house, and you have our completely chaotic lives.
There are moments of peace, however, which we relish. Times when all three kids are napping and we can breath for a moment. Or times when we’ve dared to go out to breakfast, pulling out all of our tricks (Geert’s car-map placemats, Leva’s jelly-blocks, our usual order from memory before we even sit down), when we can each take a sip of coffee and realize that we’re out, a family of five, sipping coffee. Even if just for 30 seconds. We have three car seats in the car. Our kids can’t all fit into one stroller anymore. We’ve had snow on the ground for nearly a month, with cold temperatures that prohibit most outdoor play, and clogged sidewalks. We haven’t had a kid sleep in past 5:30am since we got home, and most of my mornings start with Hattie’s feeding at 4:00am. But I see the light at the end of the tunnel! The kids will sleep again. Hattie will take longer between nighttime feedings. And slowly, our lives will start to form a new pattern that we can handle. Until then, we’ll try to enjoy the little moments before they’re gone and the kids have gotten too big to let us snuggle and hug them, even when they’re naked.
Mon 1 Mar 2010
The Arrival
Posted by admin under Family, Hattie
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So Hattie blazed into this world in all her glory, fast and furiously. And then, she rested. It’s interesting when you look back at your children and how they came into this world and what they were like in their first hours, to see how it really is a window into who they will be. Leva came in early and unexpectedly, quickly, but easily. Then she gazed about in wide-eyed wonder. She wasn’t hungry or irritated or at times even tired, she just gazed. Geert came in at the last minute, also quickly, but arrived screaming his head off. We should have known right then. He screamed through his bath, screamed through his exam, screamed when they combed his long dark locks. And when he stopped screaming, he looked frustrated, but cuddled. Hattie arrived late. Three days late, to be exact. She lazed her way around inside, and then, a day before she was scheduled to be ejected from her warm little home, she came out and she came out FAST. My water broke at 4am, we were checking into the hospital at 4:45, and by 5:45 i was complete. And not fully registered. I begged for anesthesia (how women endure “natural” childbirth, I’ll never know), and upon arriving, he looked confused and said “but she’ll just push and it’ll be over.” I begged louder until he begrudgingly administered the medication, and i relaxed my grip on the rail. Totally worth it, I enjoyed meeting Hattie when she arrived only a short while later. Now Hattie is somewhat of a hybrid of her siblings – she has Leva’s seeming powers of observation, Geert’s appetite and occassional temper, but most of all, Hattie’s easy. Really easy, in baby terms. A no-fuss, good eater and pooper with minimum spit-ups, she’s exactly what the tired, unprepared parents of three children 39 months and younger could want. Welcome, Hattie – we love you!!
Tue 23 Feb 2010
Hendrika Ruth Fischer
Posted by admin under Family, Hattie
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Hattie’s finally here! I’ll post more on her “delivery story”, which was “exciting” when I get a chance, but wanted to get a few pictures out there for folks. She’s a precious angel…
Pics here: HattieRoo
Wed 27 Jan 2010
We’re starting to get really excited, and let’s be honest, really freaked about about this coming baby. After feeling like I’ve been pregnant *FOREVER*, it’s actually time to start wrapping our heads around having a fifth person in the house! In the last week I’ve “progressed”, in doctor talk from {2, thick, high} to {3, 50%, -2} and gained an extra delightful 4 pounds (putting me at a whopping 150, the most i’ve ever ever ever weighed and ever hope to weigh). I’ve washed the swaddling blankets, the car seat cover, the bouncy seat and the bassinet. Brought out a set of gender neutral pajamas. Bought some newborn diapers. We’ve decided that the only place we can have a changing table on the first floor where Geert can’t climb it or throw everything off of the shelves is the entryway, since we can gate it off. The bassinet is on wheels so we can maneuver it around the first floor to try to find a spot for naps. We’re nervous about both the bouncy seat and the bassinet with Geert – i can realistically see him climbing up the side of the bassinet to peer inside and pulling it over on himself, tiny bundle inside, or being a bit too aggressive with the bouncy seat. We’re thinking Leva might think it’s a doll and want to swaddle it and carry it around herself, so we’ve started priming her with “only mommy and daddy hold the baby” or “don’t pick up the baby without mommy or daddy”. To which she usually replies “I will hooooold it and huuuuuug it, okay?” Perhaps the safest place for the little pootie will be in the baby bjorn, strapped out of harm’s way to a parent. At a height. Perpetually. After all this waiting, we’re guessing “it” will finally be here in the next week or two! Maybe I should pack my bag… Hooray!!
Tue 12 Jan 2010
I’m sure there are parents and psychologists alike out there who will think we’re painfully obvious, but watching your kids grow into two such different people, even though they came from the same gene pool and are raised in the same psychosocial setting is VERY INTERESTING! Our kids are just so so different, that we oftentimes sit down just to go down lists to prove to ourselves exactly how different they are. First, and most obviously, they look different. Now, I remember being in the sixth grade and having my brother come get me for his fourth grade science class and standing in front of the room next to him, only to hear crickets chirp. The kids were supposed to be finding similarities between siblings for their “genetics class”, and for Peter and I, they found none. So Leva’s dark blond and Geert’s brunette. She has big wide blue eyes and he has squinty brown ones. She’s pale and pink and he’s olive toned. Okay.
But that’s just the beginning! Their temperaments are completely different. Leva doesn’t really get upset about much. She watches the world go by with this wide-eyed wonder and analyzes it almost as though she’s not a part of it. Even when disciplining her, she’ll go sit in time out, not upset at all, and hum to herself until it’s time to get out, much to our frustration. Geert gets mad about EVERYTHING, especially when tired. Although he can be sweet and funny and snuggly (which Leva almost never is), when he’s in a bad mood, any little thing from taking a toy to picking him up to trying to feed him something he doesn’t want can result in this manly grunt-scream and quite often, lashes. He’ll hit, claw, pull hair, and when exceptionally PO’d, bite. And if you discipline him, it’s like the world is ending. He’ll fall in a limp pile to the floor and howl.
And then there’s their interests. Leva likes to color to see the colors on the paper, not to draw. She likes to sing. She makes up words and languages. She pretends incessantly and makes up scenarios based on things she’s seen or read about. She dances, but more because she’s pretending to dance like someone or something than because she’s interpreting the music. She will talk to anyone at anytime about anything and will not stop until we step in and intervene. Geert’s the strong silent sort. He likes processes and mechanics. He’s fascinated with trucks and using them as trucks. He likes puzzles and toys with gears and blocks. He dances when he hears music and sings tunes – even as a baby he was soothed by music whereas Leva was not.
And finally, there’s how they each interact with other kids. Now, i know there’s a big age difference here (well, not such a huge difference), and that affects how they interact, but Leva is always out to make a friend. We’ll go to a playground and any child that Leva makes eye contact with will get a smile and an invitation to play. Most kids ignore her. But she just keeps playing, making up names for the kids (like butterfly girl or yellow (shirt) girl) and will call to them and invite them to do whatever she’s doing. After several trials, she’ll usually find a very sweet girl to play with and they’ll go running from slide to slide or jump to jump, squealing and laughing together. It’s so heartwarming to see her find someone like herself that she can have a good time with, even if just for an hour. And usually, they’re nice kids. Not the playground delinquents – you know who they are. Geert is perfectly happy in his own little world. He’ll run and jump and laugh, and is much much more adventurous than Leva ever was at his age, but he’s one of those kids who would probably ignore Leva’s invitations. We’ll see, he’s only 19mos, so I’m sure he’ll become more social in the future, but for now, it’s really funny to watch.
So who knows what this next child will be like? It could be anything! Red hair? Green eyes? Quiet? Loud? At this point, we’re just hoping for a healthy and EASY baby. Geert’s rather worn us out and we could use some sleep. With only five weeks to go or less, we’ll find out soon!
Tue 12 Jan 2010
Merry Christmas!
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Christmas this year was essentially a repeat of Christmas from last year – we decided not to go into Kansas City due to my hugeness factor and stayed here in Columbus. The two weeks before, we were really regretting our decision. The thought of our kids not spending the holiday with all of their fun cousins was really bringing us down, but now, in retrospect especially, it was the right move. Not only is driving in a car for more than 15min starting to become uncomfortable, if not downright painful, only having four days in which to do the trip would have been exhausting. With my upcoming maternity leave, I don’t have any extra vacation time I could have used, and boy, that’s a lot of travel in four days. In any case, we got to spend Christmas day with the Martins in Springfield and New Years (or our abbreviated version of it at least – i was asleep by 11p) with the Fischers. We’re still trying to figure out how we can see folks next year when travel is easier and perhaps vacations can be longer, but will probably have to wait until 2011 for Christmas with Sara and Ross’s kids at the same time. By that time, we’ll have a five, three, and almost two year old! Hard to fathom! Guess we’ll just have to plan on another beach vacation this summer to see everyone! (Oh, shucks.)
Some pics here: Christmas 2009
Sat 19 Dec 2009
First snowman of the season!
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We had our first snow accumulation last night. Very heavy, very wet snow. Perfect for making snowmen and hot chlocate with mishmellows.
Tue 15 Dec 2009
Leva’s first Christmas concert
Posted by admin under Geert, Leva
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Leva’s first Christmas concert was today, and overall, a raging success. She made it to the front with the rest of the kids, sat between her friends Lucy and Norah, sang some of the words and did some of the hand motions to the songs, and didn’t fall off the risers. Geert also did well, only shrieking through one or two songs, and managing not to bite anyone.
Watch for Leva waving as she walks up the aisle. On the risers, she’s in the front row, almost right in front of her teacher, Mrs. Gilliam. And yes, that’s Geert crying in the first number.
