I was wrong

I have been making fun of my parents for watching NCIS for a long time. Then I went on maternity leave and it's the only thing other than TLC shows on during the day. Once I could no longer watch another show about giving birth, I switched to NCIS. My god, that show is FANTASTIC. Fantastic in the way Numb3rs is fantastic. Every day I watch at least 1 show, which isn't hard because USA has a minimum of 3 shows on a day. Will they find out whodunnit in 60 minutes? Of course they will! Because they have Leroy Jethro Gibbs and his team of plucky agents on the case!

Seriously, if you find yourself unemployed during an unseasonably rainy period, you should really turn on USA and watch hour after hour of NCIS. Then you too can start having weird dreams about Agent DiNozzo.

lazy hazy crazy days of summer

I think I've hit rock bottom on the lazy scale.

Andrew recently asked me why I still have a link to Matt's old blog - my answer was because it's too complicated to update the links. And it's just as easy for me to click on Ian's blog and then link over to Matt's from there. But yet in the time it took me to write this sentence, I could have updated my own links. It's probably never going to happen though. Because then I would also have to delete the links to blogs that are no longer updated (I'M TALKING TO YOU, BREE!!), and that's just a hassle. I'm just too lazy to spend 5 minutes cleaning up the links on my blog.

I have to return 2 shirts to Old Navy via mail. They have been sitting on my bureau for 2 weeks. I bet they stay there for a minimum of 2 more weeks. Let's face it, they will probably be there for a month or so.

I still haven't made dinner. I stopped doing that almost 2 months ago. I don't think I will start again any time soon.

4 weeks

Baby Girl is 4 weeks old today. I can't believe it was 4 weeks ago - in some ways it seems like it has been forever and in other ways it seems like we were in the hospital yesterday.

Nothing else to say today, I just can't believe how OLD my baby is! And she's finally in 0-3 month clothing. My little baby isn't so teeny tiny anymore!

I want answers

I have some questions that I would love answered. Anyone want to help?

* why do people care about the Supreme Court nominee? I'm being serious about this. Unless you are the President or a Senator, you have zero say in who is appointed to the bench. So why do ordinary people get so up in arms about it? You literally can do nothing about it.

* Why does my daughter make so much noise in her sleep? How can she sleep through all that noise?

* Would Jon and Kate have made it if they hadn't been on TV? Would Nick and Jessica have made it if they hadn't been on TV?

* Why is it going to rain on Saturday when I really wanted to go to the beach?

* How come I can get up to feed Baby Girl whenever she needs it at night, but once it hits 6 or 7 o'clock, I can barely move?

* Why are librarians so unfriendly?

* Was Tony killed in the last scene of the Sopranos?

* Why is NCIS the most addictive show on television? Will I watch the new NCIS spin off?

* Why is The Mentalist moving to Thursdays when I already have 4 shows on Thursdays?

* Should my next car be a Subaru Tribeca, a Ford Taurus X (the crossover, not the sedan), a Rav 4, or something else?

thoughts?

is the July pitcure too big? I got sick of all the blue, so I really wanted this picture to add some color and life into the blog. But if people aren't happy with the size, I can make it smaller.

Also, Friday Confessions are on hiatus for a little while. As my life now consists of caring for a newborn, I've got nothing for confessions. But once Baby Girl gets a bit older and we do more things, I'm sure confessions will be back.

interesting

I'm kind of surprised that Dooce went for the home birth. But I have to agree with her on some points. I wanted nothing to do with being induced. I wanted the pitocin as far away from me as possible. I had planned on refusing an episiotomy if suggested (don't look that up if you don't know what it means). If things tear, then they tear, no need to slice me open. The vaccum and foreceps can stay in their nice sterile environment and not come anywhere near me or my baby.

But I was still going to give birth in a hospital. It may surprise you that in the 2.5 days I was a patient at the preeminent B&W maternity ward, I never saw an OB-GYN. That's right, I was never evaluated by someone with a medical degree. I went with the midwives and it was a fantastic decision. Even though she didn't want to, the midwife who delivered Baby Girl even let me get my epidural (when you've gone through all of active labor at home by yourself while your husband slept, you deserve some epidural love!) and I had a perfectly normal delivery.

So even though I could never imagine giving birth anywhere other than a fully accredited hospital for the sake of the baby (what if something is wrong with the baby - would you rather the NICU be seconds away or an ambulance ride away?), I can somewhat see why people choose homebirths.

I still think they are hippies though :)

self regulation

We spent the night down the cape last night, and I took Baby Girl out for a walk this morning, while Andrew went golfing with my father and my brother. It was fantastic to walk her somewhere other than up and down the main streets of Canton. Instead of 18 wheelers roaring past us, we walked over Green Pond and down by the beach. I saw the ocean for the first time in a long time (haven't even seen Quincy Bay recently). Walking by the ocean in the sunshine can do wonders for my psyche. We had a fantastic walk and it seems Andrew had a good golf day, so everyone was happy!

Now if only the temperature would reach 80º or higher in Falmouth!

shocking...

Did you know that Michael Jackson died? Yeah, it didn't make the news, so it would have been easy to miss... Yeah right. Right now I am watching Anderson Cooper and Soledad O'Brien report on his memorial service. Do those two people have nothing more important than to cover Michael Jackson's memorial service?

I miss Michael Jackson the artist. I'm glad the obviously mentally unbalanced man is finally at peace. I also hope that if he really did hurt children, he is getting what he deserves.

But, my god, ENOUGH ALREADY!!! Put on Billie Jean, watch a Jackson 5 video, and be done with it.

On an unrelated note, I know my picture needs to change. If I remembered how to use Snagit, I'd change it now, but I have to wait for Andrew to help me. There will be a new one soon.

let the hate mail begin

I'm just going to say it. I don't like the newborn stage. I love my child and I am very glad she is here, but I'm very eagerly looking forward to leaving the newborn stage behind us. She has totally reversed night and day, which means nights like last night no one in our house got any sleep. And that does not make for a happy household. Baby girl is asleep again right now, which just makes me fearful of tonight. Andrew goes back to work tomorrow which leaves the night duty mostly to me.

I don't need her to sleep through the night, I just need her to flip her night and days back to normal. I need to sleep. I need for her to not be a newborn anymore.

I keep listening to "It won't be like this for long" by Darius Rucker. I really I will be looking back at this time period and laughing. And I hope that comes sooner rather than later

He didn't have to wake up
He'd been up all night
Layin’ there in bed listenin’
To his new born baby cry
He makes a pot of coffee
He splashes water on his face
His wife gives him a kiss and says
It gonna be OK

It won’t be like this for long
One day soon we'll look back laughin’
At the week we brought her home
This phase is gonna fly by
So baby just hold on
‘Cause it won't be like this for long

Friday Confessions

bear with me on typos today... I'm typing one handed, as there is a squirmy 11 day old in my arm.

Today's confession is semi serious. All throughout my pregnancy I was schooled by various medical professionals about the dangers and warning signs of post partum depression. I was not at high risk for it, but I dutifully learned all about it and what to do if I was afflicted. What I completely glossed over and ignored were the "baby blues". Probably because it's a stupid name. Anyway I decided it wasn't going to affect me, and a la Tom Cruise, probably wasn't real.

I was wrong. Those pesky baby blues hit me like a ton of bricks. I cried for 2 days straight, got unbelievably anxious about everything (and getting stressed about nursing doesn't help you work through your problems with it!), and barely made it through.

Thanks to the constant support of my mother and Andrew, everyone made it through those few days, and while nursing is still a challenge, I no longer cry at the thought of it.

So people - the baby blues are very real. And they can knock you out

short list

Things I Did Right During Pregnancy

* cut way back on caffeine
* did not consume an entire beer or alcoholic beverage
* took my pre-natal vitamins
* stayed off my skis and my bike


Things I Did Wrong During Pregnancy

* ate coldcuts (I did heat them up sometimes...)
* drank my decaf coffee with Splenda
* drank the occasional Diet Coke and other caffeinated beverages
* sipped Andrew's beer when he had a good one
* had 2 glasses of champagne
* incorporated chocolate as a staple into my diet
* quit the gym
* ate sushi (but I did avoid the kind with raw fish... not easy to do, by the way)
* ate feta cheese

As you can see, the second list is much longer, and yet I have a perfectly normal baby. I guess some Diet Coke isn't the end of the world after all...