Snowbound Herpetologist

It turns out that one of Maya’s daycare providers, Roz, is also a midwife.  She, another mom, and I had a long conversation a couple weeks ago upon afternoon baby pickup about all of our respective labors.  During the conversation, it was clear that I’ve spent this whole year - and it’s taken a whole year - processing my birth experience and truly coming to a place of peace about it.  In any case, that’s when I decided that I really should do a “Year in review” post on it, even though at least some of you (especially husband) must feel like it’s definitely been beaten to death.  But I have arrived in my happy place of tranquility and I want to share! It’s been a fun week in our household, reliving all the memories associated with last Christmas - or rather, the lack of memories since most of it is a major blur in my mind.  That’s probably the part that I’m most surprised about, that I don’t remember so much of it.  After I post this entry, I’m going to ...

I'm about to update Maya's  growth charts - 22lbs 10oz and 31.5 inches long at the pediatrician this morning!  She didn't quite manage to triple her birth weight (8lbs), but she did grow over 11 inches in a year.  As a little moment of "awwww….," here's a comparison photo set of Maya at Christmas 2013 and Christmas 2014 :)

This happened between when I posted yesterday and this morning.  She wouldn't do it for the camera, but she's got the sign down, too.

Happy, happy first birthday, Maya!  Although we've been celebrating for like a week, you are now *officially* one!  Mama couldn't be more proud of you! (I will try to come back and edit this post with some photos of her bonus birthday "parties" - one at daycare, involving only punch balloons and dress-up clothes, and one here at Grandma and Grandpa's house involving cake and presents!  We are still at the in-laws now though, and I am sneaking time just to get this written, so hopefully I can add photos when we get back home?) One-year-old Maya continues to surprise us with her new skills.  She's been "able" to walk unassisted since Thanksgiving, but she is still very unsteady on her feet and continues to rely on crawling for her main mode of transportation.  Numerous times, we've seen her stand up in the middle of a room and walk more than 10 steps unassisted, but it never sticks - she just seems to prefer crawling.  So crawling it is! :) A...

Husband's sister is getting married this coming Saturday (the day after Maya's real birthday), which means that Friday will be a bit filled with things that are…well, not Maya's favorites (a 5 hour car ride, waiting for a late rehearsal dinner while being well-behaved, etc.).  We are super excited about the wedding, so we just decided to celebrate Maya's birthday this past weekend instead, with some fun family activities! Highlights include: jam sesh with Dada (lots of dancing included!), swimming lessons (always a favorite), duck pond trip to visit Mr. Muskrat, our local hands-on science museum (+ live raptors!!!), and, of course, PRESENTS AND CUPCAKES. Happy early birthday, baby boo!

Like I did for pregnancy, I am taking Maya’s upcoming first birthday as an opportunity to record some of my thoughts about her first year all in one place.   I’m not sure how many topics I’ll get to, but I’ve currently planned three posts: this one about one year of baby feeding, one about perspectives on labor/delivery/recovery, and one about motherhood. I think that this post’s topic is probably the most important one for me to write, mainly because I didn’t have a textbook experience with breastfeeding.  Therefore, I think it’s beneficial to have that story out there so that other women 1) are prepared if they have a similar “abnormal” experience, and 2) can know that it is possible to continue nursing in the face of challenges.  This post is an accumulation of the things I’ve learned over the last year and what I wish I’d been able to tell myself before I started breastfeeding so I could have adjusted my expectations accordingly. To any regular readers of my bl...

She seemed to enjoy her first sled ride, but she looked ridiculous!  I think that *real* Michigan babies look more graceful :)

And late on the post, yet again - sorry! Maya has been doing really, really well lately.  The exciting news of the past two weeks is that daycare is transitioning her from two naps to one nap, which results in a super mega long nap when she does sleep.  This weekend was the first time husband and I were able to keep her awake until 1pm when she's meant to go down, and although she looked a little tired and grumpy out on our pre-lunch bird walk (yes, it was kind of rainy), she perked up a bit at the end :) As for new skills, our biggest area of progress this month has been signing and speaking.  Actually, the signing has helped us understand her early attempts at some words that we never would have understood if she wasn't also concurrently making the sign for the word while trying to say it. Words she can say: - mama (finally!) - dada (which she likes to call out lovingly a) while nursing, or b) while being rescued in the middle of the night…neither circumst...

Just because I finally got a pic in which you can see her brand new top two teeth - adorable!! Monster PJ's! :)

My good friend Mark has let me know that I am way behind on my blogging, so here's a quick update!  We are alive, but busy.  Husband is in the UK this week giving a ton of talks all over England, so Maya and I are on our own.  I do not know how single parents do it all the time, it's exhausting! Oh, and we have another cold.  Again. I have Maya's 11 month update coming up in just a week, so I don't want to steal too much thunder from that, but Maya is picking up words and signs quite quickly now.  New signs of the past two weeks are dog, hat, bath (finally!), and gorilla (we have a book with chest-thumping gorillas, so this one happened by accident).  Shoe has gotten more correct now too, with two closed fists instead of one open and one closed (no idea why she was doing that?).  She's standing on her own (and can get there by herself from the floor, with nothing else to hang on to), but not walking. Here are some recent photos! Maya is *tota...

These things are deceptively hard to set up!  Sometimes even mamas make mistakes :) An inauspicious beginning "I feel like there's a problem here" OK, we've got it working now Too fast!

Yay, Maya!  We are celebrating tonight by eating…leftovers :)  We did have a great morning today on a playdate with some of our work friends who have 2-year-old twin girls - totally adorable! I apologize in advance here that again, this will be a short post…. New and exciting developments: - Upper central incisors are finally coming in !!  Right side is completely broken through, left side is at the "hole" stage where there's a single open area, but I can't actually feel anything sharp yet.  These new teeth will give her a whole new look - my baby will look like a toddler now! - We have words!  So far, she (reliably) says uh oh, dada, duck (=all birds), and abba (Abby).  There's a mama thrown in there upon occasion, but she also sometimes calls me duck.  Oh well. - We have one new sign to add to "cheese" - this one is "shoe."  She loves both with an uncanny passion. - She's decided walking isn't really for her.  She used to...

No time for anything else!  Some happy fall memories :) Our neighborhood park right now - not bad! This one is my favorite -  "Buy me that one over there, Mom!" An angst-y " emo album cover" sort of photo. This one's husband's favorite, but I think Maya looks slightly unhinged here.

Today's doctor's stats: weight: 21lbs, 7oz length: 29.75in (which I think the doctor mis-measured - it sure looked like 30in to me!) head circumference: 17 7/8 in Oh, and I've made a new set of growth charts now, too :) OK, we all have a bad cold and the baby's now awake from her nap, so time to go snuggle and try to cure ourselves before going pumpkin hunting this afternoon.  Can I reiterate how much I wish I could take some cold medication???? For today's photo: Maya is decidedly unenthused about this part of her Halloween costume.

I have been horrible about taking baby photos recently.  I've literally taken approximately 20 photos in the two weeks that I've been back in the North Country - depressing.  Husband can't be blamed for this because he dropped his phone like a year and a half ago and shattered the lens, so he doesn't do photos.  My only explanation is that we're just still trying to adjust to the "daycare lifestyle" that involves running around every morning to get lunches prepared and packed and jackets/hats/boots on (we are always late), and then rushing around after work to get the baby nursed, fed, bathed, and to bed.  Then, because I have a "go get 'em" kind of husband, weekends are always chock-a-block full as well.  I consciously do my best to keep everything as unrushed and laid back as possible, but there's still this feeling of always running.  Anyway, photo taking has fallen by the wayside lately - we'll try to be better. Day care is goi...

Once again, I am bringing a very different baby back with me from California.  In the last two weeks, she has exploded with skills, speech, and signing.  Thanks to her Uncle Christopher, she has perfected the use of saying “uh oh!” after throwing things on the ground.  I thought that a word we used all the time would be her first (“mama,” anyone???), but no - she hears “uh oh” once and now says it 5000 times a day - and very clearly enunciated, there’s no question what she’s saying.  Here's an early video from the first day she learned it - definitely done without prompting now, and much clearer as a true "uh oh." She made her first sign this month, too.  Again, was it a simple sign that I’ve used every day for the past 7 months (“bath,” anyone???)?  No, it was “cheese,” a complicated sign that she’s only seen about 10 times total, because we didn’t feed her all that much cheese due to high salt content, and never really fed it to her by itself, only...