New digs, new approaches

I think it's time to reintegrate parenting stuff into every day stuff, blogging wise - it's simpler and I am not fearing so much to have it there.

So I moved two (at least) blogs into one new one over here:

http://www.multiplicity.ca/blog

Hope to see you there! I know, I know - too many blogs this year. This one should be permanent.

We'll still be reading over here too!

And wonderful comments on the babysitting thing - thank you!! More thoughts on that to come in the new digs, for sure.

Oh and Dy I finally found that cream and it is superior, although he hasn't had too many rashes - he did spring one on Sat and it's all cleared up. :)

Shandra

Sitters

So, we're at 10.5 weeks and man, do I have a gorgeous baby. I hate to disrupt his life. I find myself this week trying to have the perfect loving skin touching, playmat exploring, tummy-time rolling, cuddling routine-but-not-scheduled experience, because I feel guilty - still - from the Costco Experience on Saturday.

At the same time Carl celebrated his 39th birthday yesterday and we - had dinner. Oh it was a lovely dinner, ribs for him, chicken for me (I confess, finally, that I do not like ribs much), and potato-bacon-cheddar soup, and baby peas, and chocolate cake for dessert. Noah was in an expansive mood for the first bit and inundated Carl with glee, and then dropped off for a sleep and we had some adult time.

And yet, we never left the house. That's fine. But eventually we are going to want and need to leave the house together without child and have a little date. Not perhaps this month. But eventually.

And I've hit a wall of trust issues. Oh I have had plans for this for a while. One has been to have a responsible older teen come in after school and watch Noah with me here while I write, for a few months and then see if I think s/he can be left alone for an hour or two. Another has been to start a parent co-op, but since I haven't been doing much parent networking other than with parents who don't live that close via the potlucks, hmmm, not so great. I could possibly prevail upon friends but that seems like a recipe for friend disaster to me - I recognize that our society is stupid about this, but I live in our society and my current society says that friends come over for dinner but they don't babysit. Because what if they do it wrong or something happens - neither of which is likely, but still. It seems cleaner to have a professional relationship or something instead.

This is where my mother would come in handy, except - yeah. No dice there.

In other words, I am eliminating all my options before they begin, because I am scared to leave my baby with anyone but Carl, and I confess even with Carl was hard when I was dealing with dental stuff (and that's just insane). I cannot honestly believe anything good will come of it. It terrifies me. A small bit of this is Emily stuff, some of it is abuse stuff (okay, a fair chunk), and some of it is remembering being a pretty darn responsible babysitter and still not really being - loving. You know?

Breastfeeding is such a good excuse that way; if he never transitions to bottles at all then I can stay in for the next 6 months at least.

So, how does one get over the neurosis and move forward? A question for my therapist maybe or maybe that mum's group...

Shandra

Corruption

I think last week corrupted me.

Noah's reached some new phase where Something Bothers Him But We Can't Tell What and so after the offering of food/changing of diaper and clothing/checking of temperature/for wounds and sore spots/rocking and cooing we just walk around with him singing. Today's bout was at 11:30 am, after a playmat session.

My theory is that his brain is growing and the new input hurts. Because it's all related to genius of course!

Anyways, he calmed down around noon and I decided he was in need of hard-core attachment parenting, mnn hmm. So around 1:45, after a nutritious meal for him and one for me, I took a pile of Hallowe'en candy and a Homicide DVD and laid on the futon and ate crap while he slept on me.

Mnnnn.

Tomorrow we return to our granola ways, with sling.

Shandra

Candy overload

Well we only got about 20 families here for Hallowe'en - an all-time life low, I think (and I thought our old house was in a kid-unfriendly neighbourhood!). Maybe there was a party for the kids instead, or maybe parents in our neighbourhood only let their kids go to homes where they know people... whatever the reason it was slow and we didn't meet too many people. Totally unlike our last neighbourhood. We did meet two dads and that's a good thing - slow but steady start to things.

Still, I was rather floored. We may yet have to go to delivering cookies door to door. Or leftover candy. We have tons. Come to my door if you want some spiff stuff. :)

Noah seemed to enjoy being trucked out on the porch and back in, Mr. Pumpkin Boy. I have a dragon costume for him too, but it can wait for some gloomy November/December days. It may have been the trucking, or it may be a new phase, but he was again totally hyped up all evening (not fussy, just super-alert) and hard to get to sleep.

He was also up smiling and chatting from 1 am to 3 am. So much for that circadian rhythm! I was really tired, but it's hard to be too upset. He's developing a wide range of cries/coos/grunts/sighs/burbles. The new cry ("attention! now!") is particularly awe-inspiring: it sounds like a much larger child and is kind of throaty.

I'm not sure he's acquiring language in the evolutionarily approved manner. When I say "hiiiiii" to him, he says "hhhhh." Honestly, 'e's got 'is 'aitches, already, sort of. I find it bizarre and overwhelmingly cute. But I wonder at a child who has to get his consonants first.

He also goes wild if I say "ba ba ba ba ba." Apparently that's speaking his language.

We have all our thrush stuff, but the doctor said it wasn't a particularly bad case and that many parents would just let it go. I'm not sure whether that was a hint or not but we have anti-thrush drops for Noah's tongue and cream for my tits and hopefully that will end this little saga. I'm ready to feel human and normal again any time now! I missed the mum group again. Bah, humbug. But this week's another potluck.

Shandra