MacyFron

olympic discussions in our house

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 20:35:00 -0500

* Alicia Sacramone has large boobs for a gymnast.
* How do the women beach volleyball players manage not to show any crack? Some of those bottoms are awfully small. And how come they don't get many wedgies?
* Why aren't the men beach volleyball players wearing speedos? I certainly don't want them to, but I think in order to be fair they need to, I mean the women have to wear tiny bikinis, the least the men could do is take off their shirts.
* Who cares how old the Chinese gymnasts are? We think there should be a blanket minimum age for the entire Olympics, not dependent on sport. There was a 14 year old diver and no one seemed to care, because apparently it is allowed. Why not just set one age?
* How embarrassing would be to have a knee injury from table tennis?
* I really like the Australian women's basketball outfits. They are much better looking than the baggy clothes that everyone else wears.
* How do they walk like that? Doesn't it hurt their hips? Do you think the walkers have lots of hip injuries?
* I thought it was hilarious when they showed the slow motion of the track events. Everyone's mouths and cheeks were flapping all over.
* I enjoyed the variety of track outfits, from the bikini style to the full head to toe spandex that the Iranian woman wore.
* We liked the freeze frame thing they did with diving.
* Why do all the good events have to be on tv so late?

breastfeeding - 3 months

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 16:12:00 -0500

We are nearing the 3 month birthday (can you believe it? I certainly cannot) and so I thought I would talk about my experiences so far with breastfeeding. In the beginning, Greta had a mind of her own and would only latch on and suck if first some formula or milk was squirted into her mouth. Apparently she was lazy. Once my milk was in, she dropped that pretty fast. Other than the case of mastitis that sent me to the hospital things have gone swimmingly. Honestly my case of mastitis must have been weak or else I was on antibiotics early enough to not really even notice. I never had any pain associated with it, just a little redness, which I didn't really even notice. Greta occasionally will latch on strange and there will be pain, but nothing that is unbearable or uncorrectable with a simple relatch.

Several people told me that breastfeeding was the hardest thing they had ever done. For me, that has not been the case. Sure the first few days neither of us really knew what we were doing, but once we met with the lactation consultant twice things were fine. I haven't really experienced much pain, definitely not near the level of pain I had during childbirth. The only real pain I get these days is when Greta decides to sleep for longer than my boobs expect. I either pray she wakes up soon or pump a little milk out to relieve the pressure. This doesn't usually happen since she eats pretty regularly around the clock.

Greta still eats every 2 to 4 hours around the clock. She has gone longer between feedings on a few rare occasions. Greta's sign that she is hungry has pretty much always been hands in the mouth. She is growing in leaps and bounds, so I know she is eating plenty. Thankfully she doesn't really seem affected by anything that I eat. Every once in a while I think something I eat gives her a little gas, but nothing that has convinced me that I should stop eating anything in particular. Also, apparently babies can overeat. I had always heard that babies are good at self-regulating their food intake. Apparently, Greta did not hear this. The culprit of her many massive spit-ups are usually overeating. I have gotten pretty good at pulling her off when I think she is done, although I do feel a little guilty. But usually if she is still hungry she will let me know. I'm not really sure how scheduled feeding actually works because it seems to make the most sense to feed the baby when they are hungry, which is what on-demand feeding is all about. If you are on a strict schedule, do you just not feed the baby when it is hungry? Greta eats when she wants, that's for sure. Sometimes that is every hour, other times every three hours.

My main advice for anyone who wants to breastfeed is to make sure you have access to a lactation consultant (LC) very shortly after birth. Here in San Antonio the two main hospital systems both have lactation centers. The hospital that Greta was born at has an in-hospital one. The LCs are there 6 days a week. We were only able to meet with one once before we were discharged since Greta was born in the evening on Friday and we left on Sunday. We then went back on Monday to meet with another one of the LC. It is free to go to the lactation center at that hospital as long as you delivered your baby there, which is great. All you have to do is make an appointment (same day is usually available). The other hospital system here has a central lactation center. Again it is free and anyone can go there, regardless of where you delivered your baby. I have not been to that one, but I hear it is great. Both of the lactation centers will allow you to come in and weigh your baby anytime. You can also weigh your baby before and after a feeding to see how much milk the baby is getting. If you don't have these kind of resources in your area I encourage you to find a private lactation consultant to have on-call. I think that most everyone can have a successful breastfeeding experience if they get help early and often.

I also thought I would tell you about my favorite breastfeeding attire. Most days I wear a nursing tank top. I have these from Target. When I am around the house I just wear that (along with some bottoms of course :)). When I go out I just throw on any shirt that fits. I usually opt for looser fitting shirts that can be pulled up easily. The tank top offers extra belly coverage so that my belly is not showing when I lift up my shirt. I also have one of these nursing covers which I put on to cover the baby and the boob. I like this nursing cover because it has a structured piece that allows for you to be able to peek in and watch baby. Greta has recently learned how to grab onto things and has tried to pull the nursing cover off, so now I have to hold it down or stick it under her bottom. One thing that was very useful for the first few weeks was a breastfeeding pillow. I had the one called My Brest Friend. I definitely recommend every first time breastfeeder get one. It straps on, so it stays in the right position, which also allows you to get up and move for a second if need be, although I'm sure it isn't recommended, just make sure you are holding onto the baby.

If you made it to the end of this, it will be a miracle. I had more to say than I thought. I do have one question. Why is breastfeeding often called nursing?

hospital bills

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 11:48:00 -0500

Since we just had a baby, we had some hospital bills to pay. In addition to the normal labor, delivery and post partum stuff, we also had my two extra fever nights at the hospital. Initially one of my extra nights cost a lot more than the other (after the insurance company paid). I waited for that to get all straightened out. The original bills came with no due date, so I figured there was no real rush to pay them. After all the insurance stuff was settled we got a final bill for one of the stays. Then the hospital starting calling. Once I had tallied up all that we owed and thought about what we wanted to pay (notice I say wanted, not what we could afford), I answered the phone. The lady told me if we could pay in full today that they would give me a deal. I asked what kind of deal, she went and calculated what was about a 25% discount. I said we were hoping to pay x amount of dollars (which was about 35% off) and then she went back and recalculated what she said was the lowest that she could offer me. We ended up with about a 30% discount on the total bill. Not too bad.

I know a couple of you have recently had a baby or are pregnant, so I thought I would offer our story so that maybe you can reduce your bills as well. The lady at the hospital never mentioned anything about what we could afford (although I know they will make payment plans for those who can not afford to pay it all at once). So as long as your bills don't have a due date I say wait for the hospital to call you, then you can make a deal.

In other medical bill news, Greta's pediatrician does not see patients at the hospital, so after she was born she was seen by the pediatrician on call. This doctor happened to be out-of-network for us, which means that our insurance pays basically nothing. At the time the doctor examined her we had no idea that he was an out-of-network doctor, otherwise we would have requested someone else. We have now filed an appeal with the insurance company in hopes that they will pay more than the measly amount they did. If not, then we will have to work on a deal with the doctor's office.

two 8 week stories

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 15:08:00 -0500

In an attempt to fix the blog this post is being republished. So scroll down to ignore it please.

I forgot to mention these two stories when writing about 8 weeks, so here they are.

So Greta sleeps in a pack n play in our room at night. She usually sleeps pretty good (2-3 hour stretches). Daytime sleep is another issue. She doesn't really sleep during the day unless I am holding her (or Matt on the weekends). Every time I put her down she wakes up within a few minutes, where as if I hold her she will stay sleeping for another hour or so. Sometimes she does fall asleep in her swing for a while, which is super nice. She also will fall asleep in the car and then I can just bring her carseat in and she will stay asleep for a while. Sometimes I put her in her crib just to see if she will stay asleep in there. One day she was sleeping in her crib (she made it a total of about 45 minutes) and I was doing some house work upstairs. Every little bit I would go and check on her to make sure she was still sleeping. I left her door open so I would be able to hear her in the next room if she woke up. One time I went in to check on her and Albert came with me. He likes to jump on her windowsill and look out the window. He jumped up on the windowsill, but the shade was down so he couldn't look out, so instead he looked into Greta's crib. Apparently he then thought it would be a good idea to jump into the crib! I swatted him down and of course that woke Greta up. Looks like we will definitely be closing her door when she starts sleeping in the crib at night.

For a while Greta has had one huge spit-up a day. It seems like an entire meal. We think it is mainly due to overeating, but not totally sure. Anyways, that isn't really relevant to the story. One day she spit-up all over me. As usual this required a clothes change for both me and her. I was wearing a tank top, so my body was more covered than my clothing. I thought I would jump in the shower with her to rinse both of us off. So I got us both undressed. As I was testing the water temperature, Greta peed all over me. Luckily this story ends there with only two bodily fluids on me.

10 weeks

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 15:06:00 -0500

This week Greta started kicking in her bath. (the video is posted below somewhere). She can really make a big mess in the bathroom now. We may need to move the tub into the big bathtub to create less of a mess, but then she wouldn't get to stare and smile at her adorable self.

We had several nights of pretty terrible sleeping, followed by the best night of sleep yet. We had another good night of sleep after that, but are pretty much back to the not so good sleeping.

This week we noticed that Greta has a little dimple when she smiles sometimes. It is on her right cheek and oh so cute. It only appears with certain smiles. I did finally get a picture of it, but not during week 10, so that picture will be posted later.

We also noticed that Greta is getting a ton of blond hair. In the front area where it was mostly bald before, the hair is coming in blond. So now she has brown and blond hair on her head and slightly reddish eyebrows. Any guesses as to what color her hair will be in the end? I'm guessing light brown/dirty blond.

Greta took her longest daytime nap ever this week, 3 whole hours. Looking back it seems this was quite a sleepy week for her, maybe she was growing a lot.

And here is my favorite picture. I actually think this may be one of my favorite pictures of life with Greta so far. Both her and Matt just look so happy and adorable. I can't get over how cute it is. This is currently my desktop picture, it just makes me smile every time I see it.

blog messed up

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 10:07:00 -0500

I don't know how many of you read the blog through a blog reader, but if you don't, and you happen to use firefox, it appears to be messed up. I'm working on trying to fix it. I don't know why it all of a sudden started looking funny, but it did. Hopefully I will figure it out soon enough.

9 weeks

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 10:04:00 -0500

Greta went to the pediatrician this week for her 2 month checkup. She actually went on her 2 month birthday. She weighed 13 lbs, 10.5 oz (98th percentile) and was 23 inches (75 percentile). Thankfully she still has my head (about 60th percentile). She got two shots while she was there, plus an oral vaccine. She got the oral vaccine first and the nurse had her lying down on the table/bed thing. She kept spitting it out and eventually threw up her entire meal. The nurse commented that she was smart because she kept figuring out the tricks the nurse was using to get her to swallow the stuff. Apparently our child just doesn't like to swallow anything other than milk. She routinely spits out her vitamins, which we only try to give her every once in a while anyways. She also tries to spit out the tylenol that we give her to make her feel better. Hopefully one day that will improve. Greta also got two shots. She screamed and was quite upset, but eventually calmed down enough for me to dress her and then leave the office. She was pretty cranky the rest of the day. For about a week after her shots she didn't seem to sleep well during the day or at night. We did get a fluke 2 hour nap in which she wasn't being held! This week she got her first dose of tylenol. The first dose went down alright, but the next few took a lot more work and some even resulted in her throwing up. She is her father's daughter and is already refusing to take medicine when she is feeling sick.

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This week Greta started babbling up a storm. The noises are so cute and she can kind of carry on a conversation, even though we have no idea what she is saying.

Greta really started taking an interest in herself in the mirror this week. During bathtime she will just stare and stare, and sometimes smile at herself or us. Too cute.

Albert really started investigated Greta this week. My guess is that because she has started to make more noise other than crying, he is finally noticing her. Also, since she has been sitting in her swing and bouncy seat, which are on the ground, she is more on his level. I don't think he will hurt her, but he also doesn't mind stepping on her to get to us for some petting, so you never know. Don't worry, we don't ever leave them unattended.

This week there were several terrible nights of sleep. Greta decided that she would sleep until about 3 or so, and then just make noise and move around and stay awake the rest of the night. I would usually leave her in her bed until she started crying, which was quite often. Initially I blamed the bad sleeping on her shots, but she still isn't sleeping great, so maybe that wasn't it.

I celebrated my birthday at the end of this week. Here is my birthday picture with my baby girl.

In case you haven't noticed, this child likes to stick her tongue out. Why, I have no idea.

best night of sleep yet!

Fri, 08 Aug 2008 09:44:00 -0500

Last night we had our best night of sleep since Greta was born. She went to bed at 8:30, slept until 1:30, ate and then slept until 5:15. She ate again and was back asleep until the cat decided to cry outside of our door. At about 6:15, Matt brought Greta downstairs and slept for another hour. I don't really expect this to happen every night, but it sure was nice. The 3 previous nights Greta was up almost every hour to hour and a half and yesterday she hardly slept at all during the day, so my guess is that she was just totally exhausted.

practical parenting -- showers

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 16:52:00 -0500

I have a couple of practical questions that I am going to ask. Just one at a time. I'm curious has to how other stay at home parents handle these situations on a day-to-day basis.

How do you accomplish an everyday shower? Do you shower before your spouse leaves the house? Do you shower during naptime? Do you bring your kid/baby in the shower with you? Also please mention the age of your child/children, in case someone else doesn't know who you are :)

Currently I don't shower everyday. It really depends on the day around here. As I mentioned in the previous post, Greta doesn't really nap well unless I am holding her. I am not usually motivated enough to get up and shower before Matt leaves. Sometimes I am able to put Greta down in her bed for the 15 minutes it takes to shower and get dressed. Other times I wait until Matt comes home at lunch (on the days he does) and sometimes I shower at night after Greta is in bed for the night. One time I put her little bath seat in the tub and took a bath, but that doesn't really work for me because I can't wash my hair or really feel very clean that way. To me, baths are for leisure, not for cleaning. So tell me, what are your tricks?

videos, pictures, and csa

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 20:40:00 -0500

Since we have figured out how to make videos, we have added a couple. We will continue to add them to this site and sometimes I will post them here as well.

Here is bathtime:

bathtime from Macy Fron on Vimeo.

Here is Greta smiling and talking:

talking and smiling from Macy Fron on Vimeo.

About a week or two I added a bunch of new pictures on Greta's picture page. It had been almost a month since I added any, so they are way overdue.

We joined a CSA (community supported agriculture). We get two grocery bags full of veggies every Saturday. They are grown about 20 miles north of here and are organic and heirloom varieties. We got our first batch last Saturday. So far, so good. We did get some veggies that we wouldn't normally eat, so we are trying to think up recipes and ways to use them. Here is a sampling of what we got: