Becca's life
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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in the "Becca" journal:[<< Previous 20 entries]
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03:13 pm
[Link] | Iris's favorite word is 'baboon' pronounced "Aaa-BOOON!"
This is our last weekend in Santa Rosa. I'm slightly sad, but full of plans for when we get back to California. I think I've figured out how to have a room for Iris, an office for Ben, and a place for guests when we have them (which we will in November, if not sooner).
Food goes quickly when there are 15 people to eat it.
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11:23 pm
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Iris Update
Since I haven't written for a while here is what Iris is up to. She... ( Read more... )
Tags: 19 months, iris
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11:19 pm
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Santa Rosa
Things I like about Santa Rosa:( Read more... )
Things I'm not so fond of:( Read more... )
Tags: new mexico
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06:15 pm
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Briefly
I'm in New Mexico with Ben and his family. Things are going well, but the internet situation here is that there is dial-up and I only get online for about an hour once or twice a week. I'm reading a lot of my friends page, but not posting or commenting.
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06:31 pm
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Let me tell you, internets...
So last week, my boobs hurt most of the time from a combination of biting and the abrupt cessation of nursing on Iris's part.
By the end of the week, I'd stopped producing so much milk, and was feeling more comfortable most of the time.
Then Iris got sick yesterday, and slept and nursed off-and-on throughout the day, and constantly from about 9pm through 4am. The only reason she stopped around 4 was because I couldn't take it anymore and woke Ben up to take care of her for a little while. Then more nursing and squirming from 6:30 until 8:30, when I woke Ben up again. (Even when she doesn't bite, I often feel her teeth these days. I know that's not supposed to happen, but I don't know how to fix it.) Nursing when you don't really have much milk is no fun. Instead of suck, suck, suck....ahhh milk, she does suck, suck, suck, sucksucksuck, there must be milk in here somewhere...sucksucksuck. After a while, it gets to be on the edge of my pain tolerance, especially if I'm tired.
On the bright side, Iris's fever is gone today. And two nights ago, she slept through the night (10pm-6am, then 8am) for the first time in 7 months!
Tags: 18 months, breastfeeding, iris, sick, sleep, weaning
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10:50 pm
[Link] | Iris nursed a bit the past couple of nights when she woke up, but hasn't nursed during the daytime at all. She says, "Nurse" and grabs at my shirt. But then she giggles at my breasts and points to them saying "nurse" and sometimes kisses them or rubs her nose on them very gently. It's sweet. Other times, she asks for "nurse" and when I unfasten my bra she shakes her head and turns away saying, "no, no, no" softly and sadly. :-(
I've been having to pump twice a day, and so Iris is drinking a couple of small cupfuls of my milk. She calls it juice. I guess even though the daytime nursing is ending very abruptly, the amount of breastmilk she's drinking is going to decline more gradually. I've been giving her the cups of milk during the time that used to be her morning nap, and we cuddle together and look at books.
I don't know. This just wasn't what I'd expected. I walked at least 5 miles today, mostly to get Iris to sleep. Pumping sucks. My boobs are sore. It's harder to comfort Iris when she melts down (which she did spectacularly today upon waking from her nap). I'll be glad when we're both more used to this.
In non-Iris news, I cut off a lot of Ben's hair today. What's left is so thick and curly. Mmmm....
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05:21 pm
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Weaning?
If you'd asked me a couple of weeks ago, I would've said that I expected to still be nursing Iris for at least another few months, and trying to get her down to just a couple of times per day by her next birthday.
The past week though ( Read more... )
For now, my plan is to offer to nurse Iris when she asks, end it if she bites, and pump if I get uncomfortable and give her the milk in a cup.
Anyone reading this who has nursed a toddler - did you encounter problems with biting? Did that end nursing, or was the biting problem resolved in another way? Does this sound like weaning or a nursing strike? Any advice?
Current Location: Oakland, CA
Tags: 18 months, breastfeeding, iris
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11:18 am
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Happy half-birthday!
Iris is 1.5 years old today.
She's still talking up a storm. She's probably got over 100 words, the vast majority of which are nouns. There are a few verbs (nurse, kiss, excuse me, and walk) and adjectives (soft, hot, smooth, and heavy) and whatever parts of speech "yes" and "no" are. Iris uses words mostly to point out things or tell me things she wants (food, pen, phone, coffee, etc.). She sometimes uses multiple words to describe things like, "cat, cat, Guido, soft, leg, cat, feet, cat, nose, nose, tail". But in those cases, the only relation between the words is that they all apply to the same object. No sentences so far.
She has 10 teeth - four on top and two on the bottom in front, plus the first four molars.
She weighs 27 lbs even and is 34.75" long. This puts her at about 85th percentile for weight and well over the 95th percentile for length, which is about where she's been for the past year.
She eats like crazy some days, and hardly anything at all others. Fruit, yogurt, granola bars, avocados, butter, chocolate, juice, and cheese are her favorites (some of those she doesn't get very much). Bread, rice, beans, tofu, eggs, and non-leafy veggies she'll eat on days when she's eating a lot. She still doesn't do raw leafy veggies.
She still nurses several times a day, and a lot for about an hour in the morning before getting up. Unless she's really sleepy, she's been biting while nursing lately, which results in an immediate end to nursing.
Dislikes: nail clipping, going home from the playground, baths or showers (although she LOVED showering with me at my mom's house), the pediatrician today (she cried so hard that her face has lots of little red spots where she broke blood vessels.
Favorite objects: cell phones, pens, knives, her big stuffed elephant, toys that make music, magnets, toothbrushes (but only adult toothbrushes)!
I'm feeling rather burnt out on parenting right now. Iris is a delight, but I miss the days of not having to be responsible for someone else most of the time. I have jury duty tomorrow, and I'm looking forward to it.
Tags: 18 months, iris
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11:08 am
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The state of our garden
![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) smws did an awesome job with our garden while we were away. He got a bunch of horse manure (from the stables up in Tilden park) and wood chips and improved the soil with them.
Ready now:
Mint* and lemon mint, rosemary*, sage*, oregano, chives, arugula, fava beans, nasturtiums (the flowers are good in salads), spinach, chard, garlic*, dill, strawberries, and snow peas.
* I'm drying these things for future use.
We're getting lots of the herbs (except dill), nasturtiums, and arugula, and fair amounts of peas and favas. The fava beans are much smaller than ones I've bought. I'm not sure if this is due to the poor soil or the variety. At any rate, I grew them mostly as a green manure, so it's fabulous that we've gotten food out of it too.
Growing, but not ready to harvest:
Tomatoes, carrots, basil, parsley, beets, blackberries, blood oranges, radishes, bush green beans, cantaloupe, sweet peppers, lettuce, salad mix, and a lone sunflower.
I've planted more seeds, but I don't want to count anything until they start to grow.
Tags: garden
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10:44 pm
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More baby pictures
( Pictures from the past few months )
Current Location: Oakland, CA
Current Mood:  content
Tags: 15 months, 16 months, 17 months, iris, laundry, pictures
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04:01 pm
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How does your garden grow?
Well, actually my mom's garden...
I planted flowers between the back fence and the blackberries this week. It's a big area, and it took a while to clear all the weeds out. There are 8 marigolds I started from seed and transplanted, and then seeds for poppies, more marigolds, coneflower, cosmos, hollyhocks, primroses, and zinnias.
We're still getting a few spears of asparagus, there are a bunch of leeks (but they're on the small side- we've eaten all the big ones), and there are garlic chives, lemon thyme, and green onions. The butterhead lettuces we transplanted from cell packs are small heads now, and I'll probably start using them for salads soon.
The first planting of radishes is taking off, and there are lots of little seedlings of mesclun, beets (both red and yellow), spinach (both crinkled and flat-leaf), and broccoli raab. I thinned the beets and radishes late last week. The others don't look like they'll need thinning.
The raspberries my mom transplanted before leaving are taking off - all of the canes have bunches of leaves.
The carrots aren't really coming up yet, even though it's been about a month, but they're usually slow, I think. The peas (both snap and garden) had pretty spotty germination, so I planted more in the rows a couple days ago. The bush beans have been germinating and getting their leaves eaten right away. I'm not sure they'll make it.
I put in another planting of radishes, carrots, and mesclun yesterday - it's about a month after the first planting.
There are a bunch of seedlings growing on the glassed-in porch: heirloom tomatoes (from a mixed pack, so I don't know what type), cucumbers, basil, and a couple mystery plants in small pots (they're either peppers or eggplants). In smaller starting trays, there are squash (2 types) and melon (3 types), and I started one more tray with cabbage, dill, eggplant, peppers, purple basil, pumpkin, and a few more tomatoes.
The daffodils have pretty much stopped blooming. I've been deadheading them the past few weeks, and yesterday I dug up bunches of bulbs from a couple of the biggest clumps. The little bulbs got replanted into the gaps in the border of daffodils that line the backyard.
Hopefully my mom will have a nice summer of vegetables. We've certainly been enjoying the fresh asparagus, beets, beet greens, leeks, and herbs, as well as frozen bell peppers, blackberries, and basil pesto the last few weeks.
It's nice having so much space available for growing things. And it's wonderful to get rain during the growing season. :-)
Tags: food, gardening, maryland
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10:24 am
[Link] | More new Iris words: boat, dock, baby, all gone (with sign), Becca (sounds more like caca), mama, block, soap, banana (just "nana"), knife, excuse me, night-night, nipple, socks, shirt, moo (like a cow), bunny, apple, toast
First two-word phrase (where she also uses both words independently): "coffee cup!"
I keep trying to ask her new things, to see if she can put words together and understand new sentences or whether she understands words we say but that she doesn't (yet). Today, I asked, "Can you nurse your doll?" She picked up the doll, brought it to me, and said "nurse". Also, even though she doesn't say "yes", she can bring you Yes the Bunny. (My mom was trying to get Iris to say something other than "No", and gave her a stuffed bunny, which my mom named "Yes the Bunny".)
Sorry if this isn't quite as exciting to everyone else as to me. :-)
Tags: 16 months, iris, words
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03:54 pm
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Language explosion!
More new words: flower, floor, potty, diaper, poop, coffee (eep!), cup, juice (sounds a lot like her "shoes" though), nurse (often sounds like "nose", and she seems to use it as a noun meaning "breast"), ear, mouth, egg (plastic Easter eggs are fun), mole, spoon, door, outside
It's crazy how fast she's learning words at this stage. I don't mean it as "my kid's a genius" or anything, but she's just so much more verbal than she was a couple of months ago.
Tags: 16 months, iris, words
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08:52 pm
[Link] | Iris at 16 months
Loves:
dogs - I'm surprised she isn't the least bit scared
climbing stairs
raspberries (the fruit) alomg with most other types of fruit
raspberries on the belly, both giving and receiving
chocolate. I feel like such a bad parent for giving it to her, but I do generally give her what I'm eating, healthy or not.
trowels. She carries them around and digs in the garden.
phones and TV remotes. She carries them aroun up by her ear and has conversations like "Hewo! He-wooo! Mmmhmmmm."
me. I'm glad for that, but I sometimes wish she'd find somebody else to cling to.
Hates:
baths and showers
having her nails cut
the car seat (although she's getting much better on short trips)
being held by anyone other than me
being put down
Words:
dog, woof, cat, fish, duck, goose, nnnn (neigh like a horse - she sticks her tongue out and shakes her head), croak (means frog)
food, yummy, mmmm
nose, belly, shoes/ feet (one word for both), eye, hat (and pats her head)
up
light, ball, doll
no (response to all questions), nonononono (unhappy no)
hello, bye-bye (waves)
The above are words she has pretty solidly. Ben thinks he has heard some others like moss, grass, daffodil, penguin, and baby.
New Abilities:
walking on bouncy surfaces (like the bed)
eating with a fork or spoon. it's messy.
Tags: 16 months, iris
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10:59 am
[Link] | This birth story (told from the perspective of a doula), reminds me a lot of Iris's birth. I didn't have the induction, and Iris never got stuck. The descriptions of the wonderful support during labor, the friendly and helpful OB and hospital staff, and then the abrupt transition to on-her-back, legs-up "purple pushing", and the OB yanking out the baby and then moments later, the placenta, were exactly what we experienced.
I guess a lot of what I'd read about hospital birth made me leary of interventions during labor, and I felt relieved that nobody pressured me to get medical pain relief, or use pitocin to speed up labor, or stay in bed the whole time. But I didn't realize that despite having pretty much what I wanted during labor, it didn't mean that the rest of it would go how i wanted it to.
I don't know. At the time, I was just so tired and so ready to be done. I felt like my legs were about to give out, and I don't know if I could've handled squatting or being on all 4s. I was glad to focus on the counting and pushing and have someone telling me that I was doing a good job and making progress (and showing me the head in the mirror). I was NOT happy with Dr. Bighands pulling Iris out though - there's barely room for a baby there! Of course it would've been fine by me if Iris were in trouble and just needed to get out as quickly as possible, but that wasn't the case.
I was just struck by how this seems to be standard procedure. Before reading the story linked above, I guess I felt like what had happened to me was kind of a fluke, and that the OB who delivered Iris just sucked. I had attributed it to the doctors' shift changing, since the female OBs I'd seen during pregnancy and earlier in labor seemed nicer and were supportive enough of me having an unmedicated birth.
I guess I've got a bit to think about if I ever get pregnant again.
Current Mood:  contemplative
Tags: birth
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10:22 pm
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another little landmark
So far, Iris has generally used words only to point out things that are exciting (fish, dogs, cats, lights, balls, ducks, shoes, and hats are the big ones) or to tell us "No, no, nooooo". Today though, she learned to ask for food, by saying "food" and touching her mouth.
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11:34 am
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Picture post!
( 8 pictures )
Current Location: 94601
Current Mood:  relaxed
Tags: 14 months, 15 months, dog, family, garden, iris
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08:17 pm
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growing up
We got Iris a toddler bed which converts to a twin bed off of Craigslist. It's set up (in the smaller configuration) in our room, right by the foot of our bed. Iris is sleeping in it by herself right now. :-D
In the past couple of weeks, she's also gotten her first hard-sole shoes and her first training pants (they're like diapers, but less absorbent and they go on and off just like underwear with no snaps or velcro).
Also, she can really eat fruit. We went out to brunch with some friends the other day, and she ate most of the fruit garnish on my plate, her plate of fruit, and some of Z's plate of fruit that he didn't feel like eating. That was one of those rare days when she only nursed 2-3 times. For some reason, she seems to eat much better in restaurants than at home. She nurses more at home, and much less when we're out. I'm not sure which way the cause-and-effect goes.
We're going to be in Maryland for most of this spring, and my mom signed Iris and I up for storytime at the library. It's run (I think) by the same woman who did it when I was small.
Tags: 15 months, iris
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04:37 pm
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15 months
Iris is 1.25 years old today. :-)
At the pediatrician, she measured 32.75 inches long, and weighed 24 lbs, 13 oz. She's continuing to get bigger, but much more slowly these past few months since she's been having cold after cold. Evidently she's also slow in getting teeth - lots of toddlers are working on getting molars already at this age. I think I actually laughed aloud at that one.
She got vaccinated for MMR, but not Varicella. We'll see if she has a reaction next week.
Tags: 15 months, iris, pediatrician
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08:42 pm
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Funny
Iris has learned the word for litterbox: "NO!" She walks (!) over to it, points, and says "NO!" very sternly.
Tags: 14 months, iris
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