Today we have to say goodbye to Bibi. She goes home and gets a break from our crazy selves. She was magic and we appreciate her time here so much. We can’t wait to see her in November.
Tag: Moxie
Strider and Moxie are both good sleepers. I’m so glad.
Our baby girl has a problem.
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| Gerontological parrot |
She drinks to excess. She gets milk drunk.
After a good feeding she relaxes her whole body, has trouble focusing and says things she wouldn’t normally in front of polite company.
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| One of the brief respites between her episodes of delirium tremens |
Being first time parents we aren’t sure if this is normal. Moxie might be a lush.
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| The Sleeping Sculptor |
Moxie makes the best faces. Usually she makes them when she’s asleep.
Her favorite medium is clay.
And I’ll bet that your baby can’t even fingerpaint awake yet.
Before I go to sleep I just wanted to post a quick note about Moxie’s badass dad and my super husband (who, luckily, are one in the same). He is taking the midnight and 3am feedings tonight so I can have my first bit of sleep longer than 1.5 hours since Moxie’s birth. He is armed with 8 oz of breast milk, a pediatric feeding tube, and some pillows for the couch. He’s the absolute best.
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| If it ain’t black, it ain’t. |
Well, if you scrunch them all together, we are all in there. Just not at the same time.
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| I think I saw this window on a Twilight Zone once. |
Moxie was 8 lbs but dropped all the way down to around 7 lbs before we were discharged. Her weight loss, while something all babies do, was almost double the average. Breast fed babies always lose some weight. There’s a space between birth and mom’s milk coming in, usually a few days, where babies live off fat stores and thus lose weight.
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| Did you seriously think I would dare to put a snarky caption on any photo of my mother-in-law? (guest captioner: ZSMD) |
Each night, well morning–2 am, the nurse would come and take little Moxie to be weighed. She would leave snuggled and sleepy and return upset and crying. Each time the nurse had bad news. The first night she lost 9% of her weight. That night they brought a bottle of infant formula and a nipple. That first night was scary. We didn’t understand why she was losing so much and 9% put her dangerously close to the all concerning 10% that would require “supplementation.” The next morning we met with a lactation consultant that told us to pay attention to diapers–that’s where the action is. Her guidance: as long as she continued pooping and peeing at appropriate intervals Moxie would be fine. The next night her loss totaled 11% and then 13%.
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| Baby Scales. Yes, they do make a cream for that. |
Why was her weight loss so significant? Nurses thought the fact that I’d been in labor for 2 days and on IV fluids for much of it and babies delivered via C-Section don’t get all their fluids squeezed out when they pass through the birth canal. But the stats are how the doctors make decisions.
What are we doing about it? We are supplementing–but with breast milk. She feeds the ol’ fashioned way and then gets, through a pediatric feeding tube on a pinky finger, a little extra. It keeps everyone in the family involved but it is paying off.
How’s Moxie now? Really good! As of today she is up to 7 lbs 10 oz and the doctor says we can stop the supplements when she reaches her birth weight. She is nursing like a champ and enjoys her dad or bibi feeding her a little extra milk and attention.
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| Really? It sure smells like meat. |
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| Is this man bothering you, Ma’am? |
Gyges has elected himself as Head of Security for our home. He follows Moxie from room to room–even if it means a 2 am trip to the changing table. He sniffs and whines when she cries. It is all very sweet. Pili, on the other hand, remains distant and curious. She can’t decide if Moxie is a friend or an assassin sent by the cartel she escaped when entering the witness protection program.
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| Black and white, high contrast figures are best for infant visual stimulation. |
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| Food photography is easy. |
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| Jess mugging for the camera, just seconds before consuming 5 oz. of purple plastic, resulting in two cycles of pump-n-dump. |
We came home with Moxie yesterday (dressed in the same outfit my mother sewed and dressed me in when I came home back in 1980) overwhelmed and exhausted. We were considering driving back to the hospital to demand they readmit us until we walked in the door and found our dogs happy and healthy (thanks Karen and Ruby) and our fridge, freezer, and counter full of delicious ready to eat meals (thanks Josh, Tracy, Jacque and Karen). We have been eating like royalty even though our days and nights are completely consumed with figuring out and caring for Moxie. We have also had lots of calls, emails, letters and texts from people wishing us well and checking in.
We are surrounded by the love, support and humor of our friends. Thanks to Moxie’s caffeine laced 2 am feeding we are finally able to say a small, insufficient thanks to the bad asses who take the time to show us love.
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| “Hospital, I do not regret out parting, but I will not soon forget nor regret our brief liaison.” |
We worked all day on Labor day and all we got was this stupid baby:
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| Baby Back Ribs on special! Choicest Cuts available! $1.49/lb with Club Savings Card ™ ($2.19 regular) |
As you an see from the Olympic Warm-Scale, she weighed 7 lb., 15.8 oz. at birth, which we also just call 8 lb. As I’m sure you all know, the base of the Olympic Warm-Scale infant holder module is 50 cm, so you can also see that she was 21.5 in. in length, with a head/chest circumference of 33.5/32 cm.
If you haven’t seen pictures of a newborn before, some of what you see may be concerning, but it isn’t. For example, the giant white stick protruding from her stomach is a handle for portability; you just don’t see them used anymore because of the misinformation campaign perpetrated by the tyrannical monopoly of Ergobaby, inc. Also, her sex is female.
Other anatomical questions are suppressed to maintain some level of decorum on this blog, but may be directed to Teresa Lee, because she will cut you if you say shit about this baby.
Finally, her APGAR score was 5 gold stars and a recommendation for knighthood.