Cliches I thought I'd never hear

While at lunch today with two friends with babies, I actually heard these two cliches:

One friend asked, "So is Rosie on solids yet?"

Me: "No, she's not yet 5 months. We're in no hurry."

Her: "You should."   She then lectured me one why.  I'm the only one still breast-feeding  plus, really?!? Are you my doctor?!? Why are moms in such a hurry?

Next cliche - same friend:  "You have to let her cry it out. If she cries when you put her down she's trying to manipulate you."

Me: "No, it just means she wants to be held."

I thought those cliches were dead.   Good grief.

What cliche/myth have you heard lately?

~Jem

Infertility Podcast - Bitter Infertiles

At long last there's an infertility-related podcast!  

Check out Bitter Infertiles - click here to listen. And here to get it through iTunes.

"This week we discuss the public perception of miscarriage, open adoption with Lori Lavender Luz, and why celebrity pregnancies annoy us."

Be sure to subscribe and support our community.

~Jem

Losing my marbles

It's official! I'm so sleep deprived that I'm losing things, namely my keys. Twice. First I lost my regular set of keys somewhere between the house and the car a couple of weeks ago. Yesterday I lost the spare set of house keys. Again, somewhere between the house and the car, but maybe at he store. Mr. Jem was upset and super concerned.

BTW, his job is going really nicely, with two record months of sales. And he still lives what he's doing and his team.

Rosie has been napping but only briefly (20-30 min). No naps for me. Tired. Very tired.

~Jem

In a fog...

Lack of sleep has me completely in a fog. If I can get one thing done a day, it's amazing. I don't know how working moms do it. Good grief! I'm working on refinancing the Jem household before I officially quite my job. Gulp. Did I just type those words?

I don't have a lot to report. Just received a box of baby books from a college friend - they are in French! How fun to read to Rosie in French. It always makes her smile and laugh when I read or talk to her in French. She loves it.

So much better to be blogging on the PC, rather than my silly small iPhone screen.

Gotta go as Rosie is trying to "talk" to me. And Sharky cat wants to be fed.

~Jem

Rosie is 17 weeks? Already? Really?

Holy cow, time flies!

Things have been up and down - mostly up. Motherhood rocks, better than I could have imagined. Rosie is a joy. That smile alone melts my heart.

Okay, enough unicorn farts. Reality? 

First issue: I wish she slept more. 

She hasn't been napping and that has been affecting her night-time sleep - waking more often. So we started sleep school today. Didn't go on a walk with local moms, just concentrated on napping. 

Two hours after she woke I tried putting her in her crib for her morning nap. Epic fail. Tons of crying. Instead I rocked her and sang to her and ended up nursing her to sleep. Which is what I have been doing every night.  The "twins" are a bit sore, to say the least.

Rosie slept in my arms for a couple of hours. I slept too. I'm tired. Living off five hours of sleep (total) is hard. I've been breast-feeding her on demand and plan to continue this, but the sleep thing has to happen. During the day and at night. Must. Sleep. More.

Second issue: to go back to work or not. I've been agonizing over what to do. It's a hard issue, deeply psychologically, emotionally and financially scary. I could write a whole post just on this topic. Maybe I will, but I'm so busy with this parenting thing, that I can't really promise to. The bottom line is that we can afford for me to stay home with Rosie, if we tighten our belts - living in the San Francisco Bay Area is expensive. I've yet to actually tell my boss that I'm not coming back. Scary. Except that all I want to do is stay home with her. My commute to work was one hour each way. I can't imagine doing my job, commuting and coming home to take care of the house and spend time with the kidlet, wake in the night to nurse her, etc. I know I could do it if necessary. But if I don't really have to...

Okay, better go sleep because Rosie is sleeping (not on me for once).

Do know that just because I don't post often, I am reading your blogs and thinking of all of you.

~Jem

Pic

Check out how big and grown up Rosie is now!

 

I can't seem to get this picture in the right direction. At least you can see how cute she is!

~Jem

Rosie Update @ 12 weeks

I'm typing with one hand, chicken-pecking with my left index finger on my iPhone. Baby is asleep at my breast. Her warm body snug against mine. I'm so darn happy. Tears come to my eyes just typing this. 

Here's my quick update in bullets

• Rosie is twelve weeks old. Hard to believe. She's a different baby now. No longer a new born. She's awesome. Only cries only when she's tired or startled. Last night I knocked over a lamp in her room while she was sleeping and she freaked. 
• She weighs 14 pounds now. Gaining weight like a champ. 
• Breast feeding is going well. Only trouble is that my let-down is too strong. She gasps and sputters. Oh and she won't take a bottle anymore. 
• I'm freaked about going back to work in September. 
• Looking for child care is confusing and makes me want to cry
• Mr Jem is an amazing father. Except when he's tired and or sick. 
• I've lost all but 5 lbs of my pregnancy weight. I still have 20 lbs of infertility treatment weight to lose. 
• I shower (almost) every day. Today Mr Jem watching Rosie meant that I even put on makeup. 
• We had a party last Saturday to introduce Rosie to friends and family. We also had a Jewish baby-naming ceremony in the back yard. Gave Rosie her Hebrew name. 
• Being a mom is more amazingly wonderful than I foresaw. 

 Sorry for being off-line for so long. Forgive typos. iPhone format difficult. 

~ Jem