Finally!

Natalie lost her belly button yesterday. Ironic in a way because Tiffany headed back to work today so she was saying it was evidence that Natalie was ready to be away from Momma. Despite the “sign”, it was a rough morning for Mommy. She left the house around 7 and was understandably a little emotional. I took Natalie down to Nana’s around 8 where she appears to be doing fine. I got home and returned some phone calls, settled a bill issue with AT&T and will go get her in a few minutes. She’s already killed the four bottles Tiffany left for her so we’ll see what happens when we return home. We do have some in the fridge if she has to have it.

I for one am thrilled that the belly button has come off because I can stop folding down the diaper now. We can also take a good picture for a birth announcement. Apparently this couldn’t be done with clothes on???

I handled the hour this morning on my own quite smoothly though it was probably because Natalie was barely awake. That said, she certainly is a morning person and is almost always in a good mood. Come 7 at night, different story. We weighed her last night and it appears she is 10 pounds and 2 oz. Tiffany said she weighed 10 pounds 4 oz. the week before so she thinks her math must have been off the last time. (Tiffany weighs herself and then weighs herself holding Natalie). She’s grown out of clothing in the last week and her stomach certainly is not drawn. Suffice to say, I don’t think she’s starving, but we will continue to weigh her more often.

Morning Girl

We’ve decided that Natalie is a morning person. By about 7 every night she starts to get pretty fussy. It doesn’t seem to matter how many naps she’s had or how much she has eaten, she’s rarely in a good mood. Conversely, in the morning she couldn’t be in a better mood, but wouldn’t we all if we had 9 hours of uninterrupted sleep. At this age babies are not expected to sleep that long, but children are supposedly there “most fussy” at this age. (According to the “experts”) I am looking forward to the early bedtimes that are still a few months out.

Natalie also seems to be hungry almost all the time so there doesn’t seem to be a doubt that she is going through at least a brief growth spurt. Tiffany is having difficulty at times keeping up with her growing appetite!

The wait continues for he belly button to come off. Tiffany called our pediatrician the other day and she did say that we are well past the normal time for it to fall off, but if it didn’t look infected, not to worry about it.  They can remove it at the office if need be, but we’re letting nature take its course for now. I’m looking forward to it falling off because I’m a little tired of folding the diaper down during diaper changes to make room.

The Rollover

Allegedly it happened Sunday about 12:30 in the afternoon. I was at Lowes and had forgotten my phone at home so I heard about the event when I got back. It has not been duplicated nor do we have a picture or video so I have to take TIffany’s word for it. 

To be fair, we don’t Natalie her on her stomach much so opportunities are not plentiful. Natalie continues to sleep through the night, but she’s a bit of a loud sleeper so rarely do we make it through the night without being woken up but we have it pretty good from everything I hear. 

Tiffany is working out of the house a bit this week doing some training as her company switches from Oracle to SAP. She then has to go into the office next week for training and then she will be taking some time off again. 

Tiffany’s six-week follow-up is tomorrow and we’re not expecting any big issues. Next week when Tiffany is at the office, Natalie will be at Nana’s for what will be her usual daycare routine. We’re hoping it will be a smooth transition for her. 

Gifts still continue to arrive from all over. It’s always nice to get a package or a card, especially when it’s something we can really use or in the case of some of our friends up north, PSU attire that we could not get down here. 

The weather seems to have broken down here. We’ve been in the 70’s for a week straight and look to stay there for the foreseeable future. Hard to believe we were having an ice storm 3 weeks ago. It’s just as well we’ve already plowed through any newborn clothes that would have been suitable for cold weather. I’m sure we have plenty of clothes that were worn two or three times and now no longer fit. Tiffany also has her favorites that seem to pop up more regularly. Onesy’s that say things like “Mommy thinks I’m prrrrrfect” (a cat theme)...”I Love Mommy”, yet “My heart belongs to Daddy” has been used once and deemed “uncomfortable.

Interesting.

Where does the time go?

It’s amazing how little free time you have when you are caring for a newborn. Believe me, I’m not even doing that much (just ask Tiffany) and the day’s seem to fly by. Here are some recent pics of our girl. The one in the glider is at the one month mark. We’ll take a picture every month in that chair to compare so that should be interesting to watch her growth from month to month.

Looking back at some of the older pictures, it’s amazing how much she has changed since she was born. It’s also amazing how many diapers you go through. I think someone needs to come up with a Mr. Fusion that can run on dirty diapers. The amount of dirty diapers in landfills all over the country has to be astronomical. I think a lot about an old co-worker of mine that had triplets a few years back. They must have been buying diapers by the case weekly. 

Natalie continues to sleep through the night, but could probably do a better job of napping during the day. She can get cranky by the time bedtime rolls around which is when I get to spend the most time with her, lucky me. We’re now over 5 weeks after birth and bills are still arriving from the hospital, just got one today . I’m hoping they stop by the time Natalie gets off to college, but just in case I did start her 529 plan a couple weeks back so she’s all set for the JUCO of her choice....

I was working on our taxes yesterday and got the pleasant surprise of finding out that none of our medical bills were tax deductible. I guess they have to equate to more than 10% of your income to make them deductible.  That was sort of depressing, but I’m sure the people that make a million a year and have $90,000 in medical bills aren’t too happy either. On the bright side the jerk who lies about his income and claims he makes 30k a year when in fact he makes 70k gets to deduct pretty much everything and pay no taxes.The dirty little secret of the tax system is that people making less money are more apt to cheat on their taxes because they are less likely to get audited which  is why 50% of the population pays ALL of the taxes and why 10% of the population pays 85% of all the taxes. I know this because i deal with a lot of these people on a daily basis and when we ask to see a tax return it shows they made 20k last year, but their driving a new SUV they paid cash for. That’s okay  though we contributed tens of thousands of dollars to these folks retirement and entitlement accounts this year. So don’t worry about the guy or gal who isn’t claiming their entire income, they’re all set.

Hope you like the new pics!

The One-Month Mark

Natalie hit one-month old yesterday. We celebrated by taking her picture in the glider. I’ll post it here at some point. We’ll do that every month to gauge her growth. The big news is that she has slept through the night the last two nights, 8 full hours. At some point, or so I’ve seen/read, she’ll sleep for 10 hours potentially. 

But the good news for Tiffany now is that the 2:30 wake-up calls seem to be over. If we can get her to fall asleep before 11 now, we will be set. 

Natalie continues her rampage through diapers, I find it shocking how many diapers we are going through. But it’s been an eventful first month of life for our daughter. There’s been a revolution in Egypt, record cold temperatures in Houston and record snowfall throughout the country, the end of Friday Night Lights.....that’s a lot for one little person to digest.

Natalie is also quickly growing out of her newborn clothes. Though Tiffany will not admit it, I’m guessing there’s at least a few newborn outfits that have never been worn. Our fairly elaborate swing is also not getting as much use as I would like, but we still have time for that .

The big event that we are waiting for is for her belly button to “fall off”. I, for one, am tired of folding down the front of the diaper. Newborn size diapers have a spot for the belly button, but size one diapers do not. Every time we change her diaper we swab the area with alcohol. Supposedly, that helps to dry it out, yet it remains. 

The Must Haves

Friday, Natalie will turn one-month old and now that we have this whole parenting thing figured out I thought I would share some thoughts on some of these things we just had to have. There are a number of items that seem, let’s say extravagant, like the diaper caddy, the turtle that floats in the bath water with a digital temperature reading, but I’m giving the biggest scam passed on to parents as.....The Diaper Genie, or the Diaper Genie Elite II...whatever.

First of all, congrats to the guy or gal at playtex that came up with thing. It’s gotta be a cash cow for them with HUGE margins. Let’s start with the price, I believe it’s right around $30 and the refills are about $6 or $15 for a set of three.

For those that haven’t seen the diaper genie, it’s about a two foot tall white cylinder with a foot pedal to open the lid (not exactly groundbreaking technology). It does have a set of claws at the top that open up and close after the diaper goes down into the holding area. So you essentially have a double seal there, the lid and the claws which seal the bag. Needless to say, there is no odor, but we dump Natalie’s diapers in our bathroom trashcan with no lid occasionally and I don’t smell anything anyway.

Meanwhile, our 13-gallon rubbermaid trash can with a lid locks in smells really well. That was $24 dollars and is every bit of 13 gallons so it holds a full bag of trash. Bags that cost anywhere from $4-$7 for 30-40 bags.

At this point you might be wondering how many “bags” are produced from the Diaper Genie refill. Well, we just finished our first refill and guess how many bags...5, that’s 5 not 50, 5! So thats about $1 a bag. Plus you make the bag yourself. You pull the plastic out, tie the bottom and when it’s full, you cut it from the refill ring, tie it and start the process over leaving you a log of diapers to take to the trash can. I’m not a math wizard, but 5 refills for about $5 compared to 30 bags for the same price (that hold more) seems a bit off. Plus, when there are no more babies, no more need for this specially designed trash can. 

I think Tiffany has even figured out that it’s a bit of scam. Her point is that it looks nicer than our trashcan in the kitchen. My point is that they make white rubbermaid trash cans that would look fine in a nursery. My advice, no need for the Diaper Genie.....it only makes your money disappear. 

Storm Watch

I just made a special surprise for you dad

Big happenings down here in the Houston area, 1-3 inches of snow predicted for later today and overnight. It’s never snowed here in February, EVER. So yes a big deal and it will be fun to see it snow, but of course they are overblowing it here. Case in point, every major school district has already cancelled school tomorrow. Now if the forecast is accurate (and I doubt it is), schools should probably be closed tomorrow. Houston is the overpass capitol of the world so there will be plenty of frozen roads making driving dicey at best. But in this age of instant information, do we need to make the call the morning of the day before? (Pause now for everyone in the Northeast chuckling) Also, it’s been in the 20’s overnight here for four straight nights (counting tonight), also a first. Surprisingly it did snow 20 inches one time in Houston....in 1895, the last time there was global warming obviously....

Now they we are caught up on the weather, I can update you all on Natalie. Her hiccups are starting to die down and also her “spitting up”. Tiffany has decreased her calcium intake and that seems to have helped and the hiccups are improving as her diaphragm grows more mature.

The visit with grandma i going well. It is grandMA, not grandmom as I might have said previously. So for all who might run into my mother, please be advised. Tiffany’s mom will be called nana. I will remain not-mom. 

Went to Target yesterday to take advantage of a sale on diapers and wipes. We have enough wipes for about the next three months now and I think and our stockpile is up to  over 200 diapers, that will probably last at least two weeks. 

Okay, I’m exaggerating, but there are times I feel like we are renting the diapers instead of buying them. I think she had one on for 25 minutes yesterday before being changed. We stopped counting, for sanities sake. If she’s gaining weight and going often (and she is!), does it really matter how many diapers she is “producing” daily. I think not.

When is the Egyptian president going to step down?!!

I’d say her one personality trait that is very noticeable so far is that she always looks so serious, furrowed brow  with hand gestures. She has her lighter moments too, but the uprising in Egypt is not sitting well with her clearly.  She also looks drunk when she is done eating, very satisfied. Enjoy some more pics.