Daily Peep: Farmer Pink

We had a playdate today, with the Grocery Gals and the PrideFest Babywearers, and their boys.

When we hang out with them, I don't know which is more refreshing - being with other lesbian moms, or being with other AP moms. Both are pretty hard to come by in these parts.

Lovin' The Spoonfuls

Peeper's been doing pretty well with "loaded" spoons and forks, but this is the first time she's actually had the opportunity to scoop up the food herself.

Why I Vote (A Rebuttal)

One of my Facebook friends (an acquaintance from my teens) recently posted a "note" titled "Why I Voted Democrat," which was nothing but one GOP talking point after the other. A quick Google search shows me that it's something that's floating around for a while.

A few "highlights" from the note:

I voted Democrat, because I love the fact that I can now marry whatever I want. I've decided to marry my horse.

I voted Democrat, because Freedom of speech is fine as long as nobody is offended by it.

I voted Democrat, because I believe that people who can't tell us if it will rain on Friday can tell us that the polar ice caps will melt away in ten years if I don't start driving a Prius.

When I got done being mad, I started composing this rebuttal, which addresses many of the same issues as in the original, although not an identical selection.

---

Why I Vote

I vote because I believe that my family deserves the same rights as yours, including full marriage equality.

I vote because I believe that CEOs making millions of dollars while their companies - and employees - go bankrupt is criminal.

I vote because I believe that taxes are the dues we pay to live in a civil society.

I believe that if I expect to have paved roads to drive on; a police force to protect me; clean water to drink; a library from which to check out books; a post office to deliver my mail; municipal, state and national parks in which to vacation; safe, inspected food to eat; a military to protect our nation; schools to educate my children; or Social Security and Medicare to protect me when I am elderly, or God forbid, if I become disabled or widowed* or my children are orphaned; then I must expect to pay my fair share to make those things happen.

If I don't, who will?

(*Except that Social Security will not help me if I am widowed, because my country does not recognize my marriage.)

I vote because I believe that no one should lose their home, or their life, simply because they've had the misfortune of becoming seriously ill or injured while unemployed, underemployed or self-employed.

I believe that it is unconscionable that in a nation as wealthy as ours, 46 million of our citizens do not have health insurance.

I vote because I believe that it will be the death of the entreprenureal spirit out which our country, and our economy, were built if the people who are, at this very moment, dreaming up the "next big thing" never see their visions become reality because they can't take the risk of leaving their nine-to-five jobs, for fear of losing their health insurance.

I vote because I believe in free speech. If your speech is hateful and offends me, I will talk louder and drown it out with my own.

Just to clarify, though - physically harming me, my property, or my family because you don't like how I look, worship or love is not speech, and it not only harms me, but also terrorizes everyone else who looks, worships or loves the same way.

I vote because I believe our leaders have a responsibility to be honest with us and with each other - especially when discussing something as serious as reasons for going to war.

I believe that there are a few - very few - good reasons for going to war. A grudge against someone who had a fight with your daddy is not one of them.

I vote because I believe that no one outside of a combat zone needs an automatic weapon, and that there is no reason you need to buy a gun right-this-very-moment. I also know that for every self-defense handgun homicide, there are 1.3 unintentional deaths, 4.6 criminal homicides and 37 suicides. I believe that sane, sensible gun control laws will make us all safer without infringing upon the rights of sportsmen or recreational shooters.

I vote because I believe in science based on evidence discovered by scientists, not promoted by corporate shills.

I vote because I believe that the best way to reduce the number of abortions is by reducing the number of unintended pregnancies - by not only telling our teens that it's best to wait to have sex, but also providing them with the information they will need to prevent pregnancy and disease when they do have sex, and by making a variety of forms of birth control affordable and available to anyone who needs them - and by providing every pregnant woman with the support - medical, financial and emotional - that she needs, so that no woman ever feels that she does not have the necessary resources, material or otherwise, to raise the child that she is carrying.

I vote because I believe that people are innocent until proven guilty, and that even the vilest criminal deserves a fair trial and competent representation, because until he has had that, we do not know whether or not he is actually guilty of the crime of which he is accused.

I believe that if even one innocent person is wrongly executed, that is one too many. I believe that life in prison without the chance of parole is a fate worse than death, and it's my understanding that if you're convicted of harming a child, your fellow prisoners will certainly make you wish you were dead.

I vote because I believe that the most effective way to stem the tide of illegal immigration is to truly punish employers who hire undocumented workers at a fraction of the minimum wage, not only taking jobs from citizens and others who are here legally, but also cruelly exploiting workers who are willing to risk their very lives to do back-breaking labor for almost no money, in a desperate attempt to provide more for their families than they can in their home countries.

I vote because I believe that businesses have a responsibility to be good citizens, as do we all. I do not believe in tax breaks for corporations who take their jobs overseas, nor do I believe that corporations' rights should outweigh people's rights.

I vote because I believe that our judicial system should protect the weak from the strong, the minority from the majority and the people from the government.

I vote because I believe that my vote does count, that no one will speak for me if I do not speak for myself, and that it is not only my right, but my responsibility to make my voice heard.

I do not believe any of these things because I have been told to by any politician or political party.

I believe these things because I value fairness, and equality, and helping others when they can't help themselves.

Because the Democratic Party agrees with me on most of these points, and the Republican Party agrees with me on none of them, when I vote, I vote for Democrats.

---

If you agree, you are welcome to pass this on. I only ask that you credit me for it.

Daily Peep: Hi Ya!

By the way, that bottom bin (along with this blog, of course) is her baby "book."

Dinner Chat

Just me and the Peepster chatting over some crackers and Cheerios.

Watch for the amazing display of inappropriate parenting at around the 1:49 mark.

Daily Peep: Charge It!

Whenever we're out shopping, especially if she's in the wrap, hanging from the front of me, Peeper tries to grab my debit or credit card while I'm trying to check out.

So, today, I decided she needed her own cards.

For Christmas, I got several giftcards to Sheetz, which is our favorite convenience store. In a remarkable display of unnecessary packaging, their gift cards come attached to similar-sized piece of plastic that's basically just there to write the amount and to/from.

I had several of those lying around, and I thought they'd be perfect for her to play with, so I dropped one in her toy box.

It took her no time at all to find it.

When I first noticed that she had it, she was also playing with a small Christmas card, that was folded in half.


When I realized that she was trying to put the gift card into the Christmas card, I decided that she needed a wallet for it.


As luck would have it, I'd also gotten a new wallet for Christmas, which I'd not yet gotten around to moving into.

So, I took care of that little task, and gave her my old one.

I think she likes it.

She spent a lot of time trying to put the card into the wallet and take it back out.

She has suddenly, just in the past couple of days, starting putting things into other things.

Yesterday, she was putting Cheerios into a bowl. One Cheerio in the bowl, then picking it up to "drink" it out, and spilling it on the floor.

She's also been putting her books inside the drawer of the coffee table (which has been emptied out, and is hers).

I guess it's time for her to start helping with clean-up time now, rather than just watching!

Off to spend some more!


Waiting for the bill.

Daily Peep: Feeling Better

Not all better but, yeah, much better.

We're now about 28 hours puke-free (shhhhh), which is quite exciting.

Peeper's had about three periods today of being very sad and pathetic and whimpery and just seeming absolutely miserable.

I'm assuming these were bouts of nausea, but she's fought them off without having to actually throw up - even though we've told her that it would be okay, and would probably make her feel much better.

The first was around five o'clock this morning, and we were just certain that she was going to be throwing up any minute, but she eventually settled down and went back to sleep.

The second was when she woke up from a nap, around 5:30ish. She snugged, nursed and snugged some more, first at the computer for a while, then watching Finding Nemo.

She just lay in my lap, maybe sleeping (I couldn't see her face, the way she was laying) for the first part of the movie, but then she got up after a while and played, and even ate a cracker.

At bedtime, she asked for some solid food, but when we tried to go to bed right after some Cheerios and crackers, she wasn't so interested in nursing, and was kind of whiney, although not quite as pathetic as earlier.

She was chewing on her figures a lot, so I thought maybe her teeth were bothering her. We got up and I gave her Orajel, and tried to get her to nurse in the chair.

She nursed a bit, then just snuggled sadly for a little while and fell asleep while I rocked and sang.

Then stayed asleep when I moved her to bed.

That was kind of weird.

In between, though, she's played and laughed and eaten a little bit of crackers and Cheerios, and they've stayed down - so HOORAY!

I think we'll stick with that sort of stuff for tomorrow, and if she keeps it all down and doesn't seem nauseated, we'll probably give her something a little more substantial - and tasty - on Saturday.

Daily Peep: Barfapalooza Day Two

This is a pretty accurate photo for the day:

And, yet, the past twenty-four hours have been way better than the previous twenty-four.

After I posted last night, I think she threw up a couple more times, the last a little before ten, and then nursed to sleep around eleven - and slept until 9:30 this morning!

She nursed off and on, starting with a "real" feeding around 4:30, and kept it all down!

When Shrike got home, a little after midnight, I ate the food she'd brought me, showered off the vomit, and took a nice long soak in the tub, while reading "Mothering Your Nursing Toddler," including the section on "When Baby Is Sick," and thanking whom/whatever that I'd not spent the past twenty-four hours trying to coax my poor sick baby to drink a bit of pedialyte every couple of hours.

You'd think that, after all that, I would've fallen into bed, exhausted. Oh, but no. Remember that three hour nap I had in the evening?

Yeah, I didn't go to sleep until sometime after goodying Peeper at 4:30 am.

I have never loved Shrike more than when she got up with her at 9:30 am and let me sleep until about noon, just bringing her in to nurse as needed - which, of course, I barely even have to wake up for.

When we finally all got up, we decided to try her out on some solid food, since she'd now gone more than twelve hours vomit-free. I stuck her in the highchair, and offered her some Cheerios. I really don't know if she ate any, or how many, but she didn't stay in the chair very long.

I do suspect she had a few, though, because by 1 pm, she was throwing up.

This time, all over Shrike.

And then, all over me.

Did I mention that yesterday, I figured out to drape a towel across myself, to at least soak up some of the puke, when she's throwing up in my arms?

(Which, I very quickly, just gave up and let her do. It just feels so wrong to point her in another direction when she so clearly just needs to be cuddled.)

Yeah, well, despite getting it all set up everytime she starts looking a little green around the gills, I've yet to actually have it in place when she's started throwing up.

It's a nice plan, though.

Anyway, yeah, so all three of us were pretty puke-covered, and I declared that nope, she was not ready to start any BRAT diet.

After getting cleaned up, Peeper and I lay down around 2:30, and we slept until around 5:30. Which was wonderful.

She had a few more Cheerios later (because she was playing and acting pretty chipper) and around 7:30 we took a bath. I don't know how much she cared, but I sure was happy to get her hair washed, as well as the rest of her, and get her into some clean jammies. (She'd been in just a diaper or diaper and onesie since the early hours of this.)

About half an hour later, she threw up again. Of course.

Sigh.

But, she perked up a bit after that, and begged a tiny bit of Ritz cracker from me, when I was trying to eat something, and although she started looking pretty iffy not too long after that, it turned out she was just sleepy, and she nursed down around 9:30 pm.

It's 10:30 now, and this is the point in the story at which I was going to say ". . . and she's sleeping peacefully now" - but I took a break from composing this post to email Shrike, and before I reported that to her, I felt like I ought to peek in and make sure.

I couldn't see her well enough , so I went in and opened the bathroom door, to let in more light, then snuck back out. No problem.

Then I thought, "Oh, I ought to get the next load of pukey laundry into the washer," and when I went back in, I kicked the baby gate (Which is there to keep the pets out; I like to have it up and the door ajar, so I can peek at her without opening and closing it.) and woke her up!

But, she nursed back down and is, again, sleeping peacefully.

Whew.

PukeFest 2010 - An Update

Well, she slept til about 3:45, when the phone rang. When she got up, her diaper was wet (good) but not poopy (also good).

She drank some water and played a little while, and I moved some laundry, and she puked around 4, and then more / bigger about 10 minutes later.

Then, we lay down and she nursed a while and we both slept til 7:30!

She would've slept longer, I think, but I woke her up when I was trying to get up.

First, I moved her while checking on her, then tried to roll her off of her back before I left, and nevermind, she was up.

She threw up a bit not long after that, and I changed a poopy dipe and she played for a while and puked again.

Just as I had the last of the pukey stuff in the wash. Now there's another towel waiting to go in, and a stack of clean ones waiting to be puked on again.

Now I'm washing diapers, because we're going through them pretty quicky. I'm not sure this is actually diarrhea, though. I'd like to think it's just baby poop, because all she's getting is breastmilk.

Anyway, so that's where we are.

It's amazing how quickly you go from "OhMyGod, get that in the wash!" to "Eh, she only got a little on herself - and me - that time. We're good."

Especially at 2 am.

She's willing to nurse, though, keeping most of it down, and still peeing plenty, so I think we're okay.

Just have to ride it out.

20 hours down, 28 to go.

Live from the Vomitorium

Peeper seems to have what the pediatrician's office is referring to as, "that stomach virus that's going around."

They tell us that we can expect 24 - 48 hours of vomiting, and up to 5 - 7 days of diarrhea.

Yippee.

She seemed fine yesterday, then it hit her out of nowhere last night. (The pediatrician's nurse said that's what they're seeing, across the board. It comes on very suddenly.)

She had a nap (which I'd hoped was bedtime but, alas, it was not) around 9 pm, and then played and bathed and played some more, just like normal.

She was yawning around midnight, so we lay down to nurse, and she went to sleep without much trouble.

Around 12:30, I was trying to make my escape. She'd flopped over to snug Shrike's pillow, and
I was patting her butt, about to try to get out of bed, when I heard her coughing? Whining? Gagging? Spitting Up?!?

OHMYGOD - THROWING UP!

EVERYWHERE!

OHMYGODOHMYGODOHMYGOD!

WHAT DO I DO!?!?!

ROLL HER OVER!

OHMYGOD!

THERE'S MORE!

OHMYGOD!

Okay. Whew. I think it's stopped.

I picked her up, and comforted her - although I might have been more upset about it than she was - and called for Shrike.

When she came into the room, I had her turn on the lights and - OHMYGOD, that was a mistake.

Puke everywhere. Bed. Baby. Baby's clothes. Baby's hair. Mama's clothes. Everywhere.

I took Peeper to the bathtub (where she got her very first solo bath because I just wasn't up to getting in with her) and showered her off, and washed her hair (who know how hard it would be to get mostly-breastmilk-puke out of a baby's hair?) and got her rediapered and rejammied, while Shrike stripped the bed and remade it.

I'm really not sure what the point of that was, though, because we certainly weren't done for the evening.

We got back in bed, and although I wasn't sure it was the best thing for her tummy, I let her nurse, to settle back down and go to sleep.

It didn't take long for her to throw up again.

That's when we called the doctor's office.

The nurse told me not to give her anything to eat for a while, and when I explained that we're breastfeeding, and that she was nursing at the moment, she told me, "Well, don't give her a full feeding, then don't give her any more until morning, so her stomach can rest. In the morning, just give her a small amount of clear liquid, then wait a couple of hours to see how she handles that, then give her more every couple of hours."

Um, okay. Yeah, we'll see how that goes over.

When I repeated the instructions, to make sure I'd understood everything, I just changed all that to "So, nothing but breastmilk until at least tomorrow evening, right?"

At that point, we can start her on a "BRAT" (bananas, rice, applesauce, toast) diet. Which, according to the nurse, includes dry Cheerios, so we're good to go.

Other than that, we just have to watch for dehydration (make sure she's crying real tears, and peeing at least once every 8 - 12 hours), and if that's all good, she doesn't need to actually see the doctor.

While I was on the phone, Peeper was dozing off in my arms, while I rubbed her tummy, so after I hung up, we laid her down and took turns petting her while she fell asleep.

She wasn't asking to nurse at that point, so I wasn't going to encourage her to. However, I certainly wasn't going to turn her down, either. Luckily, she went on to sleep with out it.

I got up to put diapers in the dryer and - believe it or not - eat, and I heard her over the monitor, throwing up again.

Another towel under her, more comforting, and right back to sleep.

I went to bed, and Shrike and I got settled down to go to sleep - and she threw up again. And again. And again.

Pretty soon, there wasn't much left in her tummy, so there wasn't any clean up to be done. We'd all sleep for a while until we heard her, then I'd make sure she was on her side or tummy, in case she actually brought anything up, then when she finished, I'd comfort her and she'd go right back to sleep.

It was actually kind of spooky how fast she was falling back asleep afterward, especially when I had picked her up and was holding her.

I guess she was in a deep sleep when it hit her, so she never really got good and awake.

I may have lost count along the way, but I think she'd thrown up (or dry heaved) about ten times by around five o'clock. That matches with my memory of the clock telling me that it was happening every fifteen to twenty minutes.

She finally stopped, and I didn't hear anything from her until around 7:30 am, when she nursed quite enthusiastically. I was a little worried about that, but figured that even if it came back out, she'd absorb something and hopefully stay hydrated.

It did stay down, and she went back to sleep. Then, from about 9ish until 10:30, she did a lot of whining, and whimpering and flopping around. I was able to settle her with a bit of nursing, and patting and snugging, but never for very long.

At 10:30, she wasn't settling, so I picked her up and was rocking her when Shrike came in to check on us. I said, "Well, she hasn't thrown up since five . . . " and she immediately started throwing up.

She was laying on her back in my arms, so when she threw up a tiny bit, I picked her up and held her to my chest - where she promptly threw up huge amounts, all over both of us.

That's the point at which we both just stripped down to our respective underwears, put yet another towel under her, and washable blankets over us.

We slept another couple of hours, and the next time Shrike checked on us, she was nursing again. Shrike said, "I wish we could just turn them off, so she could suck without getting all the milk in her tummy."

I told her that, "Well, she does know how to comfort nurse, sucking lightly so she doesn't really get much. . . ."

. . . and she threw up again.

She had not been just comfort nursing.

A little later, she got up and played for a while - and threw up in the floor. While having a little bit of diarrhea.

Later, she had more, and while Shrike was changing her diaper - even more.

But she also peed during the diaper change, so she's not dehydrated.

Then, when I tried to put a onesie on her, because I was cold, she threw up on it before I even had the crotch snapped.

She seemed to feel better for a while, and played and drank water from her sippy cup (her idea) and read some books, then started yawning, and nursed right back down to sleep.

I would tell you that she's asleep now, and that it's been two hours since the last puke, but you've seen what happens when I say things like that, so I won't.

I will say that the second load of laundry is in the dryer, and the fourth load is in the washer (and a load of wet stuff is waiting in between) and the comforter is on deck.

Here's now things looked in the bedroom a couple of hours ago:

And here's now things look in there right now.


Shhhhh!