Autumn at Oak Hollow

I only have three more days left of my maternity leave. Autumn spent all day at daycare today and will again on Thursday. I'm not sure how I feel about the woman I have watching her. Of course no one is going to care for her as well as I do, but I'm just not prepared for someone else to watch her all day.

We're still ironing out the kinks with feeding. Unfortunately our provider has never worked with a breastfeeding mother before. I was surprised when she told me that. I would have expected a few nursing moms to have crossed her path now and again. Nathan picked Autumn up today and the provider, Carol, told him she thought Autumn had diarrhea. Autumn has had some rather explosive diapers lately and I don't think Carol is used to the look and consistency of breastfed baby poop. Well, now she knows.

The thing that concerns me most is that I've been sending the number of bottles I expect Carol to feed Autumn throughout the day. Last week Autumn spent two days with Carol, six hours each day. I left two bottles and told Carol when Autumn last fed, but both days I picked her up to find out she had only been fed one.

Today I sent three bottles but she was only fed two. I talked to the pediatrician's office and was told she needs to get at least 24 oz of milk each day. That means if she's only getting 8 oz at daycare then I'm left to try to get in 16 oz in the short time I'm with her and also means she will probably get me up in the middle of the night.

Nathan told me to give it time. After all this was Autumn's first full day with Carol and they both may need to work out some kind of schedule. He said we may have to re-evaluate our daycare choice if Carol continues to only feed Autumn the two bottles.

I think I'm just going to have to ask Carol what obstacles she's been facing in getting in all three bottles. Since she's used to formula fed babies, she may not realize that breastfed babies actually need to feed more. We'll see what happens.

In other news, I went to campus today for our union contract ratification meeting. It was very boring and made me wish I'd brought a pillow, but the good news is I'll finally be getting my raise. It's about time. I'm going to need that money. It's going to Carol.

I revamped the blog. I just got so sick of the pink. I think this looks much better. It's definitely easier on the eyes. I also created a Flickr account to store my many photos. I was uploading pics to Winkflash, but Flickr is more slick and has better storage capabilities. I was able to make a badge with tiny thumbnails of pics I've taken of Autumn and stuck it below. Just click on it and it will take you to my albums.

Autumn is trying to sit up. It's so cute to see. She'll be cradled in our arms and all of the sudden she'll lift up her head and feet at the same time like she's doing crunches. She nearly tipped herself out of my brother's lap tonight. He kept having to push her back against his arm so that she wouldn't topple onto the floor.

It's amazing how much Autumn has changed in just the past couple of weeks. She's found her hands and is constantly bringing them together. Last night after nursing her, I held her and watched while she ran her hand back and forth over my ribbed shirt as though she was feeling its texture. She's going to bed much easier at night and will occasionally (but not consistently) sleep all night through.

I'm really loving this.

I made the mistake of watching CNN tonight. The top story was of Neil Entwistle and his murdered wife and baby daughter. This was the first I had heard of this and was horrified to find out their daughter Lillian was only 9 months old. Nine months old and she was shot to death.

All I could think of was who could be so cold as to murder a baby like that? How could someone face that child and pull the trigger? I visited the family's website and looked at all their photos. She was such a beautiful, happy baby.

Later, Larry King talked to a mother whose boyfriend killed her two year-old son, was arrested, tried and acquitted of the murder only to later confess to the crime. He repeatedly slammed the little boy into the floor to get him to stop crying, but the jury found him not guilty because the mother was a star witness for the defense. She didn't believe he did it and the jury believed her.

Who uses violence to calm a crying baby?

No more CNN for me.

Yesterday we went out for lunch with my parents. Before we left, Nathan set 2 packs of bagels on the counter to take downstairs to our freezer. As soon as I walked in the door when we returned I realized we had forgotten about the bagels. Sure enough, a pack of plain bagels was gone. All that remained was strips of the plastic bag.

I realize this was in part our fault because we left the food on the counter, but the day before we came home to find what had been a half full bag of cheese curls sitting on the floor, now empty save for a few crumbs. I swear that bag had been on top of the fridge when we left. Molly is either getting bolder or luckier. I hate to think that she's resorting to ramming the fridge in order to get the goodies to rain down on her.

After finding the bagels gone, I said Molly shouldn't get any dinner. Nathan was horrified. "She'll starve," he said.

"She's not going to starve," I said. "She just ate five huge bagels!"

We went back and forth like this with me saying Molly had eaten enough for the day and Nathan saying she should still get dinner. "If she had already eaten her dog food for the day would you feed her five whole bagels as a snack?" I asked.

Since this behavior is escalating, Nathan and I are considering confining Molly to the basement while we're gone. It doesn't seem to matter how clean we try to keep the kitchen. She always finds something to get into every time she's left alone. Along with eating the cheese curls, she pried the lid off the Lysol kitchen wipes just to see if there was anything edible inside. Last week she chewed the lid off some protein powder I had set out to throw away.

I'm worried that she might eat something some day that could hurt her but am also worried that confining her will make her act out even more. It is getting very exasperating to come home to find our bread and buns missing and we aren't very good at remembering to put everything away. The worst incident by far involved a recent emptying of the Diaper Genie and a forgetful mother failing to bring the bag out to the trash bin before leaving. Do I need to continue?

On the lighter side, Nathan did find three of the five missing bagels later when he was downstairs. Apparently Molly had buried the rest of the bag in the chaise lounge. They were big bagels. She must have been saving them for later.

In other news, one of the things we did while we were out yesterday was a little shopping. I know Autumn doesn't really need anything else, but I couldn't resist buying her this cute ensemble:

We're not huge Michigan fans. Nathan mostly favors them because his best friend Ryan favors State. It was on clearance for less than ten bucks and I couldn't resist. Plus, check this out:

It's the Nike swoosh!


Can you say swoosh?

Molly and Autumn hangin' out on the couch

Late last summer when I was still pregnant I told one of my friends that I couldn't imagine loving a being more than I love my dog. Ever since we've had her, we've treated Molly like she was our child. Even before Autumn, I was Mommy and Nathan was Daddy. We were those sickening people who talked to our dogs in baby voices and spoiled her with trips through Wendy's drive through window for a Junior Bacon Cheeseburger.

We knew having a child would be an adjustment for all, but we were particularly interested in how Molly would react. Would she run away when the baby cried? Would she become protective of the baby? Would she poop in the baby's room out of rebellion? None of these things have happened. Molly is still Molly. She hasn't changed at all. Unfortunately for her, our behavior towards her has changed.

Don't get me wrong, we still frequent Wendy's for the occasional Junior Bacon, but we aren't as accommodating as we once were. Gone are the days of tranquil relaxation on the piece of furniture of her choice. Where in the past we would wedge ourselves in whatever available couch space wasn't occupied by dog, we now order Molly to move so that I may have enough room to nurse Autumn. Our games of fetch are less frequent but our irritation with her behavior has increased.

For those of you who know me and have heard my many Molly stories, it won't be a surprise when I say that Molly pulled two whole cooked pork chops off the kitchen counter last weekend and ate them in under two minutes. Nathan had just stepped away from the kitchen for that long, never expecting Molly to be so bold as to pull a stunt like that when we were home. Most of her burglaries occur while we are at work and we come home to torn empty bread bags littering the kitchen floor.

I asked Nathan if he thought this incident was Molly acting out for being so neglected lately. It wasn't out of the ordinary behavior, but it was certainly an escalation of her already irritating bad habit of food theivery. "We need to put her in her place," I said. "She's a dog and she needs to realize that she's a dog. We spoil her to the point that she feels like she's entitled to take whatever she wants." So I issued an edict that there be no more plate licking and excess people food treats in the Noah house.

I feel bad in a way. For all we know, Molly may have no idea that she's not human. Her world has changed so much in these past few weeks, do I really want to take away another thing that makes her happy? After so many years of being treated like a child, is it fair to now start treating her like a dog?