it’s not about you

It’s like the pediatrician said this morning - he has two modes - eating, and wanting to eat.

So we’ve been potty training Judah for a while now, and she has got the pee-pee thing DOWN. She only wears a diaper during her nap, which she is dropping these days anyway, and overnight. To our pleasant surprise, two nights in a row have resulted in dry diapers. Not every night, but we make a big deal about it. She has still steadfastly refused to go poo-poo in the potty, and has only used her diaper.

UNTIL TODAY.

This morning, I told Judah I was going to lie down for a while, and was all set to offer her a movie choice, when she told me that she would play with her Polly Pockets. I took Killian and got in an hour-long snooze (one beautiful thing about being a parent is that you can sleep and still hear everything that’s going on - it’s a blessing and a curse), only to be fully awakened by cries of “I WENT POO POO IN THE POTTY!!!” coming from the bathroom. Sure enough, she did.

Last week, Joshua and I bought her a “poo-poo toy” - a Polly set including a Polly and a Polly horse, and accessories for both. It’s been sitting on top of the medicine cabinet, waiting for her to go poo-poo. She got to choose which piece she wanted. She chose the Polly doll. She also got to call Daddy and Nana and tell them about her newfound ability.

She poo-pooed again after lunch. She chose the Polly horse. And called Daddy. And called Nana.

She poo-pooed again after “rest time” (which has replaced nap time). And chose the pink Polly boots. And called Daddy. And called Nana.

It’s a monumental day over here, people.

We have an appointment tomorrow morning with a pediatric ear, nose and throat specialist who will evaluate Killian to see if we can get his tongue clipped. He’s tongue-tied, and it’s causing a problem. Namely, my nipples hurt like mo-fos. Judah was so tongue-tied that she couldn’t get her tongue past her gums, or even barely lift it up at all. Killian’s got the lift, but not the extension ability.

He gets what looks like a good latch, after eight or nine tries - his lips look like they’re in good position, he’s got a good suck, and I can hear him swallowing, but good Lord, does it hurt. I am doing everything I know to do -stroking his cheek, tickling his lips, pulling down on his chin, adjusting him, breaking the suction and starting all over, several times. He LOOKS like he’s okay, but I can feel his gums on me, and folks, we don’t want that. This is not supposed to hurt.

I was going to get an appointment with the lactation consultant at the hospital, but I’m hoping that if/once he gets his tongue clipped, some of the problems will resolve themselves. He will attempt to latch on, and then what always happens the first few tries is that he ends up pushing it out of his mouth, cause he can’t get his tongue around it. Maybe I still will if things don’t get better soon.

Between that and the two-hour long marathon nursings (eat, burp, pretend to sleep, and repeat five or six times) he does twice a day, I’m ready for some relief. Good thing he’s cute.

Also, he has his two-week visit on Thursday with our new pediatrician. Hope that goes well. Though I don’t understand what’s with all the dang check-ups. He eats, he poops, he pees, he sleeps, he cries, he’s awake - what’s the point? He’s a baby doing what a baby is supposed to do.

Not sure how I feel about this, but my site is on the first page of results when you google the phrase: I’m a terrible mother.

I finally downloaded five months worth of images off of my camera phone. I’m trying to get my flickr page up and running. I’ll let you know when I’ve garnered enough tech know-how to post photos.

For Killian’s birth, we got Judah a present from her baby brother - a low-end digital camera. My first camera was a 110 mm that I got for my tenth birthday. Times have changed. We’ve created (and by “we,” I mean “Joshua”) a Flickr account for her photos. You can check them out here.

We’ve got more to upload, including her “castle series.” On a walk yesterday, Judah wanted to take pictures of her “castles” - neighborhood churches. She would run up and down the sidewalk, trying to get just the right angle, that is, until she ran into a street-cleaning sign pole.

And be sure to list her as a contact.