Wednesday, April 26, 2006
Phong.com
Remember all those articles you read about web design mistakes? This site has them all, from mystery meat navigation to lack of information to tiny tiny print two shades lighter than the background! But somehow, I couldn't help but fall for all the little mouseover noises and flash animation.
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
Something I've always wanted to try.
This photographer exposed one piece of film 37 days out of the year to track the sun's position at 8:30 am. Very cool idea!
Going with the flow
Just a few words about breastfeeding. Just needed to get this off my chest, ha ha.
Right now Chloe is sleeping like what she is, a baby. She woke me up at 3am, I jammed my left breast into her mouth, she clamped down like a velociraptor and fed for about 5 minutes before falling back asleep. Great, now my left breast has flow like Eric B and Rakim and my right breast is tingling and engorged and she's sleeping like the dead. I think I gave birth to a vampire. I expressed what was left into a bottle and stored it in the refrigerator. Good thing, since she woke me up two hours later and wanted more, more, more. Luckily, Chloe will take the bottle, but I learned the hard way that she will gorge herself in a couple of minutes with the entire bottle if you let her and then spew it back up like Lindsay Lohan. So I sat there on the bed giving her sips at a time, fighting back sleep. This morning she let me sleep until 9:30 am and now that it's noon, she's fallen back asleep after just an ounce of expressed milk mixed with Infamil formula.
That's right, FORMULA! And, if you really want a reason to call DSS on me, EXPRESSED MILK MIXED WITH IT! I'll admit that I have fed Chloe directly from the breast, with music playing, in a rocking chair, just like the pictures in a La Leche League pamphlet, but DAMN if doesn't feel like a bee sting when she latches on! So I tried reading up about this and there is too much advice about everything to do with breast feeding. If I tense up from the pain, she'll get a complex that will likely lead her to the therapist's couch until she's forty. If I don't do anything, she won't realize that it hurts and I'll be the one on the couch. Anxiety about the pain of latching on will affect my milk supply. Not feeding her from the breast will cause my milk to dry up. Worrying about my milk supply will impede my flow.
You know what? I don't care. Just as every baby is an individual, every mother is too. My first feeding went great, it hurt a little but the student nurse who was showing me how, was currently breastfeeding herself and when I asked, she said it does hurt a little. When "a little" turned into "OW GODDAMMIT!" I asked another nurse for an icepack for my nipples, which, (I had read) was what you are supposed to put on sore nipples. She asked me why I wanted it, I said I was sore and showed her. This battlehardened nurse sucked in her breath in horror and ran to get me some Lasinoh. You would have thought that I was going to end up as some sort of entry into a medical textbook from her reaction. So now I was convinced that it was NEVER supposed to hurt and I was doing it all wrong. I asked my OB what to do, since she still had to eat. He told me to just nurse Chloe for 10 minutes on each breast. Then, I took her to the pediatrician and she hadn't eaten enough to gain weight. And, the pediatrician told me to try mixing in formula with my own milk as a kind of weight gain supplement. I even tried to use a breast pump, but it hurts almost as much as when the baby latches on and works about as much as expressing by hand.
So here we are, one day from another weigh-in at the pediatrician's office. Chloe's on about an every three hour feeding schedule, sometimes the breast, sometimes the bottle, sometimes formula in between. She's eating about an ounce at each feeding, which seems to be enough. I'm resolved to stop freaking out about every little detail and just go with what works for now. I feel kind of bad, since the nurses at the hospital loaded me up with La Leche pamphlets and my husband's niece gave me her book on breastfeeding, but honestly, the more I read, the more stressed out I get. I think, in the end, if we've survived this long as a species, without electronic $500 breast pumps and textbooks, then instinct is probably the way to go. Then again, if she still hasn't gained any weight by tomorrow, then I am perfectly happy to let modern medical science give me a hand.
Right now Chloe is sleeping like what she is, a baby. She woke me up at 3am, I jammed my left breast into her mouth, she clamped down like a velociraptor and fed for about 5 minutes before falling back asleep. Great, now my left breast has flow like Eric B and Rakim and my right breast is tingling and engorged and she's sleeping like the dead. I think I gave birth to a vampire. I expressed what was left into a bottle and stored it in the refrigerator. Good thing, since she woke me up two hours later and wanted more, more, more. Luckily, Chloe will take the bottle, but I learned the hard way that she will gorge herself in a couple of minutes with the entire bottle if you let her and then spew it back up like Lindsay Lohan. So I sat there on the bed giving her sips at a time, fighting back sleep. This morning she let me sleep until 9:30 am and now that it's noon, she's fallen back asleep after just an ounce of expressed milk mixed with Infamil formula.
That's right, FORMULA! And, if you really want a reason to call DSS on me, EXPRESSED MILK MIXED WITH IT! I'll admit that I have fed Chloe directly from the breast, with music playing, in a rocking chair, just like the pictures in a La Leche League pamphlet, but DAMN if doesn't feel like a bee sting when she latches on! So I tried reading up about this and there is too much advice about everything to do with breast feeding. If I tense up from the pain, she'll get a complex that will likely lead her to the therapist's couch until she's forty. If I don't do anything, she won't realize that it hurts and I'll be the one on the couch. Anxiety about the pain of latching on will affect my milk supply. Not feeding her from the breast will cause my milk to dry up. Worrying about my milk supply will impede my flow.
You know what? I don't care. Just as every baby is an individual, every mother is too. My first feeding went great, it hurt a little but the student nurse who was showing me how, was currently breastfeeding herself and when I asked, she said it does hurt a little. When "a little" turned into "OW GODDAMMIT!" I asked another nurse for an icepack for my nipples, which, (I had read) was what you are supposed to put on sore nipples. She asked me why I wanted it, I said I was sore and showed her. This battlehardened nurse sucked in her breath in horror and ran to get me some Lasinoh. You would have thought that I was going to end up as some sort of entry into a medical textbook from her reaction. So now I was convinced that it was NEVER supposed to hurt and I was doing it all wrong. I asked my OB what to do, since she still had to eat. He told me to just nurse Chloe for 10 minutes on each breast. Then, I took her to the pediatrician and she hadn't eaten enough to gain weight. And, the pediatrician told me to try mixing in formula with my own milk as a kind of weight gain supplement. I even tried to use a breast pump, but it hurts almost as much as when the baby latches on and works about as much as expressing by hand.
So here we are, one day from another weigh-in at the pediatrician's office. Chloe's on about an every three hour feeding schedule, sometimes the breast, sometimes the bottle, sometimes formula in between. She's eating about an ounce at each feeding, which seems to be enough. I'm resolved to stop freaking out about every little detail and just go with what works for now. I feel kind of bad, since the nurses at the hospital loaded me up with La Leche pamphlets and my husband's niece gave me her book on breastfeeding, but honestly, the more I read, the more stressed out I get. I think, in the end, if we've survived this long as a species, without electronic $500 breast pumps and textbooks, then instinct is probably the way to go. Then again, if she still hasn't gained any weight by tomorrow, then I am perfectly happy to let modern medical science give me a hand.
Yeah, what he said... Update
An update on Mr. Butch, currently residing in state custody for trying to direct traffic. Well, he IS the mayor...
(see post from March 21, 2006 for photos and video of Mr. Butch)
(see post from March 21, 2006 for photos and video of Mr. Butch)
Monday, April 24, 2006
Raja the Elephant Update
Raja the Elephant, who had too much candy and cookies during a Buddhist holiday, is doing better and is on a strict diet of leafy greens.
Thursday, April 20, 2006
Things I wish I had known
I really tried to be a good mom-to-be and read the right books. But "What To Expect When You're Expecting" was pretty frustrating by the third month. Basically, my complaint was that the tone of the book was like the ultimate "gore-crow" type old relative that can't wait to mention the latest horror stories in the news whenever you talk to them. Apparently, every month I should have expected to experience vomiting, dizziness, constipation and bloating. Very fortunately, I experienced none of these so I felt kind of guilty.
There were things that I didn't expect and don't show up to often in books so here's the scoop on what to really expect for labor and delivery and postpartum:
1) You may be having contractions 5 minutes apart for hours and still be sent home after coming to the hospital if you are not dialated enough. Ambien is good for getting some sleep despite the pain. It can make you feel a little out of control of your body, but you need the rest for the next stage of labor.
2) Nurses will hook you up to several monitors and then spend 20 minutes asking you every question that you have already answered on your pre-admittance form that you filled out a month ago. Just go along, the question and answer thing is actually kind of relaxing.
3) Don't expect the doctor on call to remember anything from minute to minute, even if they've been treating you for 9 months. Doctors work 12 to 14 hour shifts on call and may be dealing with as many as 5 active labors at once.
4) Expect to be asked to sign important paperwork whilst in the midst of a Level 7 contraction. If at all possible, ask to have your labor coach/husband glance over what you are signing before you do. Most of the forms are strictly routine though. A friend told me that she signed something without reading it in the hospital and it turned out it was a waiver of her right to an at-home visit from a nurse!
5) Even if you've been asking for an epidural and actually get one, if you are so high you can't feel the second stage major contractions, the medical staff may turn off the feed so you will be motivated to push. Warning: don't ask if they did. Believe me, you don't want to know if they do.
6) Post delivery, do not watch the local news for about 5 days. Every single story involving babies in dumpsters, car wrecks, fires and general mayhem will make you cry uncontrollably.
7) Expect to have absolutely no peace for about a week. The hospital stay will be jam packed with blood pressure checks, baby checks, floral deliveries, food service, trash service, linen service and family members coming in to see the new arrival. Be patient, it'll be over soon.
8) Once you're home, don't try to schedule your day. Just give yourself one goal at a time. Some days it can be a major accomplishment just to get out with the baby for a trip to the mailbox and back. Just try to relax and enjoy the time to get to know the baby.
There were things that I didn't expect and don't show up to often in books so here's the scoop on what to really expect for labor and delivery and postpartum:
1) You may be having contractions 5 minutes apart for hours and still be sent home after coming to the hospital if you are not dialated enough. Ambien is good for getting some sleep despite the pain. It can make you feel a little out of control of your body, but you need the rest for the next stage of labor.
2) Nurses will hook you up to several monitors and then spend 20 minutes asking you every question that you have already answered on your pre-admittance form that you filled out a month ago. Just go along, the question and answer thing is actually kind of relaxing.
3) Don't expect the doctor on call to remember anything from minute to minute, even if they've been treating you for 9 months. Doctors work 12 to 14 hour shifts on call and may be dealing with as many as 5 active labors at once.
4) Expect to be asked to sign important paperwork whilst in the midst of a Level 7 contraction. If at all possible, ask to have your labor coach/husband glance over what you are signing before you do. Most of the forms are strictly routine though. A friend told me that she signed something without reading it in the hospital and it turned out it was a waiver of her right to an at-home visit from a nurse!
5) Even if you've been asking for an epidural and actually get one, if you are so high you can't feel the second stage major contractions, the medical staff may turn off the feed so you will be motivated to push. Warning: don't ask if they did. Believe me, you don't want to know if they do.
6) Post delivery, do not watch the local news for about 5 days. Every single story involving babies in dumpsters, car wrecks, fires and general mayhem will make you cry uncontrollably.
7) Expect to have absolutely no peace for about a week. The hospital stay will be jam packed with blood pressure checks, baby checks, floral deliveries, food service, trash service, linen service and family members coming in to see the new arrival. Be patient, it'll be over soon.
8) Once you're home, don't try to schedule your day. Just give yourself one goal at a time. Some days it can be a major accomplishment just to get out with the baby for a trip to the mailbox and back. Just try to relax and enjoy the time to get to know the baby.
Advice on Advice
Nothing gets people going like the sight of your bulging belly. Mom mags always have at least one mention in each issue about unsolicited advice, how to deal with it, blah blah. Since this was my first pregnancy, I just took everything people told me and filed it away in my memory in case it came in handy. After 9 months, delivery, postpartum in the hospital and being home for a week, here's my advice about advice:
1) Just like with a medical diagnosis, always try to get a second or even third opinion. One lactation nurse told me that a "little pain" is normal when the baby latches on. Another reacted in horror when I told her it was hurting a little and said it was NEVER supposed to hurt. Every mother I've talked to says it does hurt a little.
2) Take every opinion with a grain of salt. Remember, every nurse is different with different experiences. Every baby is different. There is no "typical" pregnancy, delivery, or baby.
3) The best advice I got for the entire experience came from a man who told me not to worry over anything, but just to enjoy every moment for what it was.
1) Just like with a medical diagnosis, always try to get a second or even third opinion. One lactation nurse told me that a "little pain" is normal when the baby latches on. Another reacted in horror when I told her it was hurting a little and said it was NEVER supposed to hurt. Every mother I've talked to says it does hurt a little.
2) Take every opinion with a grain of salt. Remember, every nurse is different with different experiences. Every baby is different. There is no "typical" pregnancy, delivery, or baby.
3) The best advice I got for the entire experience came from a man who told me not to worry over anything, but just to enjoy every moment for what it was.
Tuesday, April 18, 2006
One Week Down...
An extremely rare photo of Chloe crying. Her dad and I were kind of freaked out her first few days because she was easy to deal with. Too easy. The first night I tried sleeping with her in her bassinet next to me I kept poking at her to make sure she was breathing. She slept 6 hours straight that night. I asked the doctor if it was normal and he said that it would change soon enough and to enjoy it while I could. The only problem is that she's so easy going that she actually waited for me to offer to feed her and she slept through some feedings her first few days home. So for now, my only job is to bring her weight back up to 7 pounds 14 ounces which was her birth weight. Since I'm vegetarian, I have to pound down a lot of Ensure and cottage cheese. I feel like a boxing trainer who's trying to get their fighter to move up a weight class. Right now she's at Bantam weight, but hopefully in a couple of days she'll get up to Feather weight.
Dairy Queen
By some cosmic coincidence of events, I purchased an Avent bottle on instinct while I took Chloe for her first walk in the stroller. Lo and behold, Avent bottles are integrated into the Avent Isis Breast Pump system, so not only did I luck out by spending six bucks on something that works with an inexpensive pump, but the last book I read before delivery was the "The Da Vinci Code" which mentions the whole Isis nursing Horus, Madonna and Child analogy.
Thursday, April 13, 2006
Good Morning, Hello Kitty, How may I direct your call?
I knew this day would come. It's a good thing I know how to operate heavy machinery too. Although, I would like to see a Hello Kitty robot try that too.
Talk about making an impact with your presentation...
And yes, let's all say a prayer for a Kennedy, AGAIN.
Wednesday, April 12, 2006
Elephant Eats Scores of Cookies and Gets Sick
See the things you miss when you're in labor?
I hope poor Raja gets better though. Maybe it's the hormones, but the picture of this made me pretty verklempt.
I hope poor Raja gets better though. Maybe it's the hormones, but the picture of this made me pretty verklempt.
Sunday, April 09, 2006
Contraction City!
I am currently coming out an Ambien induced sleep after being up all night with contractions. Forget the classic water gushing out in public, panting screaming for 4 hours, ending with the screaming baby scenario. I spent Saturday from 10 am until Sunday at 2 am on the couch watching tv and writing down the time that each cramp started. Of course I felt like a nervous nelly having my doctor paged, but I kept thinking if I try to tough it out, and my water breaks and I end up giving birth in a Dunkin Donuts parking lot at 3am, I'm not going to feel to good about that either.
By about 2 am I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep, so we made the call, packed up the hospital bag, diaper bag, insurance cards and boom box and drove over. I had a bad contraction right as I walked through the front door and had to hold onto the desk as I gasped out my name. We got settled into a room and two nurses came in to prod around my cervix for a while. I'm getting used to it by now, but I still feel like a farm animal when someone does that. I drank a glass of water, then a glass of cranberry juice and then they asked me to walk around the Labor ward for an hour to get my cervix to open.
So Chris and I shuffled around in circles for about an hour like a couple of centengenarians, stopping in the middle each time to check out the incubator room to see if we could see any newborns. Finally after an hour and about 10 more contractions I still wasn't dilated so the Doctor sent me home to sleep with a couple of tabs of Ambien. Things got foggy after that. It seemed like every time I turned my head to change the direction I was walking in, it would take my body a bit to get the drift. I should be a responsible adult today and finish my taxes before I go back into the hospital, but I don't trust my math right now.
By about 2 am I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep, so we made the call, packed up the hospital bag, diaper bag, insurance cards and boom box and drove over. I had a bad contraction right as I walked through the front door and had to hold onto the desk as I gasped out my name. We got settled into a room and two nurses came in to prod around my cervix for a while. I'm getting used to it by now, but I still feel like a farm animal when someone does that. I drank a glass of water, then a glass of cranberry juice and then they asked me to walk around the Labor ward for an hour to get my cervix to open.
So Chris and I shuffled around in circles for about an hour like a couple of centengenarians, stopping in the middle each time to check out the incubator room to see if we could see any newborns. Finally after an hour and about 10 more contractions I still wasn't dilated so the Doctor sent me home to sleep with a couple of tabs of Ambien. Things got foggy after that. It seemed like every time I turned my head to change the direction I was walking in, it would take my body a bit to get the drift. I should be a responsible adult today and finish my taxes before I go back into the hospital, but I don't trust my math right now.
Friday, April 07, 2006
Another Good Photo Site
Trekearth.com. Go places, take pictures, post them here. Just make sure they're good, because these are great!
It's a sandy day in hell...
Stumbled across this via FireFox's Stumble! function. I was going through a bunch of photography sites and becoming increasingly annoyed at slooooowwwww llllloooaadddinng over designed sites when I came across these amazing (and fast loading!) photos of an approaching dust storm in Iraq from last year.
Thursday, April 06, 2006
For Dads
I noted in a previous post that most parenting magazines are actually aimed at the mom, so here's one for the other person changing the pampers!
D-day is tomorrow!
As in DUE DATE. Of course this doesn't mean I start pushing at the stroke of midnight, but I would really like to! Today was my last day at work and by 10am I was ready to pack it in. It feels like the baby is gearing up by doing push-ups and crunches in there and she got a good case of the hiccups around 2pm. When I got home, the next door neighbor's baby was screaming on the other side of the bathroom wall and I listened for a couple of minutes trying to get used to the sound.
Gives new meaning to "Drunken Flower Plum Stance"...
Gardening just took on a whole new appeal for me.
Tuesday, April 04, 2006
Speaking of order coming from chaos...
There is now such a backlash against all the lamb/bunny/ducky baby wear and "mommytribe" group think, that sites like this are cropping up like mushrooms. I predict that in 2 months it will be so "normal" to be seen in public breastfeeding your mohawked little one under your Minor Threat t-shirt that the cute lil' fuzzy wuzzy aesthetic will come roaring back by September.
Monday, April 03, 2006
Iraq war statistics page
Link via the bbc site that has maps showing civilian and police casualities broken down by location and other maps showing population figures.
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