Wayne and Rebecca Madsen

Time flies and I'm not entirely sure how it can possibly be December already. We still have lots of Christmas shopping to do (well, some of us do). But Paela is napping better (most days) and sleeping pretty well (even if it is in her baby papasan instead of her crib). She wakes up in twenty minutes in her crib, but sleeps for hours in the papasan (or on us). Coincidence? I think not.  read more »

At six weeks, Paela is a textbook baby and has stopped sleeping and has increased fussing [being more alert has its benefits too -- more smiles for us to show off her cuteness and play time]. We have resorted to sleeping with the baby, until she falls into deep sleep during her scheduled evening long sleeps. Then we can stick her in a papasan and let her sleep for 6 hours to recoop for the day.

For example, yesterday, she slept fitfully all day long, getting at best 20 minute naps [plus an hour and a half in the moby] and then she crashed at night and slept for 7 hours straight. But, this is the end of the dark tunnel, we move towards the light now.  read more »

I feel like the world revolves around sleep. I'm either trying to get Paela to sleep, or trying to sleep myself, or she's actually sleeping and I'm waking up trying to guess how much longer I'll get to sleep. And I used to be such a good sleeper, even sleeping through my alarm clock.... I just hope I haven't forgotten how to sleep through the night by the time Paela is able to!  read more »

Early Monday, Rebecca took Paela into the pediatrician to make sure Paela was able to breathe and what we should do to prevent bronchitis or pneumonia from setting in. Both of us have decided that we're not as comfortable with our pediatrician's flippant and giddy attitude because we associate it with a less-professional demeanor. Other people might appreciate a doctor who isn't always down to business, but we're a bit bothered by it.  read more »

The good news of the week is that Paela met her birth weight at her two-week check-up on Monday. The pediatrician then gave us conflicting instructions: we no longer have to wake her to eat, but don't let her go more than 3-4 hours between feeding times. I don't think our pediatrician listened well when we told her how very long Paela can sleep. At any rate, we're letting Paela sleep more now, but waking her sometimes still (surely five hours between feedings is too much even at night?).  read more »

The good news is that Paela gained back some of her lost birthweight. The bad news is that she hasn't gained back all her birthweight. The pediatrician said she likes to see babies gain 1-2 oz. a day and Paela just isn't catching up. Unless the pediatrician's scale is different than the hospital's. After our experience with mismeasuring the kid in the hospital, I wouldn't put it past the pediatrician to have a false measurement. Hopefully this Monday we can prove that Paela eats like a ravenous wild beast and the pediatrician won't tell us to supplement with formula. My mom told me that I did the same thing when I was born and didn't gain back my birthweigth very quickly. So our long lanky baby might just have my genes.  read more »

It wasn't until Wednesday morning that we knew any more details on the baby. However, now that we know we know about as much as all of you (next to nothing), we've moved on with our lives and are waiting for either contractions or an induction. Whichever comes first, right?

Monday evening we finished off canning the rest of the pears we had purchased last week from the 50¢/lb sale. Six quart jars later, we think we have enough home canned pears to last us for another year. Since we have tried a few more cans this week, we feel really bad we missed the peach season and are currently making a list of what we need to can next season. We aren't very creative, so we need some suggestions.  read more »

Star cat loves her new-to-her kitty tower. She can climb it instead of just jumping and chilling like she did with her old pedestal; there are hiding places galore; and she can sit up higher to observe the situation (i.e. when babies come over, she can see them without being reachable by them! She thinks this is the best feature, by far.). Yay for craigslist and freecycle. I can't recommend them enough to people. We also inherited some canning jars this weekend, and regifted our old cat post. Good stuff.  read more »

Because this week wasn't jam-packed with events on our calender, our first in a while, we don't actually remember much about what we did. Sure, there was a Costco item per item cost analysis that we did one evening. And I think there was lots of time spent trying to figure out if there is any software fix for the desktop upgrades. But we only remember the past two days in detail.  read more »

Rain, glorious rain! It's been many months since the last time we can remember it raining here; it didn't even rain here during the "rainy season," so, much longer than either of us has gone without a rainy day before. And since we actually like rain, we were celebrating yesterday as it dripped all day long.

Of course, this means the used crib we are buying off craigslist wasn't delivered yesterday as planned; perhaps this coming weekend. The people we're buying the crib from are delivering it for us, since we weren't sure it'd fit in our car and they have a truck. And they were worried on our behalf about the solid hardwood getting wet while being moved to/from the truck...so we wait. That's okay. We don't expect this little one coming early, and even if she does, we have a box and some blankets, right?  read more »