margaretyagan

Today started at at 8:30, when I got up on my own and had breakfast with Mom.  I went downstairs and hung out with Dad and Aunt Claire while Mom showered.  I got my mid-morning snack a bit earlier than usual to fit into Mom’s and Dad’s social schedule.  Sheesh, where are their priorities? 

After my snack I met my first friend with my name.  My parents friends Meg & Than were in town and stopped by to meet me and have brunch.  I can’t wait to try on the cute socks they brought me.  While they all went to brunch at my favorite watering hole (Moonshine), I got some good quality time with Aunt Claire.

When Mom and Dad got back, I ate lunch and took a nap.  I’ve almost totally taken over my own feeding schedule (thanks Dr. Freeman!).  The newest policy is that I’m allowed to go up to 2.5 hours since my last meal.  Even better, there’s no minimum time, meaning I can eat every hour if and when I want to.  I took advantage of this and maxed my nap time until Mom woke me up for my afternoon snack.

Since it was a nice day, I got to go on my third walk — this time with Mom and Aunt Claire.  Seems like they really missed having Dad around, since they fumbled around with the stroller for what seemed like 1% of my life trying to get it open.  Finally we got out of the house and went to the park where we crossed paths with dozens of other kids in strollers.

We then went to the Milk & Honey Cafe where Mom and Aunt Claire bought cookies and parked me by their table.  Apparently the coffee at the cafe wasn’t good enough for these afficianadoes, as our next stop was Starbucks.  We took a different route home and were surprised to run into Mom’s friend Kelli from business school.  Kelli has a daughter named Harper who is way, way, way older than me (she just turned one).  I don’t know if we can ever be playmates.

Once Mom had her cookies and chai latte, I finally got to eat when we got home.  After my snack, I had the fifth bath of my life, which Aunt Claire helped out with.  I actually really enjoyed this bath thing, and tried to cooperate as much I could, except that just as they were getting me out of the bath, I spit up on myself.  They just put me right back in and cleaned me back up.

I napped until dinner and behaved so well all evening.  I didn’t fuss at all like I had been over the last few days.  I ate at midnight and 4:00 am which is becoming pretty standard.  Then I slept until 7:15 when I woke up for breakfast.

After breakfast, I went downstairs with Mom and Dad rather than taking my morning nap in my crib.  Aunt Claire was already up and I napped in my swing and my Moses basket until it was time for my snack.

I seem to be breaking my parents’ iron grip on my feeding schedule, as they’re now allowing me a full thirty minutes of flexibility on either side of two hours from my previous meal.  As Dr. Freeman said in my last checkup my parents should “let Margaret decide when she wants to eat.”  Thanks, doc; I love it.

It was a pretty boring day, actually.  My swing ran out of batteries.  I met Aunt Claire’s friend, Charlie.  Dad’s parents stopped by for a bit.  Uncle D took off for Vegas.  I ate, slept, and pooped.

And then I just decided that I’d had enough.  Of what?  I don’t know.  Just of this boring routine that we’ve settled into here.  So, after dinner I got really fussy with Mom & Dad.  I gave them a hint of this evening-fuss strategy last night, but tonight I decided to go for a “surge strategy” and really cried as much as I could.  Their counter-insurgency swaddle-strategy was pretty effective, though.

After waking up from a nap around 11:45, I decided to scream as loud as possible until I got my midnight snack.  After that, though, I was on my best behavior.  Dad got me to fall asleep in less than five minutes and then I slept until my 4:00 snack.  Another 5 minutes of rocking got me to sleep soundly until 8:30

Mom was rudely awakened by my movement-sensor thing going off for the fourth time (all false-positives).  My parents love the idea of my every breath being monitored, but the sensor seems to think that I’ve stopped breathing all the time.I was happy that Aunt Claire came back from her trip to Grandma & Grandpa Droste’s house and joined Uncle D to keep me company most of the day.

Shockingly, my parents showed some flexibility in my eating schedule — allowing me a whole 15 minutes of error on either side of each even hour.  Dad adamently refused to allow these 15 minute margins to compound throughout the day, but wow, I could actually go 2:15 between feedings during the day for the first time since Day 4.

But the real excitement of the day came when I had my first ever play date!  Mom’s & Dad’s friends Greg & Emily were so nice to bring them lunch and even nice to bring me my first friend, Conor.  Now, Conor’s an old guy — a full 7 times older than me — but he’s cool.  He can do all these amazing things like hold his own neck up.  But of course, he’s pretty advanced.

Then I ate and hung out with Aunt Claire.  Nana and Grandpa Yagan came by and made dinner for everyone.  They had a really, really long dinner and Uncle D took dozens of pictures.  It seemed out of control; luckily I was happy to hang out in my swing. 

I was in a bad mood after my 8:00 feeding and Mom had to comfort me for about an hour and a half until my 10:00 feeding.  As usual, Mom napped and Dad forced tummy-time before my midnight snack.  My parents decided to give me the opportunity to sleep for more than 4 hours at night, but I got hungry around 4:00.  I ate and Dad got me back to bed and got a few more hours of sleep until I woke up for the day at around 7:30. 

Dad woke me up for breakfast at 8:00 am (sticking with even hours, I guess) and as soon as I finished, he decided that he wanted to give me a bath by himself.  Of my my three baths to date, he only partially participated in one (until circumstances required that he take a shower himself).  Mom seemed skeptical when he mentioned his intentions, but offered one piece of advice: “get her diapered in the bathroom.”  Given Dad’s repeated challenges in diapering, I figured he had to be receptive to a good idea.

Anyway, I decided to take it easy on him a bit at the beginning and I didn’t cry a bit throughout the cleaning and rinsing process.  After we finished he dried me up in the bathroom and carried me into my room on to my changing table.  He celebrated with a big smile.  I celebrating by peeing.  All over the changing table, my towel, his shirt, and, most demoralizing for Dad, my just-cleaned legs.  So, out came the still wet and soapy washcloth for the final chapter of my bath.

After I ate lunch at noon, my parents and Uncle D decided to go out for lunch at Moonshine…with me!  It was only the second time I had ever gone on a walk and it was my first time ever in a restaurant.  Well, you won’t be surprised to learn that I pretty much slept through the entire adventure.

Mom had a doctor’s appointment after my 2:00 snack and Dad had a few phone calls for work and a couple errands to run, so I hung out with Uncle D.  Nana & Grandpa Yagan  came over around 6:00 and made dinner and hung out with me until about 10:00.  I went to sleep for the night around 12:30 and slept pretty soundly until Dad woke me up around 4:00, as usual.  This time, though, he actually stayed up through the meal and spent half and hour rocking me back to sleep while Mom got some extra sleep.  I got hungry again around 6:30 and then woke up for breakfast at 8:15.

This morning started out just like any other, except that my parents continued feeding me on odd hours rather than the evens.  My 7:00 am, 9:00 am, and 11:00 am meals went off without a hitch.  I had my two week checkup at 12:15, so we got all packed up and headed over to the doctor’s office.

We had to wait for about 35 minutes in exam room 6, and surprisingly, no nurse ever came in see me.  Finally, Dr. Freeman popped in and started my checkup.  Of the four doctors I’ve met from her practice, she’s definitely my favorite so far.

I weighed in at 7 lb. 5 oz — up two ounces from my birth weight.  Dr. Freeman called those “bonus ounces” and said that I was doing great.  Strangely, I didn’t grow any taller in the last two weeks; I am still 20.5″ long.  Dr. Freeman hypothesized that perhaps the L&D nurses were a bit generous in my initial measurement.  My head circumference is up to 34.5 cm.  I’m at the 25th, 50th, and 75th percentile for weight, height, and head circumference, respectively.  As far as I can tell that makes me thin and smart – but what do I know?

My parents grilled Dr. Freeman about upcoming vaccinations, my dry skin (she recommended Vaseline), and the sleep that builds up in my eye (she said I have mild dacryostenosis).  Apparently I’ll likely have crusty sleep in my right eye for the next 9-15 months until my tear duct decides to open up a bit.

We picked up Nana Yagan on the way home from my appointment.  After lunch I hung out with Nana until my 4:00 pm feeding (apparently, Mom & Dad decided to revert to even-hour feedings).  I slept on the floor in the office while Dad and Uncle D worked.  After my 6:00 feeding, Mom called Aunt Sarah and a couple of her friends while Dad ran to Target to get some vitamins for me.

Mom, Dad, and Uncle D had dinner while I sat in my swing, but I wanted some attention so I fussed a little until Dad came over and picked me up.  He’s been dancing with me since the first day in the hospital, but today he took it to a whole new level, singing and dancing to “Tootsie Roll” by the 69 Boyz.  Now, Uncle D seemed to have a video camera while Dad and I were dancing.  Dad was successful in dancing me to sleep, but as I was dozing off I heard an intense negotiation regarding whether or not I would be allowed to publish the footage on my blog.  I think Mom offered Dad a pecan pie.  No word on how that was resolved.

After I ate at 10:00 pm, I went down to the office with Dad and Uncle D.  We had some quality tummy-time and then I fell asleep in Dad’s arms until the midnight feeding.  Uncle D asked if he could try to rock me to sleep, but he lost patience and Dad had to finish up.  Dad woke me up at 4:00 am for a snack and I kept Mom up until 5:00 before I fell back to sleep for the night.

I woke up Monday morning to the rather unpleasant feeling of having my temperature taken for the fourth time in 12 hours.  After getting a second consecutive lower-than-normal reading, my parents finally quit freaking out and let me go on with my life.

In a radical departure, my parents decided to start feeding me on every odd hour rather than every even hour.  This may seem like no big deal to you, but I can assure you that plenty of thought and “strategery” went into this decision.  I am pretty sure I even saw a PowerPoint slide somewhere in the discussion.

I hung out with Nana Yagan after the 11:00 am feeding and while my parents and Uncle Danny ate lunch.  Then, after my 1:00 pm feeding and for the first time ever, Mom & Dad left home together — without me.  That’s right: I was home alone.  Well, alone with Nana and Uncle Danny.  But certainly home without Mom & Dad.   To celebrate this newfound freedom, I went right to bed and slept the entire time between feedings.

 Yesterday was the first time I got to spend a lot of quality time with Uncle D.  I hung out with him down in the office while he took breaks from his Ph. D. research to play with me, hold me, and take lots and lots of pictures of me. Then I hung out with Dad while he made Mom’s favorite black bean dip (that explains my recent “explosions”) and got dinner ready.

After dinner, Grandpa Yagan came over and I hung out with him.  Well, actually I slept in his lap, but, hey, give me a break — he was watching a yoga video!  Sheesh.  Mom & Dad were downstairs putting together this photo album, covering my delivery and stay at the hospital:

http://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf

In the future, I’ll be posting more photo albums from the link that says “Pictures” up above.

After my 9:00 pm feeding, I got kind of fussy, but Dad insisted on keeping me from my supper until 11:00.  I ate and then went to bed.  Dad was supposed to wake me up at 3:00 for my middle-of-the-night feeding, but he screwed up his alarm clock and I didn’t wake up until 5:30.  So much for micro-managing my schedule!

In retaliation, I refused to go back to sleep.  I fussed around with Mom for a couple hours (of course, Dad was asleep) until breakfast.

After my roughest night of (non)sleep since coming home from the hospital, I was determined to have a pretty lazy, uneventful day.  I woke up to an unexpected gift bag in my swing — Mom’s family got me an Easter present.  Who knew anything about Easter presents!?  I got a really cute yellow and purple sundress.  Maybe I’m going to be a girly-girl after all.

After waking up just long enough to accept my Easter present and have a quick breakfast with Mom, I went right back to sleep.  I think the road trip to Bloomington may have messed with my normal routine, but I definitely spent the day pretty much out of it.  Aunts Sarah and Claire had to try really hard to get me up for my meals!

I also noticed that I got an awesome new addition to my nursery: a Bia Jia Bei (a.k.a a 100 Good Wishes Quilt).  Before I was born, Aunt Sarah, Aunt Claire, and Grandma Sherry invited many of Mom’s and Dad’s friends and family members to contribute a patch of fabric along with a good wish for me.  I feel so loved with so many good wishes awaiting for me!  They turned the dozens of fabric patches into a beautiful quilt.  Even Grandpa Droste got involved by building a little contraption to hang the quilt on the wall of my nursery.  I’m thinking about making an entire page on my blog dedicated to friends and family who contributed to my quilt.  Thank you all!

So, after more napping and more snacking, I did more of the same throughout the evening.  At my 8:00 pm, feeding, though, I ate voraciously…and then through it all up.  And I mean, all of it came back out.  It was so voluminous that Mom had to take a shower and Dad had to take off and wash the cover of the glider.  Everyone was already concerned that I had been sleeping so much, so this sent everyone in to a bit of a panic.  Mom and Dad took my temperature and it was 99.0 — just 0.4 degrees above normal.  Nothing to worry about, right?

Well, Nana Yagan had a different opinion.  First, she quizzed Dad about whether I had spit up or vomitted — apparently there’s an important distinction.  Mom determined that I had indeed vomitted.  Grandma said that even a slightly above-normal temperature warranted a call to my doctor.  So, they took my temperature again — it had risen to 99.1.  Tensions were seriously rising.  Dad called my pediatrician’s office (who charged $25 for an after-hours call!) and stood by for a call back. Less than 5 minutes later, Dr. Polin called back.  After Dad accidentally called me a 12-year-old instead of a 12-day-old (which Mom quickly corrected), Dr. Polin reassured everyone by saying “Mr. Yagan, nothing you’ve reported excites me.”  Apparently, 99.1 degrees doesn’t even count as a fever.  So, with that, everyone went to sleep.

Dad woke me up for a feeding at 4:00 am and took my temperature; much to his and Mom’s relief, it had fallen to 98.2.  I was happy that they didn’t take my temperature at my 7:00 am breakfast, but they did at 9:00 am.  After getting another reading below 98.6, Mom and Dad breathed a huge sigh of relief and agreed to call this crisis over.

First, I’d like to send Aunt Claire a Happy Birthday shoutout!  Thanks for letting me celebrate with you!

Ok, it’s official, my parents are crazy.  I’m exactly 12 days old, and they decided it was a good idea to take me on a 276 mile road trip down to Bloomington, IL.  Since I had been so cranky the night before, they rescheduled my 8:00 feeding to 7:30 and we were rolling out of the garage by 8:00. 

Dad drives SO FAST.  Man.  We got down to Bloomington by 10:00.  I’d comment on the lovely, I’m sure, landscape of Illinois that we drove through, but I slept for exactly 100% of the way there and 100% of the way back.  I loved it, and I’m pretty sure the six other people in the Chrysler Aspen they rented did too.

I finally discovered what was in Bloomington that would make such a trip worthwhile: more family!  Most of Mom’s family lives in southern Illinois and six people made the trip up to Bloomington just to meet me:  Great-Grandma Droste, Great-Aunt Debbie, Great-Uncle Mark, Great-Aunt Joanne, and two cousins, Sam and Hunter.  Everyone was so excited to meet me! 

It was so wonderful to meet Great-Grandma Droste, who had been praying for me for months before she even knew me.  We took a four-generation picture with me, Mom, Grandpa Droste, and Great-Grandma.  And my cousin Hunter was so cool!  He’s the closest family member to my age (he’s in second grade!) and he did such a good job holding me.

After the uneventful ride back home we had Aunt Claire’s birthday dinner, which involved a grease fire in the oven and a cloud of smoke throughout the house.  After that we had birthday cake and Oberweis ice cream (chocolate peanut butter, of course).

Much to the relief of Mom and Dad, I went to sleep pretty much on time (in Dad’s lap, after Dad himself fell asleep in my glider).  I only slept until around 5:00 am, when I was just too hungry to take it anymore.  I ate and then napped and snacked for a couple more hours.  I’ve already heard Mom and Dad strategizing about how to restructure my sleep patterns — talk about micromanaging!

I woke this morning to my first snowfall — and it was coming down hard.  Aunt Claire flew in from Wellesley to spend most of her spring break with me and our family.  The “blinds guy” finally came to fix a few of the blinds that weren’t working in throughout the house and he just kept saying how cute I was!  Not a bad way to start the morning, for sure.

Dad spent most of the afternoon apartment hunting with Grandma Yagan, while I spent the whole afternoon being passed around among the loving arms of Aunt Sarah, Aunt Claire, Grandma Sherry, and Mom.  The big talk of the day was the scheduling of tomorrow’s road trip down to Bloomington, IL to meet my great-grandma and my great-aunt’s and great-uncle’s family.

I then watched the second TV show of my life, the Little House on the Prairie series premiere / pilot, with Mom and everyone except Dad.  I’m really starting to see the differences between my parents, as this show was quite a contrast to the Tim Russert show I watched with Dad. 

I really made Aunt Sarah smile when I sucked my thumb for the first time.  I had been nibbling on my fingers for the last few days, but with a little encouragement from her, I finally got the hang of it.  And as soon as I did, I was rewarded with dozens of flash bulbs going off, as the moment was recorded for posterity (and this very blog). 

I was much hungrier yesterday than usual.  I often had trouble making it through the regimented two-hour break between feedings.  Luckily, when Dad’s not around, I can usually convince Mom to eat earlier.  Like I said earlier, I’m definitely learning my parent’s idiosyncrasies; the next step is exploiting them.

Anyway, I was much fussier than usual yesterday evening, probably because I was so hungry.  The whole thing through my parents off schedule and I didn’t end up getting to bed until 1:00 am.  I only slept until 4:45 and pretty much kept Mom up until 7:00 am

This was definitely the worst night I’ve had since coming home from the hospital.  I can see the look of fear in my parents’ eyes — maybe the honeymoon is over?

As usual, I woke up yesterday morning at 6:00 to break my overnight fast.  Dad brought me over to Mom and I drank up, barely even waking up to notice.  The whole latching-on thing is second nature now and Dad doesn’t even stick around to help.  Dad had a few phone calls for work, so I spent my few waking moments in the morning hanging out with Mom.

My parents have settled on nicknames for me.  Mom has cooled a bit on her initial proposed nickname (“Corndog”) and seems to be sticking with the more traditional “Mags.”  Dad has been all over the map, looking for a name with the right essence.  For the last three days, he’s been pretty loyal to “Miggles” with the occassional “Magalicious.” Huh?

After eating lunch at noon, my parents took me on my first walk ever.  I got bundled up in a yellow sweatsuit (I think that’s the first time I ever wore pants — crazy concept, those pants!).  I got buckled into my car seat contraption that clicks into my stroller.  First, Dad carried the stroller down the stairs and then he came back and carried me down and clicked me in.  Mom pushed me first as we headed toward Picante where she grabbed some lunch.  Then we walked back to Wicker Park where we saw so many little people like me.   I’m leaving out one little detail: I fell asleep the moment we walked out the door.  I missed the whole thing, but Mom and Dad were sure proud of themselves!

Then Nana Yagan came over and held me for a while and then watched me sleep as she folded my laundry (thanks!).  Dad went to pick up Aunt Sarah from the airport and when they finally got back, I got to have quality time with her for the first time since we were in the hospital.

Aunt Sarah unlocked the key to my appetite, because I had the two biggest feedings of my life at 4:00 and 6:00.  In fact, I was so hungry that I demanded the 6:00 feeding 15 minutes early.  I gulped and gulped so much so fast, that later Mom and Dad called Nana Yagan to see if it was possible to overfeed a baby (Nana said not to worry!).

After my 8:00 meal, I had my second-ever bath — and my first one post-umbilical-cord.  This went much more smoothly, perhaps because Mom fired Dad as bathtime assistant and replaced him with Aunt Sarah.  Instead of bathing in Mom and Dad’s bathtum, my baby bath  was set up in my room.  I managed to exercised tremendous bladder and sphincter control — not peeing or pooing through the entire experience.  Aunt Sara kept me warm by pouring warm water on me throughout. 

Mom pushed back my 10:00 feeding because she claimed my stomach was “distended“, a diagnosis she later amended to the much less ominous sounding “bloated.”  Dad came back from picking up Grandma Sherry from the train station and Dad, Grandma, and I had tummy-time on my activity gym.  I showed off my ability to turn my head and then got fussy and called it a day.