margaretyagan

We’re settling into a little schedule.  I spend the day eating every two hours except for the two feedings I skip when I sleep through the night.  Today was ridiculously uneventful.  I keep waiting for interesting things to happen to me, but the poo-eat-sleep cycle just keeps on going.

I’ve got high hopes for tomorrow.

Mom woke me up for breakfast, and she and Dad were in really playful moods.  Apparently Mom had read in on the web that they were supposed to make faces at me in the hopes that I would mimic them.  Mom started sticking her tongue out at my and jerking her head from side to side with her eyebrows raised.  Huh?  That’s just weird, Ma.  Dad, not to be outdone, opened his mouth wide enough that I could stick my whole head in there.

In the midst of this three-ring circus, my umbilical cord fell out!  Whoa!  The wireless version of MargaretYagan.com is now live! 

After snacking a bit, they took me downstairs for some early morning playtime.  I hung out in my activity gym and finally perfected the art of sticking me fingers in my mouth and sucking away.

I ate every couple hours throughout the day and spent a bunch of time downstairs sleeping next to Dad, while he caught up on email.  Mom put the batteries in my swing and I got to test drive it for the first time.  Mom started it out on low and Dad quickly turned it all the way high.  Mom totally freaked out when the swing’s momentum lifted one of the four posts off the floor entirely.  Dad tried to convince her that the instability did not put my safety at risk, but I learned watching this encounter that Dad has no power around here.

I got more tummy-time in the evening and got really good at turning my head from one side to the other.  I still can’t lift my head more than, oh, about 30 degrees, but I’m getting there.  I slept soundly from 12:30 am to 6:00 am without waking up even once.

Happy Birthday Nana Yagan!  Mom & Dad told me that I am your birthday gift this year.  Not sure how that works, exactly; I think they just forgot to get you a real present.

Mom continued the hyper-aggressive feeding schedule I was on yesterday, never letting me get more than about an hour and a half of sleep during the day before interrupting me for my next meal.  It’s definitely getting on my nerves a bit and I’ve already started voicing my opinion a bit more assertively.  No more mister nice gal if they keep this up.

Dad got up early and left to fight Grandma & Grandpa Yagan’s small claims case against some bad guy.  Mom and I hung out all morning, basically just eating, sleeping, and, yes, pooing.  Dad came home with some much needed supplies (in particular, two changing pad covers, since I seem to pee on them all the time) and lunch for Mom (and, indirectly, me).

Everything was going just fine all afternoon until I started hearing Mom and Dad talking about a “bath.”  I had no idea what this might be, but it seemed to be generating a lot of excitement between them.  So, Dad changed me at 4:30 pm, but instead of putting my clean diaper on me, he just put his hand under my butt and carried me toward the bathroom.  Dad, that was stupid.

Just as he was about to step in to the bathroom: phhhhhhhleeeeeeeeewweghght.  I pooped all over his hand.  That’ll teach him.  How am I supposed to grow up to be a modest young lady if he’s parading me around the house naked?

So, back to the changing table we went.  He cleaned me up a bit but tempted fate by carrying back to the bathroom — still naked.  He’s a slow learner.  He then decided to put me in the mesh hammock-like-thing that stretches over the baby bath for little infants.  Now, you all must know what I did as soon as my little bottom landed in there.  I pooped.  And of course, the mesh netting was too fine for the poop to go through.  Ha, Dad.  Now what are are you going to?

So, he took off his pants and held my naked, poopy bottom over his knee while Mom washed it off.  Then Mom vetoed the whole bathtub concept and gave me a sponge bath on a towel laid out on the floor of the bathroom while Dad took a shower.

I got all dressed up in my St. Patrick’s Day outfit and after a couple more meals Dad and I had another changing fiasco (why does Mom still let him anywhere near the diapers!?).  I had big poop in my diaper and Dad went about his usual clumsy attempts to change me.  He half took off the diaper before realizing he forgot something.  So, while he’s getting it out of the drawer, I kicked my sock-covered foot right into the poop.  While Dad was screaming some words Mom didn’t seem to think I should be hearing, I peed right in the pile of poo sending a stream of pee-poo all over everything: my onesie, the changing pad, and Dad’s hand.  So much for my St. Patty’s Day outfit.

I had good tummy-time today.  For the first time ever, I was able to turn my head from one side to the other.  It took my a few seconds to do it, and all the while Dad was jumping up and down, cheering me along.  When I finally did it, Dad left me all alone and ran up to wake up Mom and tell her.

But perhaps my biggest accomplishment was that I slept through the night.  I felt so good making Mom and Dad so happy.  I went to bed at 1:00 am and woke up at 6:25 am.  Not too bad for my first week.

As my loyal blog readers (are you called bloggees?) know, I had until tomorrow morning to poop in order to avoid a trip to the doctor’s office.  Mom and Dad decided that they were going to do everything they could to help me out.  They had been a bit lax about sticking to a rigorous feeding schedule for the first few days; until today, I never ate more than 8 times in a day.  Today they decided to stick to an every-two-hour schedule, hoping to fill me up so much that the poop would be forced out the other end.  (In the photo above, you can see that I’m “milk drunk.”)

Well, it worked in a big (and wet) way.  At 8:45 pm on the sixth day of my life, I had my first official, post-meconium poop.  What followed that poop was a little weird.  Mom screamed for Dad to come look at my poop.  Dad jumped up and down and went to get their camera(!).  Fortunately, that picture didn’t make the cut for today’s blog.  Since they seemed so excited by the poop, I gave them another present just a few hours later.  Sadly, that poop didn’t get quite the same reception.

Another cool thing happened to me today: I’m famous!  The blogosphere has covered my arrival to the world. 

Not much else happened today.  Mom got fascinated with my little baby socks and kept making sure I wore them.  They always seemed to be falling off, though, and Dad certainly never made much effort to put them back on.  At one point, though, I was wearing a white sheep sock on one foot and a spotted giraffe sock on the other.  Apparently their disregard for matching extends beyond my nursery decor.

In other news, Mom is feeling a lot better today.  I saw her take her first discretionary trip downstairs!  She’s not exactly displaying the same agility as she did back when she set her college’s all-time single-season record for assists in 1997 and 1998, but she’s getting there.

I also learned one of Dad’s favorite terms: multitasking.  He decided to merge skin-to-skin contact, tummy-time, and burping all in one activity (though we dressed for the camera; see below).  I fear what combination he’s going to try next, especially when he gets to start feeding me with a bottle. 

I woke up, as usual, with Mom hanging out in my room and Dad off sleeping.  My parents are such planners and have yet to learn that I am not going to go along with them just because it fits into their Outlook schedules.  I had my 4-day check up at the doctor’s office at 12:30 this afternoon.  Mom wanted to leave at 11:45 and planned to feed me, pump, and feed me again before heading out.  Yeah, right.

We started breakfast at 8:00 am, but it’s the weekend, right?  So I figured I could have a liesurely meal at my own pace.  It took me a while to get started and then I kept taking little naps, so I didn’t finish up until about 9:30.  Mom decided not to pump in order to make sure that I could get in another feeding before we left for  the doctor, which we did at around 11:15.

As this was my first trip out of the house since getting home from the hospital, I was very excited.  Dad was in charge of getting me all strapped in my car seat and carrying me down to the car.  While he succeeded at getting me in to the seat, he totally couldn’t figure out to strap me in; luckily, Mom came to the rescue. 

We got to the doctor’s office where I found out that I weighed 6lbs, 14.5 ounces — that’s up 4 ounces in just over 48 hours.  Everyone was really pleased.  The nurse also checked my bilirubin levels, even though I showed no visible signs of jaundice.  My bilirubin was 8.3 when I was discharged from the hospital and now it’s down to 7.8 (I’m not supposed to worry as long as it’s under 13 or so). 

Then Dr. Johnston came in to examine me.  Of course, like her colleagues before, she was enamored with my hips.  She was delighted with my weight gain and everything else, until she asked if I had pooped yet.  Nope.   Since I produced plenty of meconium in the hospital, Dr. Johnston isn’t really worried about Hirschprung’s Disease, but she wants to see me again on Monday if I haven’t pooped by then.  At the end of my exam, she said “Margaret’s a poop away from perfection.”  I’ve heard that line before.

Mom forgot to take her pain medication, so she wasn’t feeling good on our way back from the hospital.  Dad stopped by her favorite ice cream shop and got her their favorite treat: a chocolate peanut butter milkshake.  I couldn’t help looking forward to getting my share of that in a couple hours.

Grandma Yagan came over and made lunch for Mom & Dad, loaded the dishwasher, straightened up the house, and did some laundry.  Thanks, Grandma!  After I ate lunch with Mom, I got to hang out with Grandma as she and Dad prepared for her upcoming case in small claims court.

My big achievement for the day was that I almost managed to turn my head from one side to the other while on my stomach (see picture below).  I haven’t tried so hard to do anything in my whole life.  Dad was cheering me on like crazy, but I just couldn’t do it.

Dad left to go to Target to pick up a refill and tank top for Mom and some batteries for my swing.  When Dad left, she told him she would “start waking [me] up” but that didn’t go well.  I finally humored her by getting up and eating a bit, but then drove her crazy when I spit every little drop right back out.  That Oberweis milkshake didn’t do much for me.

I’ve been sleeping so well that Mom is starting to get worried (Dad thinks she’s crazy) and I caught her surfing the web for tips on how to feed sleeping babies.  Apparently one web site suggested that she draw a circle around my mouth with her finger.  Another suggested she take off my clothes.  Finally, she came across one that said to rub my feet.  I liked that one. 

Talk about hard to please!  Don’t most parents wish their babies slept more?  Who are these parents of mine?  What do they want from me?

I laid in bed with Mom most of the evening while Dad addressed the chaos that our house had turned into.  I’ve been home for three days and my parents never even bothered to unpack their hospital bags.  The place is pretty much under control now, though.

Mom went to sleep at around 11:00 pm and Dad took me downstairs to play instead of letting me sleep.  Like I said before, he’s trying to be very proactive about managing my sleep schedule.  Dad set up my activity gym (thanks Aunt Charu!) and I laid there for about an hour.  I got in some really good tummy time, but still couldn’t get my head turned from one side to the other.

After another hour playing with Dad, I started rooting pretty aggressively and Dad figured that since I was probably exhausted, I might be interested in feeding and then trying to get in a long stretch of sleep.  As much as I hate to admit it, he was right.  I slept from 1:30 am to 7:00 am, waking up only briefly and around 4:00.  Dad got me right back to sleep by holding me while he watched Tim Russert interview interview Doris Kearns Goodwin.

Dad felt good that Mom got her best night’s sleep since having me, and he turned in to get some sleep of his own.  Sadly, the day ended without a proper poop.  I left a couple little treasures in my diaper, but none that one could really be identified without some help.

Thanks to everyone who has posted a comment on my baby blog — it’s so exciting to get to know about all the great people whom I haven’t yet met!

I woke up in my own crib for the first time ever!  Mom and I had breakfast at around 8:30, while Dad was catching some z’s.   Having not eaten for a little more than 4 hours, I was pretty hungry; luckily, there was plenty to eat!  I slept a few more hours, until Dad woke me up for lunch.  He was in a pretty playful mood and decided today was the day for me to start tummy time.  I think he was hoping for me to do something interesting, but instead my head just flopped on my boppy.  I may be good, but I’m not that good! 

Then I got to wear a cool outfit that my aunts got me.  Apparently, while everyone else was giving my parents gender-neutral clothing before I was born, Aunt Sarah and Aunt Claire “knew” I was going to be a girl.  So they got me this awesome onesie with all kinds of pastel rainbows — perhaps their end of a deal with the gender gods to make me a girl.

For the first time since my arrival at home, I spent most of the day today outside of my room, exploring other parts of the house.  I spent two hours in my Moses basket in the dining room while Mom napped and Dad tried to catch up on his email.  It’s really bright and loud down there, but nothing bothers me when I’m sleeping.

My parents decided to try feeding me at around 4:15, but I didn’t want anything to do with it.  I hung out in bed with Mom for about an hour and half before giving up and digging in.  I’m definitely drinking a lot more (and peeing a LOT more) than before.  These frequent diaper changes remind me that Dad needs to improve his technique, as I often end up with buttck cleavage (a.k.a plumber’s butt) after he changes me.  He also forgets that I don’t have the best bladder control.  In the middle of a change he carried me over to Mom so he could show her my diaper.  Before she could get a look at what was in the diaper, I peed all over her arm and bed.  I say that’s totally Dad’s fault!

Grandma & Grandpa Yagan came over around 6:00 and I slept in their arms for about two hours.  I woke up a couple times and saw them beaming at me; they seemed so happy!  They set me in my Moses basket while the three of them had dinner.  I noticed Grandma taking lots of pictures of me — even though I wasn’t doing anything!

Then I had dessert with Mom, after which she read me my first book: Guess How Much I Love You.   Now I admit I’m no literary critic, seeing as how I’ve only been exposed to this one book.  But I’m not sure I really get this story. First of all, the two characters are named Big Nutbrown Hare and Little Nutbrown Hare.  That’s creative.  Second of all, does neither of them understand the concept of infinity?  That could have ended the competition on the first page!

I can tell that Mom and Dad are trying to manage my eating and sleeping schedules more proactively.  I think they should just be happy that I’ve yet to cry for more than a few minutes since I got home.  I mean, isn’t that good enough for them?  They’re now keeping track of my longest stretch of nighttime sleep.  Today I made 2 hours.  I can sleep much longer during the day, but the don’t seem to be as excited about that.

Tomorrow will be my 4-day checkup at Town & Country, not to mention my first trip outdoors since I left the hospital.  So exciting.

I started my third day at 6 lbs. 10.5 ozs., having lost about 8% of my birthweight in the first two days.  This is just a bit more than I should have lost, but Dad (thanks to Grandma Yagan’s advice!) has been having my glucose checked regularly, and everything looks just fine.

At around 8:00 am, Dr. Bergquist came by to examine me and write my discharge order.  The doctor noted that my legs were really strong and that I had “nice hips” (not sure that’s what Dad was hoping to be my best feature).  Mom got discharged about an hour and a half later.

Dad packed up our stuff and Grandma Droste battled terrible Chicago traffic to bring the car from our house to the hospital.  It took forever for the nurse to perform the ID check required by Prentice before a baby can leave the postpartum floor.  Then we waited for a volunteer to escort us downstairs (is the FAA running the hospital’s security protocol?).  My parents strapped me into the car seat and we drove home.  Chicago seems cool, but, man, what is up with all those potholes?

My nursery is so cool!  I don’t think my parents have any sense of style — my room’s color “theme” is the lack of a theme.  I had lunch and then hung out with Grandma Droste for a couple hours as Mom took a nap and Dad went to the pharmacy to pick up a prescription for Mom.

I ate again and then spent a couple hours with Grandpa & Grandma Yagan.  I like that Grandpa Yagan doesn’t believe in swaddling — he’s always so worried about my arms and legs being tucked in so tightly.  Dad’s an obsessive-compulsive swaddler, so it’s a nice break to be with Grandpa. 

I had dinner at 7:00 or so and then overheard Mom and Dad strategizing about how to “survive” their first night alone with me.  Well, their plans went up in smoke when Mom started feeling pretty severe pain that even a prescribed painkiller couldn’t fix.  Dad took me downstairs to the office and got me to take a pretty long nap before I was just too hungry to keep quiet any longer.  As if the the last few days weren’t proof enough that I have an amazing Mom, tonight’s performance sealed the deal.  Despite being in excruciating pain, Mom and I had our best feeding session to date.  I was stuffed; she was exhausted.

Dad insisted on giving her the night off and set up a makeshift bed out of blankets and sheets in front of my crib.  After my big meal, Dad burped me quite vigorously and got three big burps out of me.  Then, apparently jealous of all the “skin-time” I’ve been getting with Mom, he took of his shirt and let me lay on him.  It was so cool!  I just wiggled around and looked at him for about 45 minutes.  We totally became BFFs, at least until I’m hungry again. 

I got tired and instead of putting me in my crib, Dad let me sleep on the floor while he made a bizarre pitter-patter sound beating his fingers against a black piece of plastic with a bright light attached to it.   

When I woke up about an hour later, Dad swaddled me and turned on this super cool rainforest noise maker (thanks Aunt Kim for telling my parents to register for it) that the Mareks got me before I was even born!  I feel asleep almost instantly.

Mom crashed our sleepover at about 1:30 and tried to feed me, but instead I spit up through my nose and endured Dad’s amateur attempts to use a nasal aspirator to suction the stuff out of my nose.  I had a quick snack with Mom before Dad asked her to go back to bed.

Now, here’s where Dad pulled a fast one on me.  As long as I’ve known Dad (almost three days now!), we’ve had an ongoing battle.  He tries to swaddle me using all the tricks he read about and learned in some parenting class he took.  But he’s no match for me.  I am way stronger than he thinks and I am always able to wiggle my way out.  That is, until I met my match: Kiddopotamus!  It turns out that I am definitely not strong enough to beat the Kiddopotamus, but I think using Velcro is cheating.

Dad finally fell sleep around 4:00 am, and the rest of my 3rd day of life went by uneventfully.

It’s unclear where yesterday ended and today began, but sunrise seems like a good place to pick up.  Much to Mom’s frustration, I had no interest in breakfast; who knew I would get so little dietary variety out here!I had my my first doctor’s appointment with Dr. Papacek from Town & Country Pediatrics.  I kind of expected a more rigorous examination, but after confirming that my “hips work” and shining a bright light in my eyes, I was deemed “perfectly healthy.”  When I learn what a mirror is, I might discover a very small birthmark on my back.

Then the nurse came in and wheeled me away from Mom & Dad so I could get my mandatory hearing test and phenylketonuria (PKU) screening (thanks, Illinois Legislature!).  I passed the hearing test just beautifully; I’ll get the results of my PKU screening on Saturday.

I got back to Mom and we had a great feeding session.  After going 7 hours and 15 minutes since my last feeding, I was starving!  While I was distracted eating my brunch, Mom filed my fingernails for the first time.  After I ate, Mom pumped me a delicious drop of dessert, which the nurse fed to me through a syringe.  Dad changed my diaper and took off for a photo shoot (Hey, I thought I was supposed to be the center of attention!).

Grandma & Grandpa Droste and Aunt Sarah came to visit me.  After hanging out with me a bit, Grandma & Grandpa went to get some lunch, so I got to spend some quality time with Aunt Sarah.  She helped Mom get all set up for my lunch feeding and even changed my diaper.  (Now that’s unconditional love.)

After lunch, Grandma & Grandpa Droste came back.  Grandpa decided to empathize with me by taking an after-lunch nap in my room.  Then a funny-looking lady with a big camera came into my room wanted money in exchange for taking my picture.  I’d had over 500 pictures taken of me in my first 30 hours — all for free.  So Mom sent her packing!

Then an official-looking lady came and asked Mom if she wanted register for a birth certificate and apply for a social security number.  Apparently these are way better than an official picture, because Mom went along with it this time (interestingly, Dad wasn’t needed to sign, even though he had to be listed as the father).  So, I became official: Margaret Droste Yagan.  I also have an Arabic name — Laila.  As if Margaret & Laila weren’t enough, Mom and Dad (mostly Dad) have already come up so many nicknames for me: Maggie, Mags, Magster, & Magalicoius.  Then, out of nowhere, Mom throws out “Corndog.”  We’ll see if Uncle Marty can beat that.

Finally Dad got back at 4:00 pm, having just missed a whole 15% of my life!  I would have been pretty upset, except that he brought with him “Cool” Uncle Chris Coyne!  I was on my best behavior and he did a great job holding me; he didn’t even come close to dropping me once!  (Aunt Jennie, I think he’s totally ready to be a dad!)

Soon after Chris took off Grandma and Grandpa Droste left, too.  I won’t see Grandpa again for a week, but Grandma will be around tomorrow, which is cool.  I was so full from my 3:00 feeding that I wasn’t hungry for dinner before Grandpa and Grandma Yagan came for their daily visit.  Grandma and Grandpa each brought a balloon representing all of the good wishes from each side of their family back in Syria.  The balloons matched perfectly the flowers Grandma & Grandpa sent me earlier in the day.  Then I was the star of my own photo shoot Grandpa and Grandma to send to our relatives.

At around 7:00 pm, Uncle Shadi came to see me.  He also brought really pretty flowers (finally I own something that’s not pink!).  Shadi’s one of only two people in Dad’s extended family living in the US, which made his visit extra special.  Dad tried to show off to everyone by identifying a dirty diaper and changing me, but alas, when he took off my diaper – ha! – it was perfectly clean.  He changed me anyway (Dad – that doesn’t count!) just to save face.  Then Dad, Shadi, Grandma, & Grandpa all went out for dinner (suggesting there’s a world beyond this building??). 

I had dinner of my own and then hung out with Mom until Dad got back.  Dad got me cleaned up and danced with me until I fell asleep.  I slept a bit, woke up for a bit, slept again, and then had supper with Mom (though I kept dozing off).  The nurse came in and wheeled me to sleep with the other babies so Mom & Dad could get some rest.

I decided to let Mom & Dad get a little sleep tonight.  I ate at 11:15 pm, 2:45 am, 5:00 am (just for a snack), and then 6:35 am.  And so ends Day #2.

At 7:42 AM, precisely on my due date, I entered the word in Room 891 of the Prentice Women’s Hospital at Northwestern University.  And what a wild ride it was.  The doctors induced Mom at 12:40 AM.  at 4:00 AM, the doctors said there was no way I was coming out anytime soon and that I would likely not arive until after 5:00 pm — 13 hours later.  To everyone’s surprise, at around 7:00 am, Mom started pushing and I started my trip out of the womb.

Everything went well until around 7:40 when I decided to scare my parents and doctors a bit.  My heart rate started falling too low.  Dr. Lindner wouldn’t have any of it, though.  I heard her say”We’re getting that baby out now.  I’m going to try the forceps  or we’re doing a C-section!”  Um, I don’t know much, but I know I don’t want forceps welcoming to the world.  “Push, Mom!  I’m ready!”  And with one final push, Mom and I made it happen without any help from the doc.  But the mass chaos prevented Dad from getting to cut my umbilical cord; the nurses let him trim it, though, a few minutes later.

I took a couple seconds to get my bearing before letting out my first shriek.  I made mom and dad proud by kicking butt on my first two tests, getting Apgar scores of 9 and 9.  I weighed in at 7lbs, 3 ozs, measured 20.5 inches, and had a head cicumference of 33.5 centimeters.

After some clean up and skin-time with Mom, I met Grandma & Grandpa Droste, Grandma & Grandpa Yagan, Uncle Danny, and Aunts Sarah & Claire!  Then Mom held me on her lap as we were wheeled up to postpartum: Room 1381, offering a little glimpse of Lake Michigan.

On the 13th Floor, I got my own bassinet that would be my home base for the next couple days.  I had my first meal at 1:30 pm.  Yum!  Nothing like a couple drops of colostrum!  At 2:20 I had my first communication breakdown with Dad.  As he was holding me I started screaming pretty loudly.  He tried all the tricks he learned in that “Happiest Baby” book.  Finally, Mom said, “Sam, maybe she has a dirty diaper?”  Dad said “Uhhh, I’ll watch the nurse change her.”  She had none of that and Dad changed the first diaper of his life (and the first of 6 he changed today).

Around 5:00, Aunt Molly came by and brought a little “Princess” flower arrangement for me!  She was the first non-family, non-medical person to hold me.  She was a natural.

By 8:00, visiting hours were over and Mom, Dad, and I were left to spend our first night together.  I kept them up all night…crying, pooing, and not really eating.  I saw dad sneak some shuteye, but I know this was mom’s first (of many) all-nighters with me.