Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was quite eventful. Lauren met her little cousin for the first time, went black Friday shopping and learned to sit up. Shes practically full grown, that girl. Although She got a bit confused when I gave her my car keys and said make a left at the liquor store but I suppose she'll learn eventually.

In the car

The holiday brought lots of rain and snow and plenty of turkey my way. Tom and I drove 5 hours in the freezing rain to Elmira, NY to visit my family. We stayed with my brother mike who happens to be an excellent food salter, and his long time girlfriend Becky who can salt food at a regular rate I guess. I met my sister Karen's 3 week old baby Colton Bruce for the first time. He was a tiny squishy little man. All this kiddo does is sleep the day away.

Colton Bruce

He let's out itty bitty moans and yelps and my sister is all "geeze calm down baby" and I'm all "whoa whoa whoa hold on one friggin minute! He's barely audible!!" but I suppose Lauren is just exceptionally loud. She gets it from her mama. I couldn't be more proud. Well maybe if she would just kick that pacifier addiction and get mama her sippy cup.

Fill it up!

Having my family all together for the holidays really was pretty special. I had an amazing time just hanging out in my brothers apartment playing a wicked game of "Dice-capades" in addition to a 20 minute game of "open the wine without a corkscrew" which was really a means of necessity rather than a game. But I'm pretty sure I came out a winner on that one since I drank the whole bottle myself.

Catherine, Me, Karen and Mike

Hope everyone had a great thanksgiving and got to spend it with family and friends. I'll loan Lauren out to your holiday parties as soon as she masters her bartending skills.



Honestly,

Jen

After my long break from the blogosphere



November 2010
4 Months & 26 days

 Sorry for the long break I took from blogging.  Life kind of got in the way a bit, what with all the lack of sleep and constant parenting required of me. I tried to savor every moment I had to myself.  The last thing I wanted was to sit in front of a computer and type.  But i'm back now so here goes...

Lauren is now almost 5 months old. She came into my life and threw my hormones upside down, bounced them back up, crumpled them into a ball and then squeezed the living shit out of them. But I wouldn't trade her for all the nachos bellgrande in the world. After a small bout of post partum baby blues I began medication and worked my way to an effective dosage that has given me a brand new life. I realized something about myself once I got to that point. See, I'm a very exaggerated, loud and outgoing person. But I finally discovered the reason I was so dramatic was because I was trying to feel. I was faking my emotions. I didn't know how to experience them because I had never felt them. I didnt realize laughter just comes out on it's own when you hear something funny. I thought you created a sound when you were expected to. This must sound ridiculous to you as you read this but that is the truth of the life of someone living with depression. And if you have always felt this way, you don't know any different. So this is what having a child has brought me, not only do I have a new outlook on humanity but I can feel humanity now.
And it is amazing.




Lauren pulls at my heart in ways I didn't know were possible. She is growing so fast and getting cuter by the day. She has mastered head control and most of her hand control. She is very close to rolling over. She has weaned off breastmilk successfully to soy after many attempts to other formulas resulting in many painful side effects. Her little tummy is so extremely sensitive that I had to keep a calendar of her symptoms and formula trials in order to find what works for her. We're now giving her enfamil soy with a daily dose of prune juice to keep things moving. She was so backed up in her belly I had to switch her this morning back to Alimentum to settle her stomach. Last night I made my own pulverized rice cereal and froze it in single serve batches in an ice cube tray. We thawed one and warmed it up with some formula and here was our result:




Before



During



After!

 Keep Smiling,
Jen