Gift of Chai

After 4 requests for the recipe and several other comments, here it is, I tried to post to FB, but wasn't successful.

Ingredients:

2 cups nonfat dry milk (or 1 cup dry milk and 1 cup non-dairy powdered creamer)
2.5 cups white sugar
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1.5 cups unsweetened tea (decaf for preggers)
2 tsp. ground ginger
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. ground cloves
1 tsp. ground cardamom
Optional: 1 tsp. nutmeg, 1 tsp. allspice and 1/4 tsp. white pepper

Mix the vanilla into the sugar, let dry, then break the sugar into small lumps. In a large bowl, combine milk powder, sugar and tea. Stir in ginger, cinnamon, cloves and cardamom. In a blender or food processor, blend 1 cup at a time, until mixture is the consistency of fine powder. Stir 2 heaping tablespoons Chai tea mixture into a mug of hot water to serve. Enjoy.

Week 5

New Tricks: I think she can smile on her own (read: on purpose) She can also kick and move her arms with serious force! She's also begun reaching for things on the bouncy chair.

Life: There might be a light at the end of the tunnel?  We finally figured out that sometimes she just needs to suck on something to calm herself down.  And after my finger was a bit pruned-out, I opted for the pacifier - seems to be working nicely. :)  Just feeling cautious to make sure we don't overuse it.

Mommy Dates

We went to childbirth classes (Bradley Method - focusing on natural labor & delivery) in Yardley.  We'd meet with 4 other couples in the home of the instructors.  The classes were good in prepping us, but there wasn't much time to mingle. 

We'd traded birth story emails and another mom, Heather had her baby, Pippa (short for Phillippa) a week before we had Elizabeth. 

Well, she just emailed me asking to get together - how exciting!!! We both feel rammy and need to 'test ourselves' in getting out.  We've planned lunch next week - can't wait!

"Hi Mary,
How's it going? I've been thinking about you lately. I don't know about you, but I'm feeling very cooped up these days and would love to get together. Pippa and I are willing to travel! Want to have lunch sometime next week?
Heather*"
The update:  here's a picture from my Mommy Date with Heather & Pippa.  First, Pippa is a doll and an amazing sleeper.  Elizabeth, on the other hand...my snacking, erratic sleeping, crying baby didn't put her best face on for our newest friends.  She pooped all over me (I tried to conceal my dismay).  Heather made a scrumptious cream of celery root soup with basil infused olive oil and a great turkey club on rye.  Um...yeah, I was lucky that I'd showered that morning.  

On my way back home, I phoned Annie for advice/support.

I guess this is my welcome to Mommy-hood-comparison-land.

Week 4

New Tricks: She stares at her mobile, over and over and over.

Life: This mobile has offered a nice few minutes for me to tidy a room or get dressed or run to the bathroom. That said, it's also provided 2 broken nails (in a flurry to recrank it as quickly as possible) Her hair is falling out! She might be a toe-head yet!

Fear of the Phone

I love having people call to check on us, see what's new and say hello. The problem is the unpredictability of a newborn. We don't have a schedule, so there's really no good time to call chat on the phone. I've made several attempts to return calls or answer then with a sleeping baby, only to have to yell over the baby that I'll need to call them back later.

I'm still working on when 'later' will come. :)

Lamest New Year's Eve Ever

After 2 days of battling a cold, I looked at the clock and realized it was seven o'clock on New Years Eve. My husband was home looking a little bored. We hadn't really talked about what we'd like to do to ring in the New Year, but I'm sure that neither of us imagined we'd be sitting on a couch, (me, not having showered in 3 days) ready to fall asleep at any moment.

So here's a recap of the night: leftovers for dinner (eaten separately), a half shower, put the baby to sleep in her bed (1st successful attempt lasted for about 2 hours) followed by the vow to David that we will never have such a lame New Years Eve again as we both fell asleep on the couch (not together)...yes, completely lame.

Lesson: I have back-up plans for next year already in place. :)

Week 3

New Tricks: She'll stare at shapes; contrasting things, snoring, scratching (by accident), staring at light, she took a bottle (in preparation for the upcoming wedding this weekend)

Life: Is hard.

Cooking

Ever try chopping an onion with one hand? Prep work needs to happen during the morning nap, I'm learning.

Baptism

My husband is ON IT!  He stopped by the Church and asked Father if he could swing a baptism in 2 weeks (well, actually, more like 10 days).  So something low key and at home will be what I can manage.  The mothers and sisters have generously offered to help with everything. 

Baby's 1st Christmas

Christmas was nice - we all gathered in Flourtown with the 7 month-old Mary Helena and 2 week-old Elizabeth Grace.

We were surely still figuring things out and working on sleep.  We were all in bed well before midnight and most of us were passed out on the couch before 10 watching A Christmas Story (well, Grandma deemed it too violent).

Generally, nice time to relax and rest up.

Week 2

New Tricks: She can hold her head up and swivel it from side to side when she's lying on her belly, she can clasp your fingers. 

Life:  Sleep isn't really there - we're lucky if we have 3 hours, because it takes another 1 to feed her, an hour to burp and change the diaper and clothes and then an hour for her to sleep.  Repeat.  We're working on it.  The sleep deprivation is nuts. I'm still missing vocabulary and parts of my brain.  David's heading back to work next week, so he'll need some sleep here soon.

Doctor's Appointment:
-7.2 pounds
-21 inches

Learning to Shower and Eat

My first attempt to shower was a bust.

I was able to get E down to sleep finally (yes, on my own) and not fear she'd wake up. But I was equally fearful that she'd somehow suffocate in my temporary absence, so I had her in her carseat, on the shower floor, then feared that she'd be too cold, so I put her kiddie coat on, then in the carseat, then with a blanket. (those bathroom floors can get chilly!) finally, I turned on the water and noticed that I hadn't plucked my eyebrows in almost 2 months, so I got to work on those, then I remembered to brush my teeth and put contacts in...as I was undressing, guess what?

She woke up.

Lesson: don't dilly-dally, Mary!

Week 1 (full 7 days)

New Tricks: I guess it's all pretty new this week, but some of the things we've noticed she's doing that light up our worlds and have us saying, "Babe, look! She did ____!!!" are: she smiles in her sleep, she seems to be looking at us, but more at our hair. She has mustard seedy poo (promise not to dwell on poop too much here).

Life: Her bellybutton is falling off, I can swirl it around 360 degrees. Yes, I'm freaking out that she's going to somehow bleed out through her naval, but when logical attacks my brain, I do have to admit she'll probably live.

Phew - life is amazing. Yes, we can't stop staring at her. We can't stop saying how beauitful she is (all normal from what I hear). As natural as they say parenting feels, yes, it FEELs natural, it doesn't seem natural - as in, we don't naturally know what she wants when she cries, we don't know how she's feeling or what she's thinking, much less when she needs. We can try to feed her, change her or rock her, but when all of those things don't work, we try to reason with her. That's not such a great idea, but it's our only resort. :)

Arriving Home

We were waiting all morning to be discharged.  We couldn't wait to get out of the hospital. I forget why we were so eager since we had people taking care of us there.  But we got all packed up and waited for proper orders.  David carried the baby, who was too tiny to fit into the infant coat-onesie thing (still working on the baby-jargon) and so her legs and arms snuggled into the torso part of it - making it pretty difficult to 'strap her in' - but we strapped empty coat limbs in anyway...clueless.

Our slow walk to the car put me in the backseat (as I was afraid she might be in danger in the backseat by herself) with David chauffeuring us up I-95.  About midway up the highway, we called Grandmom & Grandpa.  And somehow after that conversation, we wound up agreeing to spend our first night at home...not 'at home'.  In hindsight, it was probably out of that 'what do we do now' look on both of our faces. Ha!  It was a great way to ease back into real life with our new bambina.  Grandmom was all too happy to help and feed.

Thanks Mom & Dad!

Story of Stranger Pacifiers

Here's the story of a stange bird as told by my sister, Annie:

Back when my niece was more of an infant, her parents took her to a Church function.  As most people love babies, but good Christian folk in particular, a man wanted to hold my niece.  Annie and Dan said, "Sure."  The man took her and off he went to chat with other people.  After quite a while, Annie went looking for the man and found him around a corner, saying, "oh, here she is. Everything was fine, the pacifier fell out of her mouth, but don't worry, I cleaned it by putting it in my mouth before putting it back in hers."

Lesson: Don't assume that strangers have common sense.