tidbits

1. At the hospital last week, the staff pediatrician (who I liked on the whole) told me this about my daughter's illness:  "I'm very confident that your daughter's condition isn't serious.  In my experience, these kinds of things always end just fine.  But 99% of the time, we never find out what the source of the fever is.  However, you seem to have a lot of questions.  And if you'd like, I can refer you to an infectious disease specialist to see if he might recommend more testing.  I find that a lot of Indian people do better with more information."  Um, ok.  Really?  He was a bit more tactful I guess in his phrasing, but I didn't know whether to start laughing or be offended.  Especially on behalf of all those poor white people who didn't get the benefit of the 2nd opinion.  
2. I am going back to work next week, and I'm not ready.  She has this thing that she does now where she stares intently at me until I look at her at which point she breaks out into a huge grin.  It's the cutest thing ever.  She does it when she doesn't want to nurse or when I want her to fall asleep.  I try not to look when I don't want to encourage the distraction, but OMG, it's hard when you got that grin waiting for you.  And OMG, I'm not ready to give that up during the day.  Though I've been dying for adult conversations, so I guess I'll have that going for me at least.  
3. This morning, the princess woke up at 4:30.  I don't know what's up with her.  She used to sleep through the night and kind of sleep in too.  Then, a few months ago, she started waking up once in the middle of the night.  I read that at 4 months, babies go through a sleep regression period.  OK, fine.  She's mostly gotten past it now, but still wakes up pretty darn early.  She's usually asleep by 8pm or so, so I guess she sleeps a decent amount still, but it's not like we're falling asleep at 8 right after she does.  We're lame but not that lame.  I've been discussing with her the benefits of sleeping in a bit more, but so far, my pleas have fallen on deaf ears.
4. So I was up from about 4:30-5:30 nursing and then tried to fall back asleep.  Between G snoring, his alarm going off at 6:15, then him leaving a little before 7, it was tough going until he finally left.  Guess what time the dogs got up?  Tucker started getting antsy at 7:30, jumped on and off the bed a few times and hung out by the door.  I managed to somehow convince him to get back to bed.  Then Bandit started trying to get up about 10 minutes later.  I ignored her until I heard this loud thud in the bathroom.  Figuring it was a lost cause, we all just got up at 7:45, and the baby followed suit less than 10 minutes later. Poor Tucker had to poop, it turned out. Not sure what Bandit had to do.  
5. All dogs are now officially now free to good homes.  Take your pick, the old senile one, the not-quite-so-old snuggle bug that just won't sit still no matter how loud his feet sound against the hardwood floor, or Mia.  Mia's actually been all right lately, very friendly and protective towards the baby, very affectionate towards me, and she even drastically toned down her bark yesterday when the UPS guy rang the doorbell (managing to not wake the kid up for a change).  Mia's all right.  Oh, wait, that's her guarding the baby from Bandit and attacking her an inch away from the baby's head.  Please excuse me while I break up the dog fight and clean the blood off the floor.*  OK, yes, all 3 are up for grabs.  
6.  Speaking of dogs, my brother C was around during one particularly lovely afternoon over the holidays when the baby wouldn't stop screaming and Bandit  peed in the hallway.  I was trying to drag her outside without having to touch her and without having too many pee prints everywhere, my brother was holding the screaming kid, and basically all hell broke loose.  Once outside, he tried to keep an eye on her and hold the baby while I cleaned up.  Bandit started wandering and of course couldn't hear when he tried to call her back.  My brother said that if this were his life, he'd shoot himself.  So I rest my case, cute smiles not withstanding, it has NOT been fun around here lately.
7. We are trying to break our little pumpkin of the swaddle.  She's been a huge fan from the beginning, and during the first couple of months when I was going insane because she wouldn't nap unless I was holding her, I discovered that the swaddle made all the difference.  But she's almost 6 months old now, and it's not good for her to have her hands bundled up if she starts rolling over.  Plus, she's starting day care in a few weeks, and G says he doesn't want her to be THAT kid, the one that needs the extra step to put to sleep.  I say she's already the kid that likes being rocked, bounced, and walked to sleep and then needs utter silence to stay asleep, so what's one more thing to throw at them?  But whatever, I guess he has a point.  So we started a while back, and I caved when her naps went to shit.  Then I tried to leave just one arm out figuring we'd transition slowly.  That went all right for a while, but really started working at the hospital when they needed her IV arm out at all times.  Since I'm not really wanting another hospital stay, this whole 2nd arm thing had better take more quickly because I'm already going a little nuts.  
8. She's been reaching all sorts of milestones these days though.  Working on sleeping like a big girl, and has even been sleeping in her crib at night.  That adjustment was harder for me than her.  For the first several nights, I took a sleeping bag and slept on the floor in her room.  G wants to know what I'm scared about, but I don't know.  The world just seems so much scarier now, and I suddenly get why our parents were so protective about everything.  If nothing else, I worry that she'll be crying, and I won't hear her even though she's right next door and sound carries in this house like you wouldn't believe.  Oh, and we have a video monitor.  But still, you never know with technology.  Mostly, I think I worry that I won't be able to go to her quickly enough.  But G is right, we all sleep better now.  I don't wake up everything she breathes a little funny, and we can move about and talk a bit more without worrying about waking her.  It was getting to the point where we'd be tiptoeing into our room each night, trying to keep the dogs quiet, looking for clothes in the dark, etc. And she gets some peace and quiet too.  
9. Oh, and her first tooth just popped up!  She didn't want to sleep on NYE (unlike mom and dad who were ready for bed by 9:30) and wanted instead to just sit in her bouncer and chew on her toys.  We didn't know what was up, but then the next day, we were at a family New Year's party when she reached for my finger to chew on it.  And all of a sudden, I felt this sharp little poke, and there it was. 
10. Last night, while we were eating dinner, we kept hearing a helicopter circling our neighborhood.  And then we heard a "This is the police.  You are surrounded."  Apparently there was a manhunt going on just a few blocks away or something.  I wonder what kind of neighborhood we've moved to.  

*I'm exaggerating.  It's not THAT bad, so please don't call Child Protective Services on me.