Amateur Hour

Ack! I am so not ready! Here’s my list of things to do before the baby comes. Don’t laugh - I know it won’t all get done. Just humor me, please, or I might start to cry.

1. Clean out the car.
2. Retrieve from attic, wash, and install infant car seat.
3. Pack for the hospital.
4. Write birth “plan.”
5. Ignore the fact that I have zero control over how the birth will go and thus calling my personal birth preferences a “plan” is somewhat silly.
6. Worry about how the birth will go.
7. Meet with doula.
8. Stock up on Lansinoh and hope that nursing doesn’t hurt as much this time around.
9. Purchase a breast pump.
10. Order at least one nursing bra that I think might fit. This is much harder than it sounds. Apparently women like me do not exist in normal stores like Target. We must special-order nursing bras from some warehouse in a far-away land that is impossible to locate (much like the island on Lost) and charges a premium, due to the extra expense of shipping to and from a place that exists in some sort of quantum-physics black hole.
11. Call the church re: new baby’s baptism.
12. Update family address list - for birth announcement.
13. Retrieve from attic and wash: baby clothes, blankets, bouncy seat, baby toys, baby swing, etc.
14. Declutter bedroom to make room for co-sleeper. Hope that the new baby will actually sleep in the co-sleeper.
15. Declutter and take to Goodwill stuff that we don’t need in the: office, Charlie’s room, the living room, our bedroom.
16. Organize and set up new baby’s clothes and supplies in our bedroom, somehow.
17. Declutter and organize the linen closet.
18. Stock up on newborn diapers. Pretend that having two kids in diapers at once will be “no big deal.”
19. Figure out a way to organize the mail and junk that always finds its way to the kitchen counter and multiplies.
20. Prepare and freeze at least one week of meals. Meals that I can heat and feed to Charlie and myself with one hand. On second thought, no hands would be better.
21. Get a haircut.
22. Scout hotels that are near the hospital (we live far enough away that we are going to need a place to go hang out in early labor.)
23. Straighten out the laundry closet so that it is neat and ready to tackle the additional loads that come with a new baby.
24. Hang blackout curtains in the bedroom.
25. Hang stray pictures around the house.
26. Clear the clutter off the top of the refrigerator.

I’m sure I will think of more things to add to the list. Right now its pretty overwhelming…

When dealing with a less-than-helpful bureaucrat: If you announce that you are 8 months pregnant and start to cry, said bureaucrat will suddenly become much more helpful.

I swear that I did not plan to play the pregnancy card, and I wasn’t trying to get preferential treatment. I was just having a really bad day.

Charlie has a runny nose today. 

I’m sure it has nothing to do with our trip to the commissary on Wednesday.  I let him sit in one of those cute shopping carts that looks like a truck.  He *licked* the steering wheel.  Ewwwwwww.  Not a whole lot that antibacterial gel can do for that.

The shopping trip ended in that special kind of public humiliation that is reserved for parents of toddlers.  While standing in the checkout line, Charlie managed to grab a package of blueberries and dump them all over the floor in spectacular fashion - picture bouncing, rolling berries everywhere.  Cue temper tantrum.  He was mad, because he did not intend to dump the blueberries, he intended to eat them.  And there I stood, surrounded by blueberries and unable to clean up the mess because I needed both arms to restrain my kicking, screaming 2-year-old.  Good times.

I was not much of a nester during my last pregnancy, but this week I’ve been on a roll….

The silverware drawer, before and after.  Not the most dramatic transformation, but trust me, its better:

My spice cabinet was a total mess and not user-friendly at all.  Here it is, before and after:

The little stair-step thing I had was useless for storing spices.  Every time I reached for a bottle in the back, I’d knock over 2 or 3 in the front.  Plus, I couldn’t see the labels on the ones in the back.  It was ugly.

These magnetic canisters are much better:

I screwed the metal backing onto the inside of the cabinet door, and put the spices I use most frequently there.  The rest went into a plastic bin, which I can take down and look through pretty easily, without knocking everything over like dominos.  Bonus: there’s room for a bottle of olive oil, which I also use frequently. 

One more before and after shot of the pantry:

The next target of my hormone-induced neat-freakiness: the linen closet!  Stay tuned, its a thrill a minute here in the amateur household… 

can’t put on his own socks.  However, he has learned how to use the touchpad on the laptop.  No kidding - the other day we watched him use one little finger to carefully guide the arrow to a specific spot, then click the button to gain access to the programs on the computer.  Wow.  I guess I’m spending too much time on the computer during the day.  Maybe if I demonstrated the art and science of donning socks as frequently as I log on to the laptop, Charlie would be able to do that, too. 

I’ve been concerned about Charlie’s speech and language development for a while.  So, we scheduled an evaluation with the state Early Intervention team.  They sent a Speech Pathologist and an Occupational Therapist, and did a test called the Infant-Toddler Developmental Assessment.  The results indicated that his cognitive skills, social/emotional development, and “self-help” skills were all age-appropriate (in the 22-25 month range.)  His communication skills and gross-motor skills were delayed (in the 18-21 month range.)  I would have been more comfortable with tests that yield a standard score and percentiles, but this is what they use initially.  The important thing is putting together some specific, measurable, appropriate goals for treatment, and if they can do that with this test, that’s fine.  If not, I’ll push for more testing until we get enough information to work with.

The SLP observed that he definitely has communicative intent, but that his imitation skills are very weak.  His vocabulary is limited (he uses maybe 25 words, when he should be using at least 50), and he isn’t putting words together in short phrases and sentences yet.  In addition, he doesn’t use the words that he has consistently, and never ever on request.  She is leaning toward a diagnosis of apraxia.  They are going to recommend therapy at least once a week, and hopefully we can get that rolling within the month.

I was really happy to have a second opinion, and couldn’t believe that apraxia never crossed my mind before.  I was convinced he was a late talker because I wasn’t playing with him enough or talking to him enough.  Even though he showed some hallmark signs of motor speech problems, I totally missed it, thinking it had to be all my fault.  I’m sure if he was someone else’s kid, I would have picked up on it - strange the things you miss…

Anyway, he also showed delays in gross motor skills.  They noted that his running isn’t really running, but more of a bouncy, fast walking.  He’s generally low-tone, and he has a lot of unnecessary rotation in his trunk when running.  He also had trouble standing on one foot, and the way that he manages stairs is immature.  They recommended more time at the playground, etc.  I don’t know that they are willing to recommend therapy, but I’m going to push them and see if I can get it for him.  In the meantime, I’m scouring the local area for some kind of tumbling/gymnastics class that we can attend.  More on that later…

The OT said that he technically passed the items on the fine motor portion of the test, but she has qualitative concerns about his development in this area.  She said that at this age, he should be favoring either the left or right hand, and he really isn’t.  His crayon/pencil grasp is immature, his ability to stack blocks is somewhat limited, and his little hands still have that chubby-baby look - all of these things indicate low muscle tone, weakness and poor coordination.  She wants to have another look at him in 3-4 months, and in the meantime she recommended some activities to improve his fine-motor strength and coordination (play-doh, etc.)

So, we’ve been really happy about the mild weather lately, because that means we can spend more time at the playground.   And to reassure whoever might be wondering, none of these things are serious or permanent - a little therapy and some focused attention and he’ll be caught up in no time. 

We had a wonderful Christmas this year.  Although Charlie still doesn’t “get” what Christmas is about, it was fun to watch him play with his presents.  Here are some pictures:

Charlie in his Christmas pjs:

New toys:

Merry Christmas!

Last Sunday at mass, Joe and I were struggling to keep Charlie contained and quiet, as usual.  He was doing all right, until the second reading.  Right after the lector read, “Children, be obedient to your parents in all things, for this is well-pleasing to the Lord,” Charlie yelled out, “Noooooo!” across the church, from the very last pew where we were sitting.  His timing was perfect, and we could not stop laughing.   

to get one decent photo of a wiggly toddler for the Christmas cards?  Let’s count them…

Thank goodness for digital cameras - we could have busted our budget just paying for film to get one simple picture!

The Visible Embryo, and The Endowment for Human Development.