October 31, 2014

Okay…  The title is too much, but that’s about where I am at 4:30am this morning.  The sweat and squirminess in the bed made it a tad uncomfortable, so we had to come up with an alternative arrangement for the wee hours of the morning.  “Wee!”  That’s another word I could have used in the title.  Oh well.  We all fail.

Here’s a pic totally unrelated to the post because I know you all read it for the pics of Selah June anyway.

This is about how we all felt last night.  In this picture, she’s a good version of milk drunk.  But last night, she was not a good version of milk drunk.  She’s one of those, I guess.  You never know how the fourth ounce is gonna go.  🙂

We tried just about everything we could think of…  We did our bath routine.  We did the pacifier.  We did bottles and burping and bouncing and begging.  (I’m just all about some alliteration this morning! — punchy probably)  We did the hand off: Jeremy for 30, Jocelyn for 30, Jeremy for 30, Jocelyn for 30.  We did singing.  We changed outfits.

Maybe she’s hot!

Maybe she’s cold…

Maybe she’s just little.

Maybe we’re just old.

(There’s no maybe about it.)

Through all this fussiness, we still had a night to remember.  This morning at about 4:00am, she was just as squirmy as could be.  I reached over and wrapped my hand around her feet.  And her whole body relaxed.  I caressed her legs, and she nestled up closer to me.  She rubbed her feet against my tummy.  I kissed her gently on the head.  We snuggled.  She farted.

It was a moment.  I’ll get up for that any morning at 4:00am.

October 26-30, 2014

It started as a simple craft project to chronicle Miss Selah June’s first year of development.  All the cool lesbian kids were doing it on Donor Half Sibs 2911.  They had awesome chalkboards with cute little babies smiling for the camera.  Here’s Kaden’s chalkboard for reference.

I wanted a chalkboard!  I wanted a smiling little baby who just loved her chalkboard so much and wanted to show it off.  So, weeks before her 1 month birthday, I research chalkboards, measured and purchased, and measured again and modified my purchase, and bought chalk pens, and planned my board.  I went with chalkboard decals and carefully applied them to the nursery wall.  For four days before her birthday, I worked on my creation.

For a normal person, this is not a big deal.  But for somebody who only gets 10 minutes a day to do anything (that’s 10 minutes total, not 10 minutes per thing), executing a craft like this is a big deal.  In fact, it’s a defining act…  At this point, it is more than a chalkboard.  It is a picture of my worth – my contribution to society.

And so I worked on my board AND FINISHED IT!!!  Oh the feeling of accomplishment…  The glorious board!  It would be amazing.  The lesbians would love it.  They would be so jealous!  How cute!!

The big day came… her 1 month birthday.  I picked out her outfit to go with her board.  The natural light was gone from her room by the time she was awake and I could get her set up for her pictures.  And it was the witching hour….

NAILED IT!!!!

The next day, I warmed up Satie Isabella and Mom to see this pic (which made me laugh so hard I cried) by showing them Pinterest Nailed It! pics.  Satie got it right away.  Her sense of humor is awesome.  She loved the Nailed It! pics of baked goods.  She stuck out her bottom lip and shook her head…  “That is not good.”  Mom and I laughed and laughed at her.  Then I showed them Selah June’s Nailed It!  Mom teared up because it was so funny.

Oh well….  You can’t have everything in life.  And right now I can’t prove my worth through a chalkboard.  Selah June had to make sure of that!  I uploaded the pic to Facebook to share with the lesbians.  They thought it was awesome too…  just not in the same way that Kaden’s board is awesome.  (However, they are threatened by my mad sign skills….)

For the next several days, I tried to bring myself out of the pits of despair by more attempts.

Day 2

Even the antique filter doesn’t help.  She looks like a mummified peanut corpse.

Day 3

She’s got the demon eyes and boxing gloves…  That’s just not right.

Day 4

Okay…  I can live with that.  She is only 1 month (well, now she’s nearly 5 weeks) old.  We have to pick our battles.

Oh crap.  I just realized I only have three weeks to figure out the 2 month board.

October 27, 2014

We began W2WD today — Week 2 Without Daddy.  It’s amazing how quickly the measure of a successful day shifts.  Selah June and I ate a little bit, pottied a little bit, bathed a little bit, cried a little bit, and slept a very very little bit.

BUT!!!!!

We did have some little sparks that flew throughout the day.  There were signs that we are growing day-by-day into an alert, inquisitive, expressive little bear.  Selah June sat in her swing for a few minutes, looking at the little birds flying above.  She took to a pacifier tonight.  In fact!  Miss Satie Isabella gave her a new pacifier – the kind she used to use – and she kept in her mouth for at least 10 minutes.  We were shocked!  And again, during the witching hour, SJ enjoyed a pacifier for about 10 minutes…. and we enjoyed the quiet.

She’s growing up – in little ways one day at a time.

October 25, 2014

Jeremy and I have been marveling at the amazing digestive system of this little bundle of joy.  How can the same food source lead to so many vibrant shades of poop?  From French’s mustard yellow to deli mustard yellow to radioactive orange ooze to curds of daffodil….

Here’s a little special video for all of Selah June’s fans out there.

Video

October 24, 2014

We celebrated Selah June’s short little wonderful life today — all 4 weeks of it!  To mark this glorious occasion, she slept from 9:30pm to 1:00am and then again from 1:30am to 5:45am!!!  We opened our eyes to see a beautiful sunrise and hope.

There’s something particularly gratifying about keeping a frail little being alive for a whole 4 weeks through many sleepless nights and crying fits, changing a few billion poopy diapers as many colors as the rainbow, and making the effort to get up and face another AWESOME day.

4 WEEKS, BABY!!!

I have never before done so many dishes or so much laundry, cleaned off so many countertops of little odds and ends, packed so many bags “just in case,” or piled so much feces to go out with the next trash.  It’s amazing that 10 lbs can generate so much chaos.

We love her.  It’s crazy.  4 weeks and counting…