My New Favorite Thing

My new favorite thing is watching Oscar's eyes while he lays on my lap and I talk to him. He focuses on my mouth--he loves it when I stick out my tongue and say "mamama"--then he looks at my eyes and back to my mouth. A few times, he's also watched my eyebrows wiggle expressively, then looked into my eyes, back at my mouth, back into my eyes. This is the height of entertainment for him at this point, I think. I know it is for me!

Also new: he grabs onto things like Adam's shirtsleeve or the edge of the Moby when we're carrying him around.

His eyebrows are "coming in," thick like his Papa's.

Labor tunes

I'm listening to some of the songs on the "Labor tunes" play list Adam and I started in iTunes when I was just a couple months pregnant. We didn't listen to any of it during my labor, so I thought it'd be cool to listen to it tonight as I try to calm Oscar in the Moby and fold laundry in the semi-dark of his room (the crib currently serves as the clean laundry depository). It worked! Oscar's sleeping soundly, the laundry's folded and here I am blogging.

Here are the songs I'm listening to, over and over, tonight:

"We're Going to be Friends" by The White Stripes
"Hearts and Bones" by Paul Simon
"2000 Miles" by The Pretenders
"Alright for Now" by Tom Petty
"Blow Away" by George Harrison
"You Are My Sunshine (Pt. 1) by Elizabeth Mitchell
"Froggy Went a Courtin" by Elizabeth Mitchell

I'll leave you with some lyrics from "Blow Away:"
All I got to do is to love you
All I got to be is, be happy
All it's got to take is some warmth to make it
Blow away, blow away, blow away.

Diflucan, Nystatin and vinegar, oh my!

I'm happy to report that after more than a month of treatment, I appear to be thrush-free.

Fortunately, Oscar's symptoms cleared up after a day of treatment (Nystatin), back on May 13. I started Diflucan the same day (pills). After two weeks and no change in my symptoms, I started an increased dosage, plus Nystatin topically four times a day. Early on, I also started taking acidophilus and Vitamin B6, both recommended by the midwives, and using a vinegar rinse on my breasts after each feeding/pumping, recommended by Mary at the breast feeding support group I attend weekly in Silverton.

Finally, I can say that breast feeding no longer causes me pain and anxiety. I don't have the intermittent deep tissue pain nearly as frequently as I'd been having it and my nipples aren't plagued by the constant (when not nursing) pins-and-needles/burning/stinging sensation.

Whew. It was a very long haul and not without tears and frustration. One of the things that saved us (I say us because this affected Adam and Oscar, too) is the B.A.B.I.E.S. Clinic in Silverton (affiliated with Silverton Hospital). The support, encouragement and information we received there was a life-saver. Of course, another thing that got me through this is Adam's support and encouragement.

Up next: introducing the bottle to the little man.

Good bye, DQ Blizzards

And probably good riddance. Last week, we saw Oscar's pediatrician because we'd noticed a tiny bit of blood in his stool. The pediatrician suspects that it's a reaction to the milk protein in my diet. Apparently it's common for infants to be unable to digest dairy until they're 6 months old or so. It's not an indication of a later milk allergy for Oscar, thank goodness.

So it means I'm off dairy for the next several months. So far, it's OK. The downside: all the frozen meals we stocked up on for the postpartum period have cheese or cream sauces; I haven't been able to find soy ice cream yet (thanks to Angela for recommending some good brands, though!); cheese substitutes suck; my DQ Blizzard Fan Club coupon expired. The upside: we have our CSA (community supported agriculture) fruits and veggies, giving us lots of healthy meal options; Adam is a very willing and capable chef who feeds me well sans dairy; I'm not getting all the bad parts of the dairy I usually eat (cholesterol, fats and stuff).

It can take up to two weeks for the blood to disappear from the diapers, but so far, so good. Oscar's two-month check up is on July 2, so we'll know more then.

The Name Game

Before Oscar's birth, we decided to not tell anyone the names we were considering. I actually liked telling people the names we were tossing around, but Adam was against it, so I stopped telling folks. It was difficult!

We took a list of several names with us to the hospital and Oscar was a few hours old before we named him. Adam was getting ready to send an email announcing his arrival and we realized we needed to be able to tell people his name. I asked Adam what he thought and he said, "Oscar." I said, "Yeah? You think he looks like an Oscar?" and Adam answered, "Yeah." I quickly agreed. I think I made him run through our list again, just to make sure. And then Adam went to the nursery where Oscar was under an oxygen tent to tell him his name: Oscar Joe Kreutz Gallardo. We chose Joe for his middle name in honor of both of Adam's grandfathers, his father and his brother.

So for those of you who were curious about what we were considering, here's the list we took to the hospital with us:

• Oscar
• Augustus
• Stafford
• Walter
• Addison
• Cheverdak

We'd discovered that we both liked Oscar long before we were married.
We liked the nickname Gus; Augustus is a pretty big name for a kid.
Stafford after poet William Stafford.
Walter is just a great name, as is the nickname Walt. Also a big name for a kid.
Addison literally means "Son of Adam." I love this name and its literal meaning. Unfortunately, it's being used more and more frequently by girls...and it was Adam's least favorite on the list, I think.
Cheverdak. By November, Adam was getting tired of regular names, their connotations, what others had to say about them, their wacky origins and meanings. He decided to make up a name for our baby (at this time, we didn't know it was a boy, so this name had to work for a girl or a boy). And this is what he came up with at the dinner table over Thanksgiving holiday with lots of friends and family around. He also imagined that it would give our son or daughter ample opportunity to get creative when answering the inevitable questions throughout his or her life about the name, where it came from and what it means. Pronounced shev-er-dack.

Post-postpartum?

Today is the first day of my official post-postpartum life. Six weeks ago yesterday I gave birth to Oscar, my first baby. According to most sources, the postpartum period is six weeks long and during this time, you're supposed to rest and recover from pregnancy, labor and birth, and also to adjust to life with a newborn. So, now that I'm at day one of post-postpartum, what better time to start a blog?